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‘Pokémon Sun’ and ‘Moon’ are Nintendo of America’s fastest-selling games ever

By Danny Cowan November 30, 2016

pokemon sun and moon break nintendo sales records pokemonsunrecord

The Pokémon phenomenon is showing no signs of stopping. Nintendo reports that its latest series sequels, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, are now the fastest-selling video games in Nintendo of America’s history, breaking the company’s previous regional sales records by a significant margin.

Since launching earlier this month, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon have sold a combined total of 3.7 million units in the Americas, surpassing Pokémon X and Pokémon Y‘s previous launch-window regional sales record by 85 percent.

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Originally appearing on Nintendo’s monochrome Game Boy handheld console, the Pokémon series recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, leading to a resurgence in popularity. Nintendo commemorated the anniversary by launching 3DS Virtual Console versions of the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue games in February, welcoming onetime fans back into its monster-collecting digital realm.

Pokémon’s popularity later reached new heights with the release of Pokémon Go, an augmented reality smartphone app that fills real-world spaces with collectible Pokémon creatures. The app has seen numerous updates in the months since its launch, keeping players hooked with new gameplay features and new Pokémon to catch.

On November 18, Nintendo released its latest generation of core-series Pokémon games, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld consoles, Pokémon Sun and Moon feature a tropical setting and a small army of new Pokémon, who appear in-game alongside redesigned favorites.

“With these huge sales figures, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon have proved themselves as two of the hottest video games to buy this holiday season,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “With great reviews and outstanding fan response, these next iterations in the Pokémon series are sure to please any player in the family.”

Pokémon Sun and Moon players can look forward to new events and features in the months ahead, including global challenges and support for the Pokémon Bank creature storage application.

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Nintendo’s mobile games are more influential than you might think

Alear and Marth open a door in Fire Emblem Engage.

Nintendo’s mobile games don’t get enough credit. While Nintendo had some undeniable hits like Pokémon Go and Fire Emblem Heroes, many consider the rest of its mobile efforts fairly underwhelming and even somewhat disappointing for a video game company of Nintendo’s stature. While nothing ever quite reached the high bar Pokémon Go set in 2016, Nintendo’s mobile games are a bit more influential than they get credit for.
Over the past few years, games like Pokémon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have built upon their mobile counterparts. Then, during the September 13 Nintendo Direct, Fire Emblem Engage’s announcement and main gimmick cemented that Nintendo isn’t just viewing mobile games as a mostly failed side experiment. While they might not be the most successful games out there, their DNA is creeping into the Nintendo Switch’s bestselling titles.
Mediocre mobile returns
Nintendo’s mobile gaming efforts kicked off in the mid-2010s. Niantic created the AR game Pokemon Go, which quickly became a smashing success in 2016. In the six years since, the game has generated around 678 million installs and $6 billion in player spending, according to data from Sensor Tower.
While working with Niantic proved fruitful for The Pokemon Company, Nintendo partnered with DeNA for most of its initial mobile games. Unfortunately, none of these quite reached the heights analysts and Nintendo expected. Super Mario Run was a smash hit at launch but failed to sustain much interest and consistent revenue, so it’s considered a disappointment by Nintendo.
Meanwhile, other games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour, Dr. Mario World, and Dragalia Lost launched, and while they’ve still made lots of money for Nintendo, most haven't matched the success of the most popular mobile titles. The biggest exception to this is Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game where players can summon classic Fire Emblem characters. It’s had over $1 billion in player spending alone as of June 2022 and is Nintendo’s “flagship title on the [mobile} platform,” according to Sensor Tower.
More recently, Nintendo tried to recapture the success of Pokemon Go with Niantic’s Pikmin Bloom, although that game has reportedly disappointed as well. Overall, it’s understandable why some people are surprised to see only a couple of surefire mobile hits from a company with the pedigree of Nintendo and consider it a side venture that never realized its full potential. If you look closely at the console games in these series that Nintendo put out since, though, it isn’t ignoring everything learned while making mobile games.
Mobile's monumental impact
Nintendo has the masterful ability to find the strongest elements of an idea, draw those out, and then expand upon them to create something uniquely memorable. We’ve seen it do this time and time again with subsequent entries of its flagship series, but it’s a mindset it has applied to its mobile games upon closer inspection.
As far back as 2018, Pokemon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee recognized the charm of not needing to battle a Pokemon to capture it, and incorporated that into a traditional RPG experience. More recently, items and mechanics like gardening and cooking from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp made their way into Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was able to revive its live service offerings by repurposing the best tracks and assets from Mario Kart Tour.
Fire Emblem Engage – Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
The legacy of Nintendo’s mobile games could also be felt in the September 13 Nintendo Direct. The showcase’s first announcement was Fire Emblem Engage, which is turn-based strategy game where the main gimmick is being able to summon classic Fire Emblem characters with a ring. While it doesn’t look like Fire Emblem Engage goes full gacha, it’s clear that Nintendo recognized how people liked collecting and using classic Fire Emblem characters in a new adventure, so the developers drew and expanded upon that idea for Fire Emblem Engage.
Before the announcement of Pikmin 4, Shigeru Miyamoto also took a lot of time to highlight Pikmin Bloom. While we don’t know much about Pikmin 4’s gameplay, Nintendo could find some aspects of that game’s exploratory experience, weekly challenges, or something I’m not even thinking of to freshen up the next mainline game. The same could even happen with Super Mario Run the next time Nintendo decides to make a 2D Mario game.
While watching Fire Emblem Engage’s reveal during the latest Nintendo Direct, it became clear that Nintendo’s mobile games have quietly become influential forces in the company's console games. Nintendo has slowly plucked the best ideas out of them and brought them into Switch games without extra monetization. While the future is cloudy for Nintendo's seemingly stalled mobile push, I hope the company can still find a place for its games on mobile, using the platform as a space to experiment with its beloved series.

Gaming

How to pre-order the Nintendo Switch OLED Pokémon Scarlet and Violet model

A Nintendo Switch OLED Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

"Limited edition" used to be a relatively common occurrence. With the seemingly never-ending shortage of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, however, there have been very few specially-designed consoles for Sony or Microsoft lately. Nintendo, on the other hand, is still finding a way to not only meet the demand for their still wildly successful Nintendo Switch but even give all their major franchises special-edition consoles for fans willing to pay a little extra.

Pokémon is undoubtedly one of the most popular series Nintendo has, and with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet looking to be the most ambitious and exciting entry in the series yet, excitement for the monster-catching title is at an all-time high. This excitement was further bolstered by the reveal of the new Nintendo Switch OLED Pokémon Scarlet and Violet model. If you want to catch this rare Switch model, here's how you can pre-order one for yourself before they're all gone.

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Nintendo Switch Online adds another classic Pokémon spinoff game

Ash and Tracy battle in Pokémon Puzzle League.

Pokémon Puzzle League will be available to all Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscribers starting on July 15.

The addictive spin-off puzzle title Pokémon Puzzle League combines elements from the Pokémon franchise with the gameplay from Panel de Pon, in which the aim is to arrange colored blocks to earn points. The game was the first to feature characters from the anime, such as Ash, Misty, and Brock. The crew will enter Puzzle Village where they will encounter other trainers, gym leaders, and members of Team Rocket and face off in puzzle battles.