Pokémon Sword & Shield Is the Best Selling Pokémon Since Gold & Silver

Nintendo’s latest earning reports show that Pokémon Sword & Shield have sold over 20 million units, making it the best selling Pokémon game since Gold & Silver, and the first game since that generation to pass 20 million copies sold. As noted by Serbeii, Pokémon Sword & Shield has now sold 20.35 million units, with 1.3 million of those being sold in the past 3 months (Q3 2020). Those figures put it as the first Pokémon game to achieve more than 20 million copies since Gold & Silver, which sold 23.73 million copies following its launch in 1999. It’s also the third best selling Pokémon game of all time, behind Gold & Silver and Red/Green/Blue. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/13/pokemon-sword-and-pokemon-shield-review"] Since Gold & Silver, Pokémon’s sales have remained largely consistent - at least as far as the initial game launched in a generation - but all have sold within the 15-17 million region. The huge popularity of Sword & Shield marks a landmark game for the series, then. No doubt such figures are in part thanks to the mass popularity of the Nintendo Switch itself, which has now eclipsed sales of the Nintendo 3DS. As well as being the third best-selling Pokémon game, Sword & Shield is the 5th best selling game on Switch. It is surpassed only by Breath of the Wild (21.45m), Super Smash bros. Ultimate (22.85m), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (31.18m) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (33.41m). We’ve got more news from Nintendo’s latest reports: Nintendo Switch Lite is about to overtake Wii U’s lifetime sales, and there are no plans for a new Switch model anytime soon. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.