Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are said to have sold around 6 million copies globally during its launch week, thereby roughly matching first-week sales of Pokémon Sword and Shield.
This information comes from Japanese outlet Gamebiz.jp, and additional context was provided on the ResetEra forums by the owner of Pokémon site Serebii.
"On this day (December 8th), the latest series "Pokemon Brilliant Diamond" and "Pokemon Shining Pearl", which were released simultaneously worldwide on November 19th, sold 6 million units worldwide * in the first week of their release", the text in the article reads (Google translated).
According to “Serebii”, initial Pokémon Sword and Shield sales were roughly on par with first-week global sales of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, assuming the first week is the first calendar week. As also mentioned by “Serebii”, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond appears to be selling better than Shining Pearl, although exact numbers haven’t been shared.
For reference, Pokémon Sun & Moon managed to sell around 7.2 million copies in its first two weeks after launch, and Pokémon Let’s Go sold approximately 3 million copies globally in its first week. Around 4 million copies of 2013’s Pokémon X and Y were sold 2 days after launch, and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire managed to sell 3 million in its launch week back in 2014.
Interestingly, Sword and Shield are on track to become the second-best-selling Pokémon games to date, and with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl launch-week sales roughly matching those of Sword and Shield, it will be interesting to see how the remake will perform going forward.
Last month we reported that the remake managed to sell around 1.4 million boxed copies in Japan during its first 3 days. In addition, it was reported that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was the fifth biggest Pokémon game launch in the UK.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are available now globally for the Nintendo Switch.
