Over half a Billion Pokémon games have been sold since 1996

While the Pokémon franchise is known best for its abundance of merchandise (making over $100 Billion off retailers alone), the company’s video game efforts have been just as successful financially, with each mainline entry easily selling in excess of 10 million copies almost immediately. It therefore comes at little surprise that over the past 30 years, more than half a Billion copies of “Pokémon-related software” have been sold.

Sharing updated sales data via their ‘Pokémon in Figures’ page, ThePokémonCompany revealed that “total shipments of all Pokémon-related software” has officially exceeded 500 million units – 515 million to be specific.

While impressive in its own right, this figure does not account for the many different free-to-play titles released over the years, with the likes of Pokémon GO alone amassing more than 1 billion downloads and TCG Pocket garnering over 200 million.

The Pokémon series has had its ups and downs over the past three decades. That said, there’s no denying that the franchise has a fervent fanbase who look forward to each new release – for better and for worse.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Pokémon 30 years on? Does it deserve its success? Let us know down below.

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