Two day 1 records were set in 2021:
1. Monster Hunter Rise sold 4 million in its first day making it the fastest selling third party game on the Switch.
2. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond sold 6 million launch day.
2022 has already topped it, as Pokémon Arceus, that launched a week ago, sold 6.5 million launch day. This is more impressive by the fact that it’s the second Pokémon game in 2 months. Although a completely different style as this one’s open world (I think?).
Pokémon Sword and Shield was the previous record holder with 6 million sold opening weekend in 2019.
Although. Animal Crossing: New Horizons might be the true uncrowned King - 11.77 million sold in its first 11 days. 13.41 million by 6 weeks. By 4 months, it had sold 22.41 million. By the end of the year (9 months 11 days later) it had sold 31.18 million. And after 1 year, 9 months, 11 days, broke the previous record as the highest selling unbundled game on a single dedicated gaming console at 37.62 million - previously held by Mario Kart Wii.
Although, Mario Kart 8D also happened to break that record the same time, and made it further ahead. But Mario Kart 8D released in 2017 and Animal Crossing in 2020… I don’t know what’s more impressive, the fast that AC did it so fast, or the fact that MK8D is still selling strong 4.5 years after it released. Mario Kart 8D also broke the records of Super Mario Bros (mandatory bundle on NES) and Tetris (mandatory bundle on Gameboy), but is still only half way to Wii Sports, which remains the highest selling game, overall, by far, on a single platform.
Why is Pokémon so fucking popular again?
Pokémon Go. In May 2018 it had 147 active users, over 1 billion downloads, and had made 6 billion USD in revenue. For comparison’s sake, this is slightly above the lifetime revenue of GTA5 on all platforms.
I hate Pokémon
On a side note:
Metroid Dread, a game first announced and developed like 20 years ago in the GBA/early DS era, finally got made. It sold 2.74 million units the first quarter of its release, already almost the best selling Metroid game of all time.
I haven’t played it yet, but I’m a big fan of the first two Metroid games, then less so of the more recent ones. Even Zero lost something for me despite being virtually Metroid 1 plus a bunch of really cool extras and a whole epilogue section that I never made it to.
Maybe I need to give Zero another shot, I played through Metroid 1 recently, and still like the game. I hope Nintendo goes back to the series roots like they did with Breath of the Wild, and makes a 3D open world Metroid game. Basically, Metroid and Zelda were Nintendo’s two open world games on NES, one overhead, the other side scroller. Both games are classics. Breath of the Wild is the first open world Zelda game since - although, most follow an RPG style gameplay where areas and dungeons unlock as the player moves through the quest. Metroid and Zelda virtually had the whole place available shortly after the beginning portions.