Pokémon Legends: Z-A Debuts at No.1 in UK Charts, Launch Sales Trail Arceus by 40%
Pokémon Legends: Z-A Debuts at No.1 in UK Charts, Launch Sales Trail Arceus by 40%
by MaintenanceFar4207
20 Comments
Frostwolf5x
Doesn’t really surprise me. Arceus launched after BDSP disappointed a lot of people so there was more of a hunger for it. This launches on the heels of a Switch 2 patch for Scarlet and Violet which made that game pretty good. You also have a market where things are more expensive for everyone and a lot of games are releasing or have been released this month.
So yeah, not the best launch timing for it.
TheRigXD
Cue endless doomposters saying Pokemon is finally dying
The_Pepper_Oni
End of generation pokemon games never sell as well as the preceding releases. See also B2/W2, US/UM. Also most of the people who own original Switches are the more casual crowd that only buy a game a couple times a year, usually around holidays. I’ll be interested to see how it’s doing by january.
That and the UK physical games market is never an indicator for success or failure worldwide anymore. Like nearly every release in a franchise in the last 3 years is down versus previous entries there
Those_Files
“trails arceus by 40%”
Wdym? Lifetime sales? Or sales that Legends: Arceus had by the same time in its own launch era?
dayvena
This might be a little bit of delusion from me but it’s worth noting that Ghost of Yotei also experienced an almost identical decline in its physical sales from Ghost of Tsushima in the UK despite both selling about the same amount of copies indicating that this might just be that UK gamers are moving away from Physical copies. I don’t think it makes up the entire difference, but the actual sales gap is probably far lower than 40% overall and is probably closer 10% lower overall.
LegoDudeGuy
Not super surprising that it’s trailing, while it’s been fun and I personally really enjoy it it’s clearly lacking in polish due to its “alleged” small budget and hamstrung development cycle.
Especially when other 1st party titles for the Switch 1 looks miles ahead of Z-A, Scarlet and Violet, and basically every other Switch Pokémon title except maybe the Lets Go games. The lack of voice acting when the games progressively get more story heavy doesn’t help with that unpolished feeling as well, especially with Z-A with every character being very animated and expressive despite having no voices or even Animal Crossing-style babble.
With next year being the 30th anniversary (and probably the release of Generation 10), I really hope that the reception for the past 2 games, plus a move to releasing just on the Switch 2, will make Gen 10 a true “next gen” game but if they keep the budgets as low as they have been leaked to be I’m not gonna be holding my breath.
Late-Plenty6649
It’s pretty simple that some people would hold off until holidays to purchase, Legends Arceus in Jan didn’t have that period for people to wait because it’s already after holiday
Also, it makes sense switch 2, being 51%, they clearly already have the funds to purchase that they didn’t hold off on buying and bought it early also it was promoted as a switch 2 game for the most part
Uk sales aren’t an indicator of anything, but if sales reflect the same pattern elsewhere, then next years switch 2 exclusive new gen games (if it looks half decent) is gonna have banger sales, idk if those will match swsh and scvi but they could easily still clock 20+ million sales
Gomez-16
Is it good? See a lot of bad reviews.
ryan8954
What’s price like? Here in Canada is 100. Switch version is 85. Won’t be pickong it up anytime soon.
Ragebait_Destroyer
Emma could get smashed tbh
cm0011
“In the UK” we must all remember when reading this. I guarantee you ever region will have different sales figures
SoccerStar9001
This is most likely because Switch 2 bundle sales aren’t counted.
It was the same thing with MKW, where 80% of Switch 2 sales were bundled, so MKW physical sales actually went below MK8 for a period.
BoredOstrich
This is why they keep getting away with releasing low effort slop. The game’s performance and graphics are terrible.
Cloudlink525
Fuck Nintendo. Vote with your wallet, don’t buy empty slop. Don’t support companies that bully others over pointless lawsuits time and time again.
lingering-will-6
People ignoring that bundle sales aren’t included
f2pmyass
physical sales sure
Totoques22
Test test Test
HoppingMarlin
Legends Arceus was a good game with a dynamic environment and literal biospheres. Legends ZA is a tiny ass city.
gman5852
Strong Switch 2 sales + a dip over Arceus seems to imply the general audience views this more as a S2 title over S1. I wonder if that’d be because people were expecting another SV situation where the S2 version was such a drastic increase on technical quality over S1.
I’d be curious how many people bought a physical S1 edition+ upgraded separately…
Riebald
I liked aiming my pokeballs freely in Arceus better, and i liked the setting better, and i have a bit of trouble getting used to the new combat system (melee attacks fizzle all the time)
That being said it has charme, humor and is fun in its own right… with all the parkouring it wouldve been great to be able to actually jump though.
20 Comments
Doesn’t really surprise me. Arceus launched after BDSP disappointed a lot of people so there was more of a hunger for it. This launches on the heels of a Switch 2 patch for Scarlet and Violet which made that game pretty good. You also have a market where things are more expensive for everyone and a lot of games are releasing or have been released this month.
So yeah, not the best launch timing for it.
Cue endless doomposters saying Pokemon is finally dying
End of generation pokemon games never sell as well as the preceding releases. See also B2/W2, US/UM. Also most of the people who own original Switches are the more casual crowd that only buy a game a couple times a year, usually around holidays. I’ll be interested to see how it’s doing by january.
That and the UK physical games market is never an indicator for success or failure worldwide anymore. Like nearly every release in a franchise in the last 3 years is down versus previous entries there
“trails arceus by 40%”
Wdym? Lifetime sales? Or sales that Legends: Arceus had by the same time in its own launch era?
This might be a little bit of delusion from me but it’s worth noting that Ghost of Yotei also experienced an almost identical decline in its physical sales from Ghost of Tsushima in the UK despite both selling about the same amount of copies indicating that this might just be that UK gamers are moving away from Physical copies. I don’t think it makes up the entire difference, but the actual sales gap is probably far lower than 40% overall and is probably closer 10% lower overall.
Not super surprising that it’s trailing, while it’s been fun and I personally really enjoy it it’s clearly lacking in polish due to its “alleged” small budget and hamstrung development cycle.
Especially when other 1st party titles for the Switch 1 looks miles ahead of Z-A, Scarlet and Violet, and basically every other Switch Pokémon title except maybe the Lets Go games. The lack of voice acting when the games progressively get more story heavy doesn’t help with that unpolished feeling as well, especially with Z-A with every character being very animated and expressive despite having no voices or even Animal Crossing-style babble.
With next year being the 30th anniversary (and probably the release of Generation 10), I really hope that the reception for the past 2 games, plus a move to releasing just on the Switch 2, will make Gen 10 a true “next gen” game but if they keep the budgets as low as they have been leaked to be I’m not gonna be holding my breath.
It’s pretty simple that some people would hold off until holidays to purchase, Legends Arceus in Jan didn’t have that period for people to wait because it’s already after holiday
Also, it makes sense switch 2, being 51%, they clearly already have the funds to purchase that they didn’t hold off on buying and bought it early also it was promoted as a switch 2 game for the most part
Uk sales aren’t an indicator of anything, but if sales reflect the same pattern elsewhere, then next years switch 2 exclusive new gen games (if it looks half decent) is gonna have banger sales, idk if those will match swsh and scvi but they could easily still clock 20+ million sales
Is it good? See a lot of bad reviews.
What’s price like? Here in Canada is 100. Switch version is 85. Won’t be pickong it up anytime soon.
Emma could get smashed tbh
“In the UK” we must all remember when reading this. I guarantee you ever region will have different sales figures
This is most likely because Switch 2 bundle sales aren’t counted.
It was the same thing with MKW, where 80% of Switch 2 sales were bundled, so MKW physical sales actually went below MK8 for a period.
This is why they keep getting away with releasing low effort slop. The game’s performance and graphics are terrible.
Fuck Nintendo. Vote with your wallet, don’t buy empty slop. Don’t support companies that bully others over pointless lawsuits time and time again.
People ignoring that bundle sales aren’t included
physical sales sure
Test test Test
Legends Arceus was a good game with a dynamic environment and literal biospheres. Legends ZA is a tiny ass city.
Strong Switch 2 sales + a dip over Arceus seems to imply the general audience views this more as a S2 title over S1. I wonder if that’d be because people were expecting another SV situation where the S2 version was such a drastic increase on technical quality over S1.
I’d be curious how many people bought a physical S1 edition+ upgraded separately…
I liked aiming my pokeballs freely in Arceus better, and i liked the setting better, and i have a bit of trouble getting used to the new combat system (melee attacks fizzle all the time)
That being said it has charme, humor and is fun in its own right… with all the parkouring it wouldve been great to be able to actually jump though.