Pokémon Black and White set a new record to become the fastest-selling Pokémon games. Over 1 million copies of the game were sold on March 6th, 2011. Below is the full press release.

Press Release

Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version Combine to Sell More Than 1 Million in a Single Day

REDMOND, Wash., March 8, 2011 – Two new Pokémon™ video games went on sale on March 6 and promptly shattered all previous U.S. Pokémon sales records. The Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version games for the Nintendo DS™ family of systems became the fastest-selling Pokémon video games of all time, selling more than 1.08 million units after just one day of availability. That surpasses the previous one-day sales record of more than 780,000 set by the Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version games in April 2007.

"Longtime Pokémon fans are attracted to the new Pokémon, new battle systems and a new region to explore, while newcomers enjoy the ability to jump in and have fun right away," said Charlie Scibetta, Nintendo of America's senior director of Corporate Communications. "These sales numbers illustrate the continued strength of the Nintendo DS family of systems. Already established as the nation's best-selling video game platform of all time, the installed base of more than 47 million makes it the ideal hand-held for developers to reach a huge gaming-focused target audience."

Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version feature more than 150 new Pokémon for players to catch, train and battle. The never-before-seen Unova region gives players a whole new world to explore. For the first time in the series, in-game environments change with the four seasons. The games also introduce Triple Battles and Rotation Battles, which give players even more choices when battling.

Source: http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=28157

Well, I don't find the fact Pokémon broke yet another sale record any surprising at all. Actually, I can't help but be impressed each time it happens. It's also funny when you think about all those naysayers who predicted, back in 1998, that people wouldn't even remember about Pokémon a few years later, that it was nothing but some sort of trendy thing that would quickly be forgotten, etc...

Personally, having played the game for about 20-25h so far, I believe the games really deserve this new record. It's definitely not revolutionary, but it's really brought the series to a brand new level. What's amazing is that they did so with the same hardware as the previous generation. I just can't wait to see what they'll manage to come up with using the 3DS features (bettre graphics, 3D etc...). Maybe some real 3D pokémon battles?

Anyway, you can really see Nintendo was eager to release the game BEFORE the 3DS hit the shelves; after all, they did decide to translate, for each language, straight from Japanese, instead of waiting to be able to work on the English translation, like all previous games.
And there's also the sudden drop in the game's price a few days before release...

But guess there were right in doing so, it allowed them to focus a great deal on those games, without stealing much spotlight from the upcoming 3DS (or rather, without those games' release being in the shadow of the 3DS).

It really looks like Nintendo will always be on the safe-side as long as they have Pokémon games released on their handhelds... and since they will probably never give up on the series... I don't think I'm going to complain about that.

1 million+ copies on the first day is impressive for anything let alone a video game. But you can see why it sold so many, it really is a good game. Nintendo has said they wanted to get BW out the door first before they did any serious 3DS promoting. Will be interesting to see just how many copies of the games are sold in 2011. It will definitely be millions of copies. The Pokemon franchise is continuing to flourish quite well.

Well, I sure hope the 3DS won't have too great an impact on B&W sales... though with the very poor line-up for the 3DS, B&W should be 'safe'.

By the way Sunain, did you get some confirmation (or not) about that news I submittted? About Junichi Masuda saying there wouldn't be an 'upgraded' version of Black & White?

There were multiple instances were he denied that rumour. It's pretty safe to say there will be at least a 3rd game in the BW series.

Video Interview of Masuda squashing rumour: http://www.pocketmonsters.net/imageboard/thread/2193

Oh, thanks for the video. Guess I actually forgot to watch that one.
Well, it looks really good if there's going to be a third entry in the B&W series. I mean, for the first time since Pokémon Yellow, I was interested in the 3rd game of a new generation... would've been bad if they had simply decided not to make one this time. And this means I'll maybe be able to catch all Pokémon in one version, this time!

But it really makes me curious then... is it going to be released on the Nintendo DS? Seems unlikely, but a 3DS release doesn't look much likely either... I'm quite puzzled, I admit.