Pokémon Black/White 2 were released in North America on October 7th, and both games charted in the top-10 sales chart for the month, provided by the NPD Group. Pokémon Black 2 charted at #3 while Pokémon White 2 charted at #5.
Nintendo have shared that Black/White 2 sold over 865,000 copies during the month of October.
For comparison, the original Pokémon Black/White sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. in just under two weeks. Meanwhile, Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, release in 2007, sold 1.75 million in a single week.
Based on the performance of past games, one might be inclined to think that Pokémon Black/White 2 underperformed, but the key difference to keep in mind is that Black/White 2 aren’t new games and don’t introduce a new generation of Pokémon the way each brand new Pokémon RPG does, so a direct comparison to previous mainline titles isn’t quite accurate.
On the other hand, they aren’t a “third-version update” (like Pokémon Crystal, Emerald or Platinum) either, as they do feature a new story, along with a few new areas and characters. To make a comparison here, Pokémon Platinum sold about 805,000 copies (U.S.) in its first month back in 2009, which isn’t significantly less than Black/White 2.
Furthermore, lifetime worldwide sales of Pokémon Platinum were at 7.43 million as of March 2011. In comparison, worldwide sales of Black/White 2 are currently at over 4.26 million worldwide.
Time will tell if Pokémon Black/White 2 manage to surpass Platinum’s global sales or not, but it should be noted that market conditions today are different from 2009, in that the Nintendo DS nearing the end of its life and that the portable market is a lot tougher to compete in.
Food for thought:
Soon after their release, Nintendo reported that Pokémon White had sold slightly more than Pokémon Black in the U.S. However, in the case of the sequels, Black 2 appears to be outselling White 2 so far.
