Pokémon Legends: Arecus sells over 6.5 million copies in first week

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has only been out for a week and the game has already shipped millions of copies, according to Nintendo.

In a tweet, Nintendo celebrated the first week of sales for the latest entry into the Pokémon franchise. Globally, Legends: Arceus has moved more than 6.5 million units. These numbers seem to have exceeded that of last year’s Pokémon generation four remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which shipped around 6 million copies during the first week.

According to a Famitsu report shared yesterday, Pokémon Legends: Arceus had sold more than 1.4 million physical copies in Japan alone, making it the second-best Nintendo Switch release week sales in the country ever.

Yesterday, Nintendo revealed its quarterly earnings report, which said that Pokémon Sword and Shield had become the second most popular game in the franchise to date with 23.9 million copies sold. In 2019 during the release of these games, Nintendo also sold around 6 million units in the first week.

Legends: Arecus is the most unique mainline Pokémon game to date. With its open fields populated with wild Pokémon, changes to gameplay, progression, and more, it remains to be seen how popular the game will become and if it will set the precedent for future Pokémon titles.