Despite outcries from some in the community toboycott the latest Pokemon entries, it seems as thoughSwordandShieldhave gotten off to one of the strongest starts from a sales perspective in the history of the franchise.
In its first week of availability,Pokemon SwordandShieldlapped the competition on the UK sales chart.Pokemon Swordended up being the week’s number one selling game whilePokemon Shieldended up slotting in at third. Furthermore, the dual pack containing both versions calledPokemon Sword & Shield: Dual Editionended up selling well enough as its own SKU that it debuted at seventh overall on the chart.
As reported byGamesIndustry.biz, this is good enough to makeSwordandShieldthe second-best launch in the history of Pokemon in the UK. Compared to the release of last year’sPokemon Let’s Gogames,SwordandShieldhave sold nearly 65% more units. Part of this is surely because more Switch platforms are now owned this year compared to in 2018, but it also just goes to show how hungry players apparently were for a new generation of Pokemon. That being said, the launch ofSwordandShielddidn’t outdo that ofSunandMoonwhich stands as the largest Nintendo launch in the history of the UK.
WhileSwordandShieldwere the most notable launches of the week, EA’sStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderalso hit the market and has done quite well for itself so far.Fallen Orderslotted in at second place in its first week of availability and is said to be the fourth-largest retail launch of the year in the UK. That said, GI.biz states that the game sold 33% fewer copies in its first week thanStar Wars Battlefront IIdid in 2017.
As for other notable changes this week,Call of Duty: Modern Warfaredropped down from the top spot to fourth place.FIFA 20then rounded out the top five on the week. It’ll be interesting to see which games in these top spots continue to have sustained success over the coming weeks.
If you want to check out last week’s full top-40 chart from the UK, you can find it below.
