Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time by far. It's not a coincidence that everyone and their grandma, regardless of background or location, knows who Pikachu is. Being such a titan of the industry, Pokemon has also sold a lot of video games over the years.
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Starting all the way back in 1996 as a humble monster collection game, Pokemon has evolved considerably over the years and taken the world by storm. While some entries in the video game franchise outshine others in terms of sales or quality, the series has been and will likely always be a flagship in the genre.
The sales figures have been taken from nintendo.co.jp, which uses figures as of December 31, 2022.
10 Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu! & Let's Go Eevee! - 15.07 Million Units Sold
The Let's Go games have been met with a lot of praise and criticism at the same time. The games were overly simplified, a retelling of the Kanto region for a third time, and it didn't really expand on the games mechanically. All things that made the veteran fan raise an eyebrow.
However, simplicity and accessibility seem to have translated into sales figures for the games. These were a great entry point for newer fans and young kids to experience the games for the first time, giving them a modern look into a classic tale and not overwhelming them with mechanics or gimmicks.
9 Pokemon Black & White - 15.64 Million Units Sold
Pokemon Black and White, despite being the Fifth Generation of Pokemon, still gave payers a quite simple adventure. With a purely regional Pokedex and great monster designs, exploring Unova hit the same notes as playing through Red and Blue for the first time.
What Black and White managed to do for the first time in the series is to give us an intriguing and original story. With iconic characters like N, Ghetsis, and Bianca, this set of games managed to immerse the players in the story like no Pokemon games before them.
8 Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire - 16.22 Million Units Sold
Despite the meme criticism of "Too much water", Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire have cemented themselves as fan favorites, mainly due to a tropical and memorable region, a breath of fresh air after the first two generations.
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While Ruby and Sapphire didn't reinvent the wheel in any way, the games were your quintessential Pokemon adventure, with memorable designs, characters, and some of the best music you'll find in the franchise.
7 Pokemon Sun & Moon - 16.29 Million Units Sold
Speaking of reinventing the wheel, Pokemon Sun and Moon tried to change a lot of things about the tried and true Pokemon formula. You get Island Trials instead of Gyms, Poke Ride instead of HMs, and can use extremely powerful one-time moves called Z-Moves.
Sun & Moon also try and follow in the footsteps of Black & White, introducing several interesting characters and story elements. While there's a lot to be criticized about the games such as performance and Pokedex size, Sun and Moon have done a lot of experimenting, and that's worth some respect.
6 Pokemon X & Y - 16.65 Million Units Sold
Pokemon X and Y are the games that had to reinvent the series from a technical standpoint. Being the first 3D games in the series, all Pokemon had to be modeled in 3D from scratch, and new animations for moves, items, and abilities had to be created. On top of this workload, it gave us Mega Evolution, a mechanic that fans miss to this day.
While X and Y were respectable titles in terms of what they did, people were quick to notice its shortcomings. The story was bare bones, the characters were ironically two-dimensional, and the Pokedex was quite small. Despite all, X & Y breathed new life into the franchise and brought it into a whole new dimension, which led to great sales numbers.
5 Pokemon Diamond & Pearl - 17.67 Million Units Sold
via.ScreenRant.comPokemon Diamond & Pearl are amongst the fan-favorite games of the series. These games were so beloved that fans had been awaiting their remakes for over a decade until BrilliantDiamond and ShiningPearl released at the end of 2021.
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These games gave us one of the most iconic champions Cynthia, as well as several fan-favorite Pokemon such as Mamoswine, Garchomp, and Lucario. Diamond and Pearl are among the simplest yet best-designed generations of Pokemon and thus, have sold tons of copies.
4 Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - 20.61 Million Units Sold
Seeing a game that hasn't been available to buy as long as any other sell so many copies may be surprising. The surprise is even bigger when you realize that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been dragged through the mud by reviewers, and for legitimate reasons.
Scarlet and Violet are testaments to how big the brand name is and how many issues it can compensate for. To be fair, the ninth Generation introduced quite a bit, with Terastallization and an open-world game world. However, the latest addition to the franchise is obviously selling this much thanks to its Pokemon name, as opposed to individual game quality.
3 Pokemon Gold & Silver - 23.10 Million Units Sold
For many fans, the second generation of Pokemon is the shining example of a perfect sequel. Gold and Silver, in big part thanks to Satoru Iwata, expanded on the original game's formula, patched up the clunky mechanics, and gave us a whole new region while also letting you visit Kanto in the post-game.
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These games are still held in high regard as sequels as well as standalone games. With iconic moments like Whitney's Gym, shiny Gyarados, and the battle against Red, these games are infinitely memorable. Luckily, their quality has translated into sales, passing 23 million units.
2 Pokemon Sword & Shield - 25.68 Million Units Sold
On the complete other end of the spectrum, Pokemon Sword and Shield were met with endless criticism right as they came out. Dexit (where many old Pokemon were left out of the game completely for the first time in the series' history), performance issues, and a lack of excitement about the new dynamax mechanic all led to Pokemon being on the shakiest ground it's ever been.
However, despite all that negativity, Sword and Shield managed to do incredibly well financially. Being on the Nintendo Switch, great marketing, and brand recognition carried these middling games into financial stardom. While they've become better games with the DLC for sure, it's still weird to see the sales and reviews side by side.
1 Pokemon Red, Green & Blue - 31.38 Million Units Sold
While some entries in this list sold well due to how polished they are or how innovative they try to be, the original, purest Pokemon games are still at the top, with over 30 million units sold. Pokemon Red and Blue were worldwide phenomena, while Green took Japan by storm, starting a new era for gaming as a whole.
When investigated objectively, these games are clunky, glitchy messes by even 90s standards. However, the core concept was so incredibly exciting and fun that no amount of exploit or glitch could stop this success story. In an ironic way, it represents the series as a whole, subpar games on their own, carried on by how cool the concept is...
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