Pokémon Sword and Shield have sold 18.22 million units, overtaking Super Mario Odyssey to crack into the top five of best-selling Switch games, Nintendo’s latest quarterly financial release revealed.
The latest entry in the Pokémon franchise is also now less than 400,000 units away from overtaking Breath of the Wild. It’s likely a matter of when and not if for the game to overtake two of the platform’s most iconic titles.
Joe Merrick, Serebii.net’s webmaster, posted additional information comparing Sword and Shield to its predecessors.
Sword and Shield is now the third best-selling game in the popular franchise, surpassing fourth-gen games Diamond and Pearl. Having been selling for just seven and a half months since its release in November, the game might have enough legs to push into the second spot currently occupied by Gold and Silver.
This comes in light of one of the most controversial releases in the franchise’s history, though. Game Freak’s decision to forgo the inclusion of certain Pokémon in Sword and Shield was a controversial topic in the community. Fervent opponents even called for a boycott of the game and the movement was eventually christened with the name Dexit.
