Analysis of Pokemon game sales in Japan shows downward trend, despite steady numbers worldwide

Nintendo just recently announced that Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu/Eevee has sold 10 million units worldwide. No doubt a fantastic number in such a short amount of time. The thing is, it seems the bulk of those sales are coming from outside of Japan.

An analysis of previous Pokemon games compared to Pokemon: Let's Go shows that Let's Go has the lowest sales ratio of recent Pokemon games. This continues a trend that has been building for quite some time in Japan.

Game : Sales in Japan / Sales worldwide / Percentage

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: 5.82 million / 17.67 million / 32.9%
Pokemon Black and White: 5.49 million / 15.64 million / 35.1%
Pokemon X and Y: 4.55 million / 16.37 million / 27.8%
Pokemon Sun and Moon: 3.91 million / 16.14 million / 24.2%
Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu and Eevee: 1.85 million / 10 million / 18.5%

Of course, it's worth pointing out that Pokemon: Let's Go is quite a bit different from the other games on the list. Despite what Pokemon Co. says, many consumers consider Let's Go to be a spin-off at best, and a remake at worst. This has pushed a number of people away, and it seems many of those people live in Japan. This entire situation will have to be revisited once Pokemon: Let's Go has some more sales time under it's belt.