Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are less than three weeks away from release, and after an intense leak season that spanned the entirety of the Paldean Pokedex, fans could still get to see even more details in the coming days if early copies start to surface in the web. However, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's version exclusive discourse hasn't even started on The Pokemon Company's part, as the only pieces of information players are aware of at the moment include the exclusivity of Armarouge and Ceruledge, as well as some older species. Compared to Gen 8 or even the Gen 4 remakes, very little is known about which version of the game includes what, and that's not great.
The main issue is that players can't make an informed decision about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet ahead of launch because of this, and many fans will eventually pick the game they like the most based on the box art and the cover Legendary associated with it. These pocket monsters are Koraidon and Miraidon, and based on the fans' reaction to their reveal and then to their appearance across multiple other trailers, there seems to be a general preference towards the latter. However, this is far from the only reason why Pokemon Violet could outsell its counterpart.
Pokemon Violet Could Outsell Scarlet Based on Older Generations' Sales
An interesting set of data regarding the sales of each mainline generation's versions comes from Bulbapedia, which lists the effective sale numbers in Japan for Gen 1 through Gen 8, and they share an odd trend. Despite what one might think about Gen 1, Pokemon Blue actually outsold Pokemon Red by around 200,000 copies, which is particularly fascinating when one factors in the popularity Charizard rose to over the years, starting as early as the first series of the anime. This is where this trend begins, and it has to do with the color red.
Generation 3 featured Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, which are largely considered among the best generations of mainline games in the franchise. Much like with Gen 1, Pokemon Sapphire actually sold more copies than Pokemon Ruby. The common ground between the art boxes and the cover critter for Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Red is their color, as they share almost the same hue of red, with the color also appearing on both Groudon and Charizard's designs. A similar conversation can be held with Gen 4 games, too, as Pokemon Pearl's box art features pink and red tones, and so does Palkia.
Again, in this case, the game with these features on its box art sold fewer copies by around 50,000 units, with Pokemon Diamond being the more popular of the two. While the boxes for the base Gen 5 games didn't differ to the same extent as the others, Pokemon Black ended up being more popular than its counterpart by around 100,000 copies. More importantly, however, Pokemon Black and White 2 swapped their box Legendaries by having the fusion of Zekrom and Kyurem on the former and Reshiram and Kyurem on the latter. Pokemon White 2 was outsold by its peer, and it did have red shades on the box art.
This trend was then shared by Gen 6 as well, with Pokemon X outselling Pokemon Y by over 50,000 copies, and the latter's box Legendary is a red pocket monster. Gen 7 broke this trend, however, with Pokemon Sun being more popular than Pokemon Moon by around 20,000 copies, despite Solgaleo's box art featuring slight red hues. However, Gen 8 not only brought back the trend, but it did so in full force, with Pokemon Sword outselling Pokemon Shield by around 32 percent, with the most considerable gap in the franchise's history. As such, it's possible that fans favoring Miraidon over Koraidon, combined with Pokemon Scarlet's mostly crimson hues, will allow Pokemon Violet to be Gen 9's more popular option.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18 for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Bulbapedia