We here at Kotaku have been wondering which version of the latest Pokémon game was more popular. X or Y? Whenever we’ve asked Nintendo, they wouldn’t tell us. But perhaps there are other ways to tell?
The challenge is that most of the outfits that talk about Pokémon X and Y‘s sales combine the two, which takes all the fun out of it.
Nintendo most recently said, in mid-December, that:
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y each sold more than 225,000 combined digital and physical units in their second month on the market. This brought the combined life-to-date total to more than 2.35 million units.
The Japanese game sales tracking service Media Create lists the two as if they were one game. For example, the sales line for 12/30-1/5:
| 2 | 3DS | ポケットモンスター X／Y（同梱版含む） | RPG | ポケモン | 131012 | 4,800円 |
This is no fun. Surely one is more popular than the other. Who can tell us which one?
Thankfully, we’ve got the UKIE/GfK Chart-Track, the people who track gaming sales in the UK and know how to have a good time comparing hit games. Today, they released a list of the 100 most popular boxed games in the UK in 2013. Let’s look in the mid-20s of that list, shall we?
26. Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega)
27. Pokémon X (Nintendo)
28. WWE 2K14 (2K Games)
29. Pokémon Y (Nintendo)
Never you mind which quality game outsold Pokémon X. The news here is that Pokémon X trumped Pokémon Y. Or at least the boxed copy did. In the UK. In 2013. Hey, that’s something.
For an equally flawed way to measure this, let’s go to the Nintendo eShop:
See that? 24,116 star reviews > 23,549 star reviews. X wins in a squeaker.
Notably, X beats Y while clearly being the inferior game, according to Metacritic — though not according to Metacritic users.
Thus concludes our investigative report on the matter. For now.
Comments
22 responses to “Shreds Of Evidence That Pokémon X Is More Popular Than Pokémon Y”
I must say that I did expect Pokemon X sales to be far above that of Colonial Marines! But then again, this is the land of FIFA sales we’re talking about…
Colonial Marines had high week one sales thanks to pre-orders. Pokemon is still a little bit of a niche market (Although I own a copy of each as does my wife).
I’m in Japan right now buying Pokemon drinks and streetpassing Pokemon players on the train. Similar deal in Australia. I think it’s only niche in the UK!
This is so weird. Because what determines which version someone buys is usually the front cover, let’s be honest here. Since all but Gen 1 has Legendary Pokemon on the front, it’s whichever Legendary version you wanted, based on their design. Going by the internet and from looking at the covers now, Y has a much cooler designed Legendary Pokemon on the front. So it’s a real mystery why X would be more popular.
Awesome fire bird thing, or lame crystal deer thing?
Heh. My girlfriend got lumped with the crap one.
I know, right? It’s like as if it has 3 hands. Looks sooo cool. Can you imagine what you could do if you had 3 hands? You could like clap 1.5 times faster.
Seriously though, new gen pokemon look horrible and weak.
I don’t mind them so much I guess. I haven’t seriously played a Pokemon to completion since Gen1. I had a dabble in Diamond, but put it down when I got to the part where it told me to spend an obnoxious amount of time decorating a cave for no reason. Apparently Black and White weren’t very good either.
I’m really liking the new game, so some questionable monsters isn’t the end of the world.
Still glad I got the cool bird version though.
Yeah, don’t worry I was gonna buy it and if I am still gonna buy it, it will be y. But overall 1st gen looks very different and is the one I enjoyed the most. I had diamond as well. Didn’t have the one in between, though did decide to get back into it and bought diamond. Didn’t make it as far as you did, though.
What did you just say about my MAJESTIC AS FUCK crystal deer? Just look at him, LOOK AT HIM!
This.
X is better than Y mainly due to Xerneas being the fairy-type. The only thing I’m missing out of Y is that Mega Mewtwo Y is cooler than Mega Mewtwo X.
Really apart from the different legendary X & Y are pretty much the same
I got me a Fairy type Eevee. I have no need for more fairies.
I guessed X would be more popular because X is cooler than Y, but I think it may just be a case of how the games were organised. At the start they sold equal because they were selling out and Nintendo/stores weren’t making/stocking uneven quantities.
So later on when they finally stop selling out the smaller things start to separate them. Online store product listings put X first, on shelves in stores X is usually before Y, etc. Normally choice would throw it off, but by that point I’d say the bulk of the copies being sold were Christmas presents and parents probably wouldn’t appreciate the difference.
At least that’s my theory. Maybe my original idea that X was just a cooler letter was correct. =P
[Edit: Oh yeah, Mega Charizard X probably helped tip the scales for a lot of people who were choosing their version.]
I didn’t want foetus Mewtwo personally. I was torn between Charizard Y and X.
I think the X legendary looks heaps cooler.
The actually key difference between X and Y after the legendary on the cover is the mega evolution forms of Charizard and Mewtwo.
Look up the Bulbapedia articles for Charizard and mewtwo and look at the X and Y forms of each, and you’ll see why X was more popular (I’d link the articles but I’d get flagged for spam).
See I preferred the X legendary to the Y so it’s no mystery to me. Although I bought both games to get both legendaries.
Y all the way baby!
Anyone else share theory that the “blue” version tends to be more popular? Blue, Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, Black, and now X.
I do.
Blue is the popular one, but red is the superior one 😛
Why do they have different metacritic scores? Did places score the games separately?
It looks like Pokemon X has 70 critic reviews, while Pokemon Y only has 67 critic reviews. It’s safe to say that they scored the same, seeing as how they are basically the same game.
dafuq?! how did Aliens: Colonial marines beat anything?
I’ve noticed that its hard to find Y in stores, everywhere i have been locally only seems to have X on shelves
X is a way better letter than Y.
X-Files, X-Ray, Xenomorph, err… Xena.
Y is just stupid.
I haven’t got either game but I did hear a discussion in EB Games in NZ when the games first hit shelves and apparently X was sold out but Y wasn’t (in that store)… *shrugs*