Pokemon Sun and Moon are looking like a sales juggernaut. We already heard about the games’ success in America, and it looked solid in Japan as well, now we have some figures for Europe showing continued success around the world. According to Nintendo, Pokemon Sun and Moon have sold over 2.1 million copies throughout Europe.
For almost any game, selling 2.1 million copies is a great success. Of course, the Pokemon franchise comes with higher expectations, but it is still amazing news, especially since the games just launched last month. For comparisons sake, according to the somewhat dubious numbers provided by VGChartz, Pokemon X and Y sold a total of 4.3 million copies in Europe across their lifetime. Most sales do come within the first month of release, but the Pokemon series has been notorious for its long lifespan of sales, so it’s pretty easy to assume that Sun and Moon will surpass their predecessors.
The question that everyone should ask about this is why are Pokemon Sun and Moon selling so well. There seem to be a few possibilities, with reality likely being a combination of all of them. First up, the games are offering a big shift in the series gameplay standards. Gyms are gone, the setting is brand new, and a number of tweaks have been made to make the games play better. This also resulted in wide critical acclaim, cementing fans’ feelings that these were big releases for the series.
The influence of Pokemon Go can’t be ignored, with the mobile title bringing Pokemon back into the collective consciousness in the biggest way since the release of Red and Blue on the Game Boy. Finally, the 3DS might be nearing the end of its life, but that also means it has a much larger install base to draw sales from.
Whatever the reason, Pokemon Sun and Moon are a definite hit. They are available now on 3DS.
