The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have announced that the latest addition to the franchise, Pokémon Pokopia, has sold more than 2.2 million copies in its first four days of release. The title was released exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5th, and of the over 2.2 million sales, around 1 million units were sold in Japan alone.
The announcement comes just days after we first started seeing an overwhelmingly positive critical response to the title, with its aggregated score on Metacritic sitting at 89 based on 68 critic reviews. Since its release, players have also seemingly loved the game, with 726 user reviews contributing to an average score of 8.5 out of 10.
A report from earlier this week also revealed that the success of Pokémon Pokopia has led to Nintendo’s share prices going up by around 10 percent. Along with this, the physical copies of title has also been quite difficult to find, with many US retailers running out of stock.
Jeffries analyst Atul Goyal called Pokémon Pokopia a “viral hit”, and noted that it helped in counteracting “memory cost headwinds” that had been worrying Nintendo’s shareholders. The game has also contributed to boosting Nintendo Switch 2’s hardware sales momentum.
Tokyo Securities analyst Hideko Yasuda called Pokémon Pokopia a “dark horse”, noting that it was “totally off people’s radar, making its popularity a positive development.” He went on to say that its popularity “from Japan to Canada” shows how much global appeal the game has.
Pokémon Pokopia was a surprising game ever since it was first unveiled, since it strays away from the classical style of games one would expect from the franchise and focuses more on gameplay in the vein of Animal Crossing. Players take on the role of a Ditto that has transformed to vaguely look like a young human. Right from the beginning, players will have to get their hands on a variety of resources, which can then be used to create tools and even a home.
Along the way, players will get to find and befriend other Pokémon, each of which is equipped with their own unique abilities. Bulbasaur, for example, can make more grass grow, which can be harvested for resources. If you would prefer to clear the land, however, you can make use of Charmander’s fire skills to clear the land.
Game director Takuto Edagawa had spoken about the game’s general runtime of between 20 and 40 hours for its main story. However, he also noted that there is plenty for players to do even after they roll credits.
“The whole concept is to create the world with Pokémon and live with the Pokémon. However, as an average, it’ll be about 20 to 40 hours, but it would really depend on how the players play the game…There’s more things to experience after the end roll,” he said.
“So it depends on what you mean by contents, but I believe that players are encouraged to and will be motivated to continue to play the game.”
For more on Pokémon Pokopia, take a look at its gameplay trailer from back in February.
