Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are some of the best-selling Pokémon games of all time, Nintendo reveals
Nintendo has revealed that despite mixed reviews from both critics and players, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have found their way among the franchise’s best-selling games, trailing just the first generation of titles.
The details:
As spotted by Serebii webmaster Joe Merrick (via Eurogamer), Nintendo has updated its official sales figures for the Pokémon franchise, revealing that the ninth generation of games, Scarlet and Violet, are now the series' second best-selling with 26,790,000 units sold. The series' first generation, Red, Green, and Blue, sits in the number one spot, having sold over 31,380,000 copies since its debut on the Game Boy, while the eighth generation, Sword and Shield, trails in third place with just 80,000 fewer sales.
As Scarlet and Violet, as well as Sword and Shield, are among the Switch's top ten bestsellers, and the franchise's 30th anniversary is approaching, some fans have speculated that the next generation of mainline titles could be released on the Switch 2 next year. The next major Pokémon game currently scheduled for release is Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a follow-up to the spin-off Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and will come to both the original Switch and the Switch 2 with upgrades to performance.
Despite its impressive sales figures, Scarlet and Violet was heavily criticized upon its launch for its poor performance, weak visuals, and game-breaking bugs. As the series' first 3D open-world title, its environments were described as bland and low-quality, with muddy textures and outdated models, and the frame rate and resolution would drop drastically as you traveled around the map, occasionally resulting in crashes. As a result, Nintendo issued a public apology for the state of the game before later releasing patches to address some of the biggest issues.
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