How Pokemon Sun/Moon Launch Sales Compare to X/Y in Japan

Pokemon Sun and Moon are apparently off to a huge start in Japan. According to Famitsu (via Kotaku), Pokemon Sun and Moon sold 1,905,107 copies at retail over its first three days.

For comparison, Pokemon X and Y reportedly sold 1,866,570 copies in Japan in its first two days on the market. Again, this number does not include digital copies. According to Famitsu, Pokemon X and Y managed to sell 2.096 million copies in its first three days, ahead of Sun and Moon.

Even though Sun and Moon sales may be lagging behind X and Y slightly, 1.905 million copies sold stands as the second best launch ever for a 3DS game in Japan.

Nintendo has yet to announce official sales numbers for Pokemon Sun and Moon for Japan or any other worldwide market. We'll report back when official numbers are released.

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Strong sales for Sun and Moon would be no surprise, given that Nintendo announced that it shipped 10 million copies of the game to retail for launch, which is 1.5 times the figure for X and Y. Additionally, the game set a preorder record for Nintendo, while the game's free demo broke records as well.

Sun and Moon are the first mainline Pokemon games to come out since Pokemon Go's record-setting release in July. There is no doubt that the game's status as a global phenomenon has raised awareness for the Pokemon brand overall.

For more on Sun and Moon, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying. If you're deciding which version to pick up, check out GameSpot's breakdown of the two editions here.

In other news, a recent report claimed that a version of Pokemon Sun and Moon is coming to the Nintendo Switch console.

2016 is the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon series, as the first games debuted in 1996. Nintendo has celebrated the milestone with a Super Bowl commercial, a party hosted by Drew Barrymore, and with free mythical Pokemon.