This Week In Sales: Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!

Period: The week of November 12 – November 18 (2018)

Top-seller: Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! – 661,240 (Switch)

Nintendo Switch sales: 200,850 (Last week – 54,235)

Nintendo 2DS sales: 622 (294)

New Nintendo 2DS LL sales: 4,189 (4,243)

New Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 1,788 (1,681)

PlayStation 4 sales: 8,922 (8,154)

PlayStation 4 Pro sales: 8,867 (7,927)

PlayStation Vita sales: 1,877 (1,869)

Xbox One sales: 45 (46)

Xbox One X sales: 119 (360)

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sale

Last week in Japan, fans formed in straight lines and were revved up and ready to go with the release of Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! along with a few other new releases in Fallout 76, Hitman 2, Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Steamy Labyrinth, RPG Maker MV for consoles, and Shiro to Kuro no Alice: Twilight Line.

The top spot of the week is Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! by a landslide with 661,240 units sold on the Nintendo Switch. Here’s a look at how it looks compared to the opening week sales of major Pokémon titles dating back to 2002:

• (2002) Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire – 1,093,299 [GBA]
• (2004) Pokémon Fire Red & Leaf Green – 1,013,119 [GBA]
• (2004) Pokémon Emerald – 790,527 [GBA]
• (2006) Pokémon Diamond & Pearl – 1,588,734 [DS]
• (2008) Pokémon Platinum – 963,273 [DS]
• (2009) Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver – 1,442,990 [DS]
• (2010) Pokémon Black & White – 2,557,779 [DS]
• (2012) Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 – 1,561,738 [DS]
• (2013) Pokémon X & Y – 1,866,570 [3DS]
• (2014) Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire – 1,327,671 [3DS]
• (2016) Pokémon Sun & Moon – 1,742,008 [3DS]
• (2017) Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon – 915,221 [3DS]
• (2018) Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! – 661,240 [Switch]

The conventional Pokémon series’ sell-through rate usually sits in the upper-70 to 80 percent but Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! sold through 62.96% and 51.80% respectively, according to Media Create.

Keep in mind that unlike the other major Pokémon games, Let’s Go has a completely different game system with elements from Pokémon GO aimed to attract new players, so the target audience is different from the other major titles. It’s also worth noting that the games released on time for the holiday season so the extra copies could also be in anticipation for the demand going into December.

#2 of the week is Fallout 76 which sold 73,489 units on PS4 in its opening week in Japan. While it might not be as high as Fallout 4’s debut of 123,018 units, those are decent numbers for a mostly-multiplayer spinoff game. Super Mario Party remained cozy in its #3 spot with 20,942 units sold on Switch, followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops IV at #4 with 17,159 units sold on PS4.

The next new titles of the week are Hitman 2 at #5 with 10,162 units sold on PS4, Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Steamy Labyrinth at #11 with 5,025 units sold on PS4, RPG Maker MV Trinity at #17 and #19 with 2,641 copies sold on Switch and 2,090 copies sold on PS4. Lastly, we have Otomate’s Shiro to Kuro no Alice: Twilight Line at #20 with 2,087 units sold on PS Vita.

As for hardware sales, the PlayStation 4 sold 8,922 units and the PS4 Pro sold 8,867 in the week to combine for 17,789 units in the week, but we didn’t see any big differences hardware sales than the whopping 200,850 units that the Switch sold to take up a ridiculous 88.4% of all hardware sales in the week. Going by Media Create’s figures, the Nintendo Switch is currently at 5,522,786 units sold in Japan since its launch in March 3, 2017.

The top-20 chart of the week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.