Nintendo announced their Nine Months Financial Results Briefing for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2022 and revealed that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl (released in November 2021) got off to a good start, selling a combined 13.97 million units, 3.79 million copies in Japan and 10.18 million copies worldwide.


Consolidated Operating Results
During the nine months ended December 31, 2021, in the Nintendo Switch business, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model launched in October and got off to a good start. Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite also sustained sales momentum following the launch of Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, and all three models sold well while maintaining a good sales balance. Last fiscal year, the March 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a major driver of hardware sales, so compared to the same period of last year, the unit sales declined for hardware resulting in 18.95 million units (a decrease of 21.4% year-on-year). Looking at software, among titles released this fiscal year, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl started out strong, with sales of 13.97 million units, Mario Party Superstars sold 5.43 million units, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD sold 3.85 million units respectively.

Consolidated Financial Forecast
For Nintendo Switch, we will continue to convey the appeal of the three models and work to further expand the install base. Regarding software, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released in January, and we plan to follow that up with the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land in March. There is also a robust variety of appealing titles from other software publishers scheduled for release, and we will work to strengthen sales through the combination of existing popular titles and a continuous stream of attractive new titles.

Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2022/220203e.pdf



Overall, sell-through of first-party software during the period between October and December 2021 was the highest for a quarter since the launch of Nintendo Switch. The Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl games, released in November 2021, had a global sell-through of more than 11.7 million units in the first seven weeks, and sales are growing.

Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2022/220203_4e.pdf

Pokémon Legends: Arceus Sales Info for Japan

Pokémon Legends: Arceus, released on January 28th, 2022, is an action role-playing game and the latest entry in the Pokémon series, in which players capture many Pokémon and complete your Pokédex while roaming in a version of the world of Pokémon from long, long ago. The game shares such features with other entries in the Pokémon series, but also introduces new action elements that add different aspects to gameplay.

Famitsu also revealed that Pokémon Legends: Arceus sold 1,424,657 copies in Japan for the 3 day sales period of January 28th, 2022 to January 30th, 2022 which includes download cards but excludes direct eshop download versions.

This makes Pokémon Legends: Arceus the second fastest selling Nintendo Switch game in Japan behind Animal Crossing and ahead of the combined sales of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl.

1: Animal Crossing (March 20, 2020): 1,881,000 units
2: Pokémon LEGENDS Arceus (January 28, 2022): 1,425,000 units
3: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl (November 19, 2021): 1,396,000 units

Source: https://www.famitsu.com/news/202202/03250131.html

Top Selling Title Sales Units - As of December 31, 2021

Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield - 23.90 million pcs.
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!/ Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! - 14.33 million pcs.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond / Pokémon Shining Pearl - 13.97 million pcs.

Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html