Sales numbers for Pokémon Legends: Arceus have started to trickle in and, as usual, UK sales numbers are in first. Unsurprisingly, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was the number one game for last week. In fact, sales were so good that Pokémon Legends: Arceus is officially the fourth biggest launch for a Pokémon game in UK history. Check out the top 10 Pokémon launches below to see how Arceus compares.
1. Pokémon Sun/Moon
2. Pokémon Sword/Shield
3. Pokémon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby
4. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
5. Pokémon Black/White
6. Pokémon Shining Pearl/Brilliant Diamond
7. Pokémon X&Y
8. Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu
9. Pokémon Yellow
10. Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
It’s important to note that the above rankings don’t take into account digital purchases at launch. It’s expected that Pokémon Legends: Arceus will have long sales legs as the game has received great reviews and it has been all over social media. Therefore digital sales are probably significant. Amazingly, Pokémon Legends: Arceus made up almost 50% of all boxed game sales across all consoles in the UK last week. That’s a staggering amount of sales compared to every other game sold in the UK that week.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a bit of an enigma in the run-up to its release. Nintendo was hesitant to show too much of the game. That even led to the misunderstanding that the game would be fully open-world when it was first announced. Nintendo was even forced to clarify that in order to avoid fan disappointment. There was often confusion about the marketing for the game and uncertainty over what kind of game Arceus actually was. That meant it was difficult to predict how well the game would do both in terms of sales and reviews.
However, as reviews came out and real-life footage of the game was shown, hype grew. After leaked footage went online prior to release, one store in Japan saw an unprecedented 21% increase in pre-orders in a single day. Whatever the general opinion was before Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released, it’s a bonafide critical and sales success now.
