[Sword & Shield] Pokemon Sword & Shield sales figures

I have an Excel spreadsheet that contains the lifetime sales for the (main series) Pokemon games, with graphs to give a visualization of the numbers, since that's nice. I've posted it on here before, and since it's been a couple of games since I've posted it (last time was before US/UM came out) I thought it'd be time to do so again. To get right to it:





Nintendo collects and publishes some of its own sales figures, and since Pokemon often makes the top 10, it's fortunately easy to get the numbers for some of the titles. The other ones require a little looking around at other sources, which sometimes have discrepancies between Nintendo's numbers, but the differences are never so drastic that the numbers from the other sources can be considered significantly inaccurate or unreliable, and so are used to fill in the gaps.

Reported sales numbers for SwSh are from release day to January 1st 2020, leaving out any sales made between then and the time of this posting.
*GRAPHS UPDATED 10/25/2021*

Considering the short time SnS has been out those sales aren't too bad, although no doubt they're below expectations, because it's never enough for investors. These games will generate more revenue over time, though - there's the DLC coming, and no doubt Pokemon Home will rake in a lot too. Maybe the number of units sold won't be quite as high as previous generations, but the revenue generated per unit will be greater, thanks to the increased price of the games and the DLC.

It'll be more interesting to see if there is a dip in sales with the next games, though. Pokemon games tend to follow that pattern. This is probably why they're doing DLC and trying to increase the life of these games, rather than shelving them and doing a third version/sequel/alternate that won't sell as well.

Very interesting indeed.

It might seem low but it's still selling in tens of millions.
Tbh no doubt about the lower sales since the game seemed so rushed so people decide to wait out to see if the expansion would be worth it/ there will be a newer version.

Just to clarify, Sword & Shield did at least as well as the previous 3 generations' first pairs+Ruby/Sapphire did. I wouldn't be surprised if when Nintendo updates its numbers next that SwSh ends up surpassing XY and Sun/Moon.

The reason why the first of the two graphs has Gen 8 with the lowest is because Gen 8 currently only has one game in it--all the others have at least two.

I can't believe USUM has more sales than Platinum, Crystal and Emerald. Then again Pokemon did die off a bit in gen 3 and everyone went nuts again in gen 4.but
I grew out of Pokemon after HGSS but I still bought all the next gen games. B & W 2 were pretty decent considering I didn't really care about Pokemon much anymore (and still don't really.) ORAS was cool but too easy, XY, and SM/USUM were ...meh I really liked the Festival Plaza in Sun/Moon though.
I thought about getting Sword or Shield but for $70 I don't think it's worth it, especially if I'm not really a fan anymore. And some of the recent Pokemon designs have been just... what... Well the Ultra Beasts are technically not Pokemon but they're still ugly and weird asf.

So something new to note: Sword & Shield have now sold more than 18 million copies, making it the 3rd best selling Pokemon game ever, behind Red/Blue/Green and Gold/Silver. Diamond/Pearl used to hold that spot, sitting at just under 18 million. Sword & Shield are now also the 5th best selling Nintendo Switch games, with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ahead of it.

Games on the Switch sure are selling well. It prints money, as the joke goes.

Its interesting that the game that is typically considered the best game in a generation, ie either the 3rd game or starting at gen 5 the 2nd game are the worst selling.

I think its because people buy the first version and don't want to buy another version of the game. Even though typically it has a new story in later gens/more Pokemon and maybe even fixes some glitches.

Maserati777 said:

Its interesting that the game that is typically considered the best game in a generation, ie either the 3rd game or starting at gen 5 the 2nd game are the worst selling.

I think its because people buy the first version and don't want to buy another version of the game. Even though typically it has a new story in later gens/more Pokemon and maybe even fixes some glitches.

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It makes sense though, a lot of people don't want to buy a similar version of a game they already own, some people buy both of the versions as well to fill their dex (counterintuitive to my previous statement but that's just how it goes).

On another note, SwSh are going for 60$ plus 30$ if you buy all of the DLC so they are up there for their most profitable games as well.

S&S sales are solid, but Gen II sales are shocking. Gen II was the best imo. The 1st Pokemon mainstream sequel.

Nah said:

So something new to note: Sword & Shield have now sold more than 18 million copies, making it the 3rd best selling Pokemon game ever, behind Red/Blue/Green and Gold/Silver. Diamond/Pearl used to hold that spot, sitting at just under 18 million. Sword & Shield are now also the 5th best selling Nintendo Switch games, with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ahead of it.

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I love bringing the sales numbers up to the haters. ☺️

chocomiru said:

I love bringing the sales numbers up to the haters. ☺️

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People are allowed to not like the games. I am one of them, I think they should have been much better than they were. I don't think sales numbers are all telling, but then again, I'm not one for end game capitalism either.

Figure said:

People are allowed to not like the games. I am one of them, I think they should have been much better than they were. I don't think sales numbers are all telling, but then again, I'm not one for end game capitalism either.

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion! I didn't mean to imply that maybe the sales numbers meant their criticisms weren't valid. ☹️

I think a lot of people bought swSh for the following reasons.

1. Its Pokemon
2. They bought a Switch so want a Pokemon game to play on it
3. This is their first Pokemon game so they have nothing to compare it too.
4. They were gifting it to someone.


My biggest fear is this will be Pokemon's license to continue with this model in every future game.

Maserati777 said:

I think a lot of people bought swSh for the following reasons.

1. Its Pokemon
2. They bought a Switch so want a Pokemon game to play on it
3. This is their first Pokemon game so they have nothing to compare it too.
4. They were gifting it to someone.


My biggest fear is this will be Pokemon's license to continue with this model in every future game.

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Yeah I am pretty much guilty of 1 and 2. It's a tough one. I want the games to get better and I don't see it happening because they games sell so well and the motto of game developers seem to be, "Let's see how little effort we can put into our games while still turning a huge profit!". That being said, I also bought the games so I am contributing to the problem.

I think the model will keep getting worse to be honest. The last Pokemon games that came out that I would actually rate highly based on merits and not just because it is Pokemon would be Black 2 and White 2.

Maserati777 said:

My biggest fear is this will be Pokemon's license to continue with this model in every future game.

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Honestly, I think that's to be expected. Pokémon consistently has excellent sales regardless of how little they change with the formula (and with how much they remove/downgrade, as is evident from SwSh). I'm not expecting anything too amazing for the main series going forward. Only way I can see change in a more positive direction is with a new director, like Hiroyuki Tani for example, who directed the Crown Tundra. I think that was mostly very well-made.

I'm impressed by the fact that gen II is so small compared to III and IV, a lot of people seem to love Johto. But then again, most people presumably played them on emulators. =O

Catto said:

I'm impressed by the fact that gen II is so small compared to III and IV, a lot of people seem to love Johto. But then again, most people presumably played them on emulators. =O

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I don't really think that it's emulation but rather the number of games in the generation. Gen II only had Gold/Silver and Crystal, while Gen III had Ruby/Sapphire+Emerald+FireRed/LeafGreen, and Gen IV had Diamond/Pearl+Platinum+HG/SS. Gen V is the same way where it only has two pairs. If it had another game, it'd be closer to the others.

Gold/Silver still have the 2nd highest sales for a version, sitting at 23 million (more likely 24 million with VC re-release sales).

Nah said:

I don't really think that it's emulation but rather the number of games in the generation. Gen II only had Gold/Silver and Crystal, while Gen III had Ruby/Sapphire+Emerald+FireRed/LeafGreen, and Gen IV had Diamond/Pearl+Platinum+HG/SS. Gen V is the same way where it only has two pairs. If it had another game, it'd be closer to the others.

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OOOH, true! I forgot about the R/B/G/Y remakes! Okay, yeah, never mind about what I said then xD
Are you going to count the DLCs as a third version or mix it with SwSh selling numbers?

The DLC is an expansion and not a truly separate game, so I'd neither add it in as another entry for Gen 8 nor add Expansion Pass sales to SwSh's total sales. I assume Nintendo does the same.