As of February 29th, the Pokemon video games has now surpassed over 279 million sales. In report from Gematsu and Games Talk, the main series has sold over 200 million copies, with spin-off titles such as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, topping the record to over 279 million copies.
This news comes weeks after recent announcement of Pokemon Moon and Pokemon Sun, along with the re-release of the original Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Red, and Pokemon Yellow for the Nintendo eShop. Including remakes there have been 25 entries in the main series, with a large amount of spinoffs releasing world wide, as well as just in it's home Japan. Coinciding with the franchises 20th anniversary and the release of Pokken Tournament, these numbers are no doubt expected to soar within the coming year. None of this includes the ongoing anime which can be counted as effectively 5 series with it's splits over the past 19 years, the 17 (counting the White and Black films as one as intended) films, the largely successful trading card game, numerous manga and other material.
In addition to Moon and Sun, Nintendo has not yet announced a Western release for the spin-off title, Great Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Duo for the Nintendo 3DS. Released in Japan last month, players will work alongside Detective Pikachu as Tim Goodman, as they uncover mysteries by finding clues, and speaking with witnesses to uncover new information.
Quick Take
Having grown up with Pokemon throughout my whole life, it still astonishes me to see that the franchise is still doing so well even to this very day. Admittedly over the years, I've grown a little detached to main series. Nevertheless I still admire Nintendo's strong dedication to the franchise through it's bizarre spin-offs and sequels, and look forward what new titles come out to accompany the growing enthusiasm of newcomers to the series.
