‘Pokemon: Let’s Go’ Sales Trends Are Positive, But Fall Short of Past Pokemon Titles

Early sales data indicates that Pokemon: Let’s Go is a hit, but not necessarily as big of a game as some were expecting.

Sales data from last week is starting to hit the web, and it seems to be a mixed bag for the new Pokemon: Let’s Go games. The new Pokemon games are the first for the Nintendo Switch (or any home console for that matter), but have divided fans as it’s an entry-level version of the Pokemon RPGs with a reduced PokeDex size and missing many of the features present in other Pokemon games.

Over in the UK, Pokemon: Let’s Go sold 116,000 copies in its first week, which is just short of sales for Pokemon X & Y and above those of last year’s Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. However, Pokemon: Let’s Go sales came up far short of 2016’s Pokemon Sun and Moon, which sold over twice as many copies.

Industry followers note that the UK did face some unexpected stock issues, resulting in less units being available at launch and that many retail stores sold out of their stock entirely without fulfilling pre-orders for the game. So, the comparatively low sales might be a bit of a misnomer in this case.

Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the NPD Group, notes that Pokemon: Let’s Go seems to be trending well in the United States. The game has performed extremely well on Twitch and via word of mouth, which should translate into strong sales.

Things aren’t entirely positive for Pokemon: Let’s Go, though. Some gamers are review-bombing the game on Metacritic and Amazon, which has led to Amazon Japan locking reviews for the game. As of press time, over 62.5% of Metacritic’s user reviews are negative, despite the game receiving an aggregate score of 81 from various gaming websites.

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee are available now.