Pokemon Pokopia developers created the game hoping it would eventually become the best-selling spin-off title in the now 30-year-old series, and it seems pretty inevitable it will be.
Speaking to Famitsu (with translation provided by Simon Griffin and SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything) Koei Tecmo president and CEO Hisashi Koinuma was asked about Pokemon Pokopia – developed by Koei Tecmo studio and Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force.
"From among our spin-off titles I do feel a strong sense of accomplishment," Koinuma explains, "We did work with the aim to make it the best selling spin-off game, but before launch there weren't any real expectations." And while Pokemon Pokopia was pretty highly anticipated – at least anecdotally, around me – I definitely wasn't expecting it'd be as huge as it is.
Koinuma adds, "directly ahead of launch, lots of overseas media played it and rated it very highly, and then I felt it spread from there."
Back in May, Nintendo confirmed that within the first five weeks of Pokemon Pokopia's release, the spin-off title had sold over four million copies. For context, that immediately placed it within the top five best-selling Pokemon spin-offs ever, behind Pokemon Stadium, Pinball, and both Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Time and Darkness.
Red/Blue Rescue Team currently sits up top at 5.85 million copies sold, which means that Pokopia really doesn't have that long to go to be the top-selling spin-off in the series. And, aside from Mario Kart World which is by far the best-selling Switch 2 game by the virtue of a generous bundle at launch, Pokopia only sits behind Donkey Kong Bananza, which – unfortunately, since Bananza is the best Switch 2 game – it seems like it will have passed by the next time Nintendo reports sales. Especially when Nintendo is releasing a Pokemon Pokopia Switch 2 bundle in some regions.
