Why yes, Pokemon Sun and Moon are pretty damn successful in Japan

I’m sure this surprised absolutely nobody

Well, here’s some news that’ll come as a shock to nobody at all. If the sales figures for the Japanese releases of the latest iterations in the seemingly-unstoppable Pokemon franchise are to be believed, the newest games — Sun and Moon — have been a resounding success for Nintendo, The Pokemon Company and Game Freak.

According to Famitsu, the combined retail sales of both Pokemon Sun and Moon during the last three days have totalled at around 1.905 million in Japan alone. Keep in mind that these figures are limited exclusively to Japan, meaning that the overall number of units sold would be significantly higher when you factor in Western sales, too.

One thing of note is that these figures do not surpass those of Pokemon X and Y, which sold around 2.096 million units during the same period of time. Of course, for Sun and Moon to sell nearly just as much is an incredibly good sign for the game (and Nintendo shareholders), as X and Y are, combined, the most successful games on the 3DS.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that none of these figures include digital downloads, which Nintendo has been pushing a lot more heavily as of late. Not only did Nintendo allow players to pre-load Pokemon Sun and Moon onto their 3DS consoles prior to launch, which wasn’t the case for X and Y, but digital pre-orders also came with a bonus of 12 Quick Balls that was clearly intended to entice players into buying Sun and Moon on the eShop instead of picking up a physical cartridge.

While these figures are a little interesting, I’m much more excited to see what the long-term collective opinion of the new Pokemon games will be once the hype’s died down a little. After all, they really did change up a lot of aspects of the traditional Pokemon formula in some new and interesting ways, including the omission of HMs and alterations to Gyms (now referred to as Trials), both of which have been series staples since Red and Green.

Pokemon Sun and Moon [Famitsu via Kotaku]