Pokémon Legends: Arceus is already one of the most successful launches for the Nintendo Switch of all time.
The first action RPG game of the Pokémon franchise came out on Jan. 28 and sold 1.425 million units in Japan during its first three days of release, according to Famitsu. Legends: Arceus is just behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which launched in March 2020 and sold 1.881 million copies in the same time frame.
Legends: Arceus successfully reworked core mechanics that have been a part of Pokémon games since the launch of Red and Green in 1996, including how evolutions work and the battle system itself. It’s not a fully open-world game like many fans hoped for, but it has borrowed elements from the genre.
The new Pokémon game has received a generally positive response from both the specialized gaming media and players, according to Metacritic, a website that aggregates reviews of video games, movies, and TV shows. Legends: Arceus has an 84 out of 100 Metascore, which is based on 60 critics’ reviews, and an 8.1 User Score, based on 1,878 user ratings.
The number of Legends: Arceus copies sold is only expected to rise in the coming weeks. And with the game’s success, it’s likely that The Pokémon Company and Game Freak will work on a DLC to introduce even more Pokémon and missions to the game this summer.
