Ahead of their launch on October 12, Pokemon X and Y are already the most pre-ordered games in Japan… ever. Topping 1.26 million pre-orders, they have edged out previous record holders Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 by 100,000 units, and with ten days to spare.
The best part is that any hardware bundles or digital sales are not included in this number at all- meaning that when they do launch, the games’ sales performance is likely to be even more stratospheric than these numbers suggest.
Whereas we don’t have any numbers for the rest of the world- video game numbers are not tracked by independent agencies anywhere else as extensively as they are in Japan- it is not in the slightest unreasonable to assume that their worldwide performance is likely to be equally meteoric. Coming so soon after Grand Theft Auto V and FIFA 14, and so soon before Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Super Mario 3D World, the titles are hopefully going to reinvigorate the worldwide market for video game software.
Pokemon X and Y launch October 12 for the Nintendo 3DS line of systems, which also includes the Nintendo 2DS. Stay tuned for more coverage.