Nintendo on Pokemon Sun/Moon’s big sales
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
First, I will discuss the status of Nintendo 3DS. I will cover the sales for the third quarter, including the holiday season, as well as future business projections.
We released two completely new entries in the Pokémon series, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, worldwide in November last year, and achieved explosive sales. According to our recent analysis, the global sell-through (volume sold from retailers to consumers) has exceeded 13 million units and continues to grow.
This slide compares the sell-through from release to the end of that year for past titles in the Pokémon series. You can clearly see that Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are off to an excellent start, even compared to past titles. Pokémon games tend to be long-selling titles in the U.S. and European markets. We can see that these titles still have excellent sales potential. We hope to maintain this momentum going forward to ensure that Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon also achieve long-selling status.
Note: The periods represented vary slightly, as Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire released in November 2014 and Pokémon X and Pokémon Y released in October 2013. Note: Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, as well as Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, released approximately one week later in Europe than in the other markets, so these figures represent the six weeks following release for Europe.
According to our latest data, we have seen that the ratio of players in their 20s and 30s has risen for
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon compared to past Pokémon titles for Nintendo 3DS. In addition, as of the end of December 2016, we found that about 17% of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon players had no previous Nintendo 3DS Pokémon titles in their activity log; in other words, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon were the first Pokémon titles these players had experienced on Nintendo 3DS.Celebrations of the Pokémon series’ 20th anniversary that began at the start of 2016, plus the incredible buzz around the smart-device application Pokémon GO in July drew attention to the brand and set the stage for this growth in sales. We believe these activities correlated with the increase in the ratio of players in their 20s and 30s and the acquisition and reactivation of new consumers. Note: Pokémon GO is an application for smart devices (Development and Publishing: Niantic, Inc., Development Oversight: The Pokémon Company)
