Nintendo ships 10m units of Pokemon Sun and Moon

The impact of Pokemon Go on Sun and Moon pre-orders has seen Nintendo sell-in 10m units of the upcoming 3DS game, Famitsu reports.

It's the biggest number of games sold-in for the 3DS in the console's lifetime, which is an impressive achievement for a game on a machine that is approaching the end of its lifecycle.

The previous games in the series, Pokemon X and Y, sold 15.64m units between them worldwide, and when combined are the best-selling 3DS games globally. Sun and Moon won't have long to catch-up, with Nintendo's next machine due in March.

The reason behind the demand for the game is no secret, with Pokemon Go proving to be the most popular game of the summer with 500m installs within its first three months available. In early August in the UK, the halo effect of Pokemon Go saw 3DS and 2DS sales spike by more than 200 percent, with five previously released Pokemon games returning to the charts that month.

Go developer Niantic told Gamesindustry.biz last week that the success of Pokemon Go also boosted the userbase of its other game, Ingress.

Pokemon Sun and Moon arrive this week in the US and next week in Europe. It has already received strong review scores from the consumer media.