Pokemon Legends Arceus Is Off To A Fantastic Start

Pokemon Legends Arceus is off to a very good start, as Nintendo has announced the game sold 1.425 million copies during its first week in Japan. That is a huge result, and it's second only to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which sold 1.881 million copies during its first week in Japan in 2020. Additionally, Nintendo announced that Arceus has surpassed 6.5 million total players worldwide since launch.

The sales numbers for Japan came from industry analyst David Gibson, as shared on social media. Legends Arceus was released on January 28, so in fact it's been out for less than a week.

Nintendo Switch JP data - “Pokémon LEGENDS Arceus”, has sold 1,425,000 copies, making it the 2nd best-selling Switch title of all time in its first week, behind “Animal Crossing”, which sold 1,881,000 copies. “Pokémon Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl" sold 1,396,000 units.
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) February 3, 2022

GameSpot's Pokemon Legends Arceus review scored the game an 8/10. "It's the most daring and inventive the series has been in years, breaking apart the staid core and creating something new and exciting from its pieces," Steve Watts said.

Thank you to the more than 6.5 million explorers worldwide who have already embarked on an exciting new adventure in #PokemonLegendsArceus!
We hope you're loading up on more potato mochi before your next research mission! pic.twitter.com/u1MKRHkhhD
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 4, 2022

In other news about Switch game sales, Nintendo updated its list of the best-selling Switch games, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe topping the list with a whopping 43.35 million sold.

As for hardware, the Nintendo Switch has now sold more than 103 million units, surpassing the Wii.