Nintendo’s regular financial report is in, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sales have topped its charts for 2022. The games went on sale late in the year, but despite coming out in November 2022, by the year’s end they had already moved 20.61 million units. These numbers include all worldwide sales over both physical and digital copies, as well as copies bundled with Switch hardware. The figures cement Pokemon Scarlet and Violet as the fastest-selling games on a Nintendo platform in history.
That said, overall sales for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are still behind Pokemon Sword and Shield. Released in November 2019, the Galar-set titles boast a lifetime sales number of over 25 million copies. And both games’ status as mainstay titles pales behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which came out way back in April 2017. Despite this it still managed to sell 6.3 million more copies in 2022, bringing its lifetime total on the Switch to over 52 million copies sold.
According to comments from Nintendo, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sales might have been even higher if the outlook were better for the Switch platform as a whole. Nintendo reported that it missed its sales targets for the console in 2022, and declared that the Switch hardware was on a “downward” trend. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa did say he believed there was still “strong demand” for the Switch, and did not say whether or not the company intends to unveil a successor or update to the hardware soon.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available on the Nintendo Switch. The next round of Tera Raid battles will focus on Tandemaus.
