Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sell 10M copies in three days, Nintendo says

Nintendo announced Wednesday, “Nintendo has announced that Pokémon Scarlet VioletIn the initial three days following the launch of Nintendo Switch, the games sold over 10 million copies. The games were released Nov. 18, have since reached the “highest global sales level for any software on any Nintendo platform within the first three days.” This is in spite of a launch that’s been marred by a number of serious performance and graphical issues.

It’s been a major record-breaking release for Nintendo, surpassing a huge launch with Pokémon Sword and Shield2019 The Pokémon Company’s eighth-generation games sold 6 million units worldwide over the launch weekend.

With the record-breaking sales, however, The Pokémon Company seems to be having one of its buggiest launches yet, too. Pokémon Scarlet Violet launched with Pokémon and NPC pop-in issues, horrendous frame rates, and characters and Pokémon clipping through the world. Some bugs can be quite funny, while others are ruining the game. On Wednesday, Digital Foundry, which is known for its technical analysis of games, criticized the games’ “comprehensive technical failures,” saying they’re a step back from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the other semi-open world game The Pokémon Company released this year. A number of players have been asking for refunds on the game due to the performance problems, and a lot of those players said they’ve gotten them.

The fact is that, despite Pokémon Scarlet Violet’s issues, the games are what a lot of Pokémon fans were looking for. They’re the first major iteration on the mainline series’ games, creating an open world in which Pokémon trainers can choose their own adventures through three different questlines. Aside from that, it’s now possible to go on adventures together with your friends. Scarlet Violet’s multiplayer component.