Pokémon - Scarlet/Violet Sales

[FelipePR]

According to Nintendo's quarterly financial report and specialized media, by the end of 2023, Scarlet and Violet had sold 24.36 million copies, finally pushing them into the top three best-sellers for the Pokémon series. A position that was previously held by Pokémon Gold/Silver.

Spoiler: Sales Chart

Sources: Nintendo Life, GameRant

Pokémon games seem to be selling more and more and, for the first time, it seems possible to achieve the success, or at least the total number of sales, of the original games. Do you believe this can/should happen in the next generation? Or that Scarlet/Violet can still achieve better positions?

 

[skynerel]

I don’t think Scarlet/Violet will surpass Red & Blue, but I think they could beat Sword & Shield. Pokemon mainline games always sell well, but I think the increase during the switch era has to do with a couple of factors. First, being able to play a pokemon game in the big screen, second the switch is one of the best selling consoles and third (in the case of S/V) the fact that it was marketed as the first open world game for pokemon.

 

[FelipePR]

I don’t think Scarlet/Violet will surpass Red & Blue, but I think they could beat Sword & Shield. Pokemon mainline games always sell well, but I think the increase during the switch era has to do with a couple of factors. First, being able to play a pokemon game in the big screen, second the switch is one of the best selling consoles and third (in the case of S/V) the fact that it was marketed as the first open world game for pokemon.

Another fact is that, finally, Nintendo only has one console. I don't know what it's like in other places, but here, most people who had a Wii didn't have a DS/3DS. And most who had a DS/3DS didn't had a Wii.

 

[Daenerys]

That's a shame considering that they're arguably the laggiest Pokemon games to date, not to mention the plethora of other issues that the games have.

 

[FelipePR]

I don’t know about that, but it is possible that a lot more people buy & play videogames than in the past.

This is obvious, but this, in itself, does not explain the large increase in sales between the 7th and 8th generation.

 

[Thegameandwatch]

This is obvious, but this, in itself, does not explain the large increase in sales between the 7th and 8th generation.

I think console sales are also not a factor since the DS sold 154 million but the Generation IV and V in terms of sales aren't that much different from Gen 3 or the 3DS games.

 

[Greninjaman]

I assume there are people who are willing to look past all the glitches and bugs.

 

[Princess Viola]

Honestly they deserve it, they're great games just marred by performance issues.

I feel like I must be taking crazy pills because I've only encountered one bug so far in Scarlet, maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[Juliyet]

The switch's success is definitely half of the story, but I also think the resurgence of Pokemon in the public consciousness as of late thanks to stuff like GO. These two together have created a perfect storm of sorts

 

[FelipePR]

I think console sales are also not a factor since the DS sold 154 million but the Generation IV and V in terms of sales aren't that much different from Gen 3 or the 3DS games.

I consider you to be correct, nevertheless D/P still reversed the downward trend in the number of sales of the franchise's games until then.

But, I didn't exactly mean that. What I wanted to say is that by bringing together all their consumers on just one console/platform it is possible that fans of other Nintendo franchises, such as Kirby, Mario, Zelda, with a stronger tradition on traditional consoles than on portable ones, have now paid more attention to the Pokémon franchise, which had focused almost solely on portable devices until then.

 

[vivian20]

Pokemon sword/shield are still selling. They were at around 25,3 million sales when S/V were released. Pokemon SW/SH sold almost 1 million of copies in roughly a year, while S/V sold roughly 1 million copies in roughly 3 months. S/V sold around 3,7 million copies last year. They might release gen 10 by the end of 2025, but if S/V follows the trend of SW/SH, they will keep selling even after the release of gen 10. If S/V keep their sales in 2024 and 2025 at the same level of 2023, they will surpass R/B/G.

 

[colours]

regardless of what one thinks of the technical quality of the games (and there's a lot to say regarding that matter), it's... hard to deny, i think that outside of tech issues, there's a lot to like about scarlet/violet. keep in mind that i haven't played the dlc so i'm unsure if this adds or subtracts from the overall player experience, but as far as the base game is concerned, the plot, characters and the personality of koraidon/miraidon and even the music is done really well.

as for whether or not scarlet/violet will outsell sword/shield... time will tell, but of course rby will remain top game for a while yet. that is, unless game freak can truly develop a pokemon game that is so exciting and high quality to the point where it'll garner first year pokemon GO levels of interest. will that happen? who knows.

 

[Pasio]

I think console sales are also not a factor since the DS sold 154 million but the Generation IV and V in terms of sales aren't that much different from Gen 3 or the 3DS games.

Afaik Pokémon's popularity was significantly lower for its time overall during the DS and a lot of people fell off from the series until games during the 3DS Era brought them back. I believe the console is still a huge factor, as the game sales on one console overall got bigger during the Nintendo Switch era and the Nintendo Switch Pokémon games aren't as great selling comparatively on the Switch as the 3DS games were on the 3DS or Gen 3 on the Gameboy Advanced. There's a significant gap between the amount of sales the GBA and 3DS had vs the amount NDS and Switch had but not as big of a gap in the sales of Pokémon games to show for it.

 

[Palamon]

It's honestly astonishing to me how well these games have sold. I really didn't expect these games to do these kind of numbers like...at all. And it's crazy to me they were able to. After all the complaints people constantly make about them, and all that.

 

[Princess Viola]

I think most people don't actually care that much about the performance or the glitches TBH. The people who are complaining about the issues they have with the game are just more vocal than the people who don't care and just like SV.

(The Nintendo Switch effect also definitely plays a factor here. The Nintendo Switch effect is what I call the tendency of some Nintendo franchises to have utterly blown up in sales with their Switch versions. Obviously Pokémon has always been a massively popular franchise but the sales of the generational paired games has still blown up on the Switch in comparison to previous generations following the Pokémon craze in the first two gens. We went from sales around ~14-17 million to ~24-26 million on the Switch)

 

[Kirumi]

I think my Pokémon Scarlet cartridge is somewhat special because I haven't encountered at all these bugs people talk about. The only thing that irks me is how slow the clothing stores and Pokémon boxes' interfaces are but, for the rest, the game or should I say "my Scarlet" flows fine.

 

[Greninjaman]

I think my Pokémon Scarlet cartridge is somewhat special because I haven't encountered at all these bugs people talk about. The only thing that irks me is how slow the clothing stores and Pokémon boxes' interfaces are but, for the rest, the game or should I say "my Scarlet" flows fine.

Same with me. I have played through Scarlet twice at this point and other than lag spikes, I didn't encounter any sort of major bugs or glitches that negatively effected my ability to play the game.