Pokemon Sun/Moon Dominates US Game Sales In November With Record Breaking Debut

While Pokemon has always been a big seller, even through all the years when there was a relative lull in its popularity, its sales have never been explosively big right out of the gate, and generally speaking, have been lower than some western AAA franchises such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto over these last few years.

That has all changed this year, as the hype and hysteria for Pokemon Sun/Moon, fuelled by the success of Pokemon GO, and the nostalgia for the brand owing to its 20th anniversary, have all led to Pokemon Sun/Moon breaking records worldwide. The latest feather in their cap? Pokemon Sun/Moon topped the NPD Software Charts in November, meaning they were the highest selling game in the US in the month of November, selling more than Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Watch Dogs 2, or Dishonored 2.

Pokemon Sun/Moon ended up selling a combined 2.6 million units in November- this was only over 8 tracked days, mind you. This represents the largest debut the series has ever had in North America. The most amazing part? Digital sales are not being reported for Pokemon Sun/Moon, while they are for all other games in the NPD charts (except for Skyrim).

“Pokémon Sun and Pokémon: Moon had the strongest launch in the history of the franchise, selling 8 percent more units than the previous best-selling combo of Pokémon: White and Pokémon: Black despite having 19 fewer days in market during the month,” said NPD analyst Sam Naji.

The Pokemon GO fuelled success of Pokemon Sun/Moon also caused 3DS software sales in general to spike. “Nintendo 3DS experienced its highest monthly physical software spending in the history of the platform,” said Naji. “They were 1 percent higher than the previous high in December 2014.” Meanwhile, “unit sales of 3DS hardware grew 59 percent versus November a year ago, the sixth straight month of year-on-year growth.”

That apart, you can check out the NPD Top 10 chart for software below. This chart breaks down Pokemon Sun and Moon to different SKUs (meaning sales are split), and is also ranked on the basis of revenue generated. Pokemon Sun/Moon are available right now on Nintendo 3DS.