By Paul Hunter
By now most of us have heard the news: Pokémon Sword and Shield had the highest-grossing launch of any Pokémon game in the US, surpassing 2 million sales in its first two days. Worldwide, that number balloons to 6 million copies sold over the game's launch weekend.
Canada tends to get left out of sales performance conversations, but not this time! Nintendo of Canada have confirmed that Pokémon Sword and Shield had the highest-grossing launch of any Pokémon game in Canada. Just how many units were sold in Canada were not revealed, however, historically a rough ballpark is 10-15% of the US sales. Whatever the actual sales figure is, one thing is clear: Canadians love Pokémon Sword and Shield!
So what about the rest of the world? Well, in Japan the pair of Pokémon games sold 1.36M units over the first three days. This beat Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the previous record holder, which sold 1.23 over its launch week in Japan.
In the UK, Pokémon Sword debuted at #1 on the sales chart, making it the biggest exclusive of the year in that region. Impressively, Pokémon Sword is the third largest boxed game launch of 2019 in the UK, behind FIFA 20 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - two titles that launched on multiple platforms. Overall, Pokémon Sword and Shield are the second biggest launch of any Pokémon game in the UK, trailing only the opening week sales of 3DS' Pokémon Sun and Moon.
On the combined EMEAA sales chart, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield secured the #1 and #3 spots respectively, and the combo pack featuring both games ranks at #9.
With millions of players already visiting the Galar region, only one word can describe this game's sales performance: Juicy. Looks like Nintendo just Gigamaxed those profits.