Much like Team Rocket, it appears Pokémon software is blasting off again. New data shared on Tuesday reveals The Pokémon Company has shipped around 489 million units globally in the years since its late-1990s launch. The brand has released software in nine different languages.
The franchise’s bestselling games remain its flagship Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue releases from 1996, selling more than 31 million copies in the 30 years since their debut. Still, the impressive performance of the brand’s most recent titles — 2018’s Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! for the Nintendo Switch and those released after — remains a powerful statement on the brand’s longevity. Newer releases comprise around 100 million units (about 97.94 million) of the company’s staggering 500 million sold.
The now-timeless brand, formed in mid-nineties Japan, quickly resonated with consumers around the globe. The franchise found its stateside footing in 1998, just two years after its inception. Widespread Pokémon fever in the late nineties and early aughts led to the creation of revolutionary animated programming and a family-friendly trading card game, the latter of which has since been translated into 16 languages and sold in 90 countries. The Pokémon Company’s release also confirms it has produced more than 75 billion — yes, with a “B” — individual cards since the game first hit shelves.
Pokémon, the animated television series first introduced to young audiences in 1997, has run a cumulative 1,330 episodes since the pilot aired in 1997. In the nearly three decades since the kid-friendly program’s inaugural broadcast, viewers in more than 190 countries and regions have enjoyed an episode.
As younger audiences increasingly turn to gaming as a medium, The Pokémon Company stands to benefit. However, common consumer criticisms of the brand’s modern games — suboptimal fidelity, poor performance, uninspired gameplay — could ultimately be their undoing.
As the brand’s original audience ages from Saturday morning cartoon viewers to consumers and parents, The Pokémon Company may lean more on its base’s faithfulness to propel sales and spread brand awareness to younger generations. However, post-Trump tariff tech prices coupled with Millennial consumers’ growing aversion to shovelware — colloquially called “slop” — have the potential to stifle further growth.
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A lifelong gamer raised on classic titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Croc, Stephanie brings her expertise of gaming and pop culture to deliver unique, refreshing views on the world of video games, complete with references to absurd and obscure media.
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