'Pokemon Sword and Shield' moves more than six million units in less than a week

In a surprising turn of events, after all the debacle surrounding Game Freak's decision to cut the Pokedex numbers down, "Pokemon Sword and Shield" is still a smash hit. Nintendo recently confirmed that worldwide sales of both games have numbered over six million already. From a publisher's standpoint, this marks it as the best-selling installment of the franchise, which is evidently impressive.

In addition to this outstanding sales milestone, two million copies of the latest monster-catching were sold in the United States. Moreover, this happened in the first two days of its launch, as reported by Engadget. Weeks before its release, industry analysts were expressing concern over the upsurge of complaints pertaining to the roster adjustment.

Moreover, data miners who were reportedly able to access the retail copy of the game made a startling discovery. Shortly after the developers confirmed the decision to reduce the number of pokemon, fans clamoured for an explanation as to why. Game producer Junichi Masuda reasoned out that his team was focusing on improving the visual fidelity of "Pokemon Sword and Shield" for the new console.

Furthermore, he noted that fitting all of the existing creatures into the sequel would require more time and manpower. What Nintendo did not expect however is how far fans will go to verify these claims. As such, further data mining supposedly uncovered a disappointing secret. According to sources, most of the 3D models for older pokemon were apparently reused files from older titles in the series.

Other gamers are taking matters into their own hands and hacking the missing creatures into the game. During the process, some of them even were able to access unused code for some of the missing pokemon. Despite the negative feedback and #GameFreakLied trending on social media, there are no signs of it impacting sales.

As it continues to sell more units, "Pokemon Sword and Shield" could end up outpacing other first-party titles on the Nintendo Switch. Currently, "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" holds the top spot with 19.01 million copies sold. What follows is "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" with 15.71 million and "Super Mario Odyssey" at 15.38 million.