Nintendo said its Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games for the Nintendo Switch hit an all-time sales record for the company. Pokémon is one of Nintendo’s oldest and most popular franchises.
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nintendo On Thursday, he said the latest Pokémon games set a sales record at the Japanese gaming giant as it continued to crank out blockbusters ahead of the crucial holiday season.
The Kyoto, Japan-based company said sales of the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games for the Nintendo Switch exceeded 10 million units in the first three days since their worldwide launch on November 18.
This is the highest level of sales for a game’s debut in Nintendo’s history.
Nintendo’s success with Pokémon comes two months after Splatoon 3 hit a domestic sales record in Japan, a sign the gaming giant is hitting the mark with gamers ahead of the holidays.
Pokémon is one of Nintendo’s most recognizable and oldest franchises. Nintendo breathed new life into the series by releasing Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield three years ago and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl last year.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are different because they are open-world games, allowing players to explore the game’s environment without completing missions in a linear fashion.
The video game industry boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 as people were stuck at home during lockdowns. But as economies reopened, the industry began to normalize, which weighed on gaming giants including Nintendo, sony and Microsoft.
“With the new Pokémon, Nintendo has achieved a rare feat among all video game companies: scoring two blockbusters in a challenging 2022 for the industry,” said Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based consultancy Kantan Games, at CNBC.
“Of course, Pokémon is almost always a safe bet, but the new title has exceeded expectations, just like Splatoon 3 did earlier this year.”
Investors are backing Nintendo with its recent blockbusters. Shares of the company are up more than 11% this year, outperforming the Japanese benchmark Nikki 225 index. In September, Nintendo conducted a 10-to-1 stock split, which also boosted sentiment.
Nintendo also has a strong games pipeline. Toto expects The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, slated for release in May, to be the company’s next big hit.
But Nintendo isn’t the only gaming giant going strong into the holiday season.
Sony said on Wednesday that the title God of War Ragnarok for its PlayStation console sold 5.1 million copies in its first week, making it the best-selling debut game of all first-party games. the society. Proprietary games are those created by a game studio owned by Sony.
Shares of Sony closed more than 2% higher in Japan on Thursday.