The Pokemon franchise keeps getting bigger with every new installment. The upcoming Scarlet and Violet will mark the 21st pair of games being added to the series, and the first to make the transition to full open-world. We’re hedging out bets that they’ll perform exceptionally well in terms of sales, and so to offer some interesting comparison, today we’ll be going over the 10 most popular Pokemon games of all time ranked by their total number of sales.
Editor’s note: the figures cited in this article come from several sources, including Nintendo’s official software listings, statista, and Serebii Joe Merrick.
10. Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee
Technically remakes as opposed to mainline Pokemon games, Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee were the first in the series to be released on the Nintendo switch. That fact alone, and a good dose of nostalgia, likely gave them a big popularity boost and helped them to achieve a whopping $14.6 million sales figure.
Unfortunately, while they did have massive initial success, the Let’s Go games aren’t remembered all too fondly by the Pokemon community. They’re one of the lowest-rated Pokemon games in terms of quality and continued player base; among other complaints, many felt the novelty capture technique diluted the challenge of the games.
However, the games were important in that they helped lay the foundation of what was to come with the next Pokemon game to release on the switch, which we’ll get to later in this list.
9. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
The long-awaited remake of the 4th generation of Pokemon games, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl finally got their remakes very recently in the form of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. But did these games live up to the hype?
Well, not exactly. They suffered the same fate as the Let’s Go games as they were very faithful recreations of the original games. Both went far as to not implement the improvements made from Pokemon Platinum, such as the Battle Frontier, which was a unique post-game experience from Pokemon Platinum that allowed players to explore new areas and participate in tournament-like settings.
While some improvements from Platinum were kept, such as certain evolutions for some Pokemon, it was sad to see the Battle Frontier not make it into the remakes. That being said, both games did very well bringing in a total of $14.7 million.
8. Pokemon Black and White
Pokemon Black and White were universally loved when they launched all the way back in September of 2010. Introducing the 5th generation of Pokemon, the pair brought in a total of $15.6 million. While Black and White did really well both in sales and player base, their successor Pokemon Black and White 2 unfortunately did not do as great.
Similar to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Black and White 2 did not bode so well with the player base as they changed virtually almost nothing from the originals, essentially being near carbon copies, and only brought in a mere $8 million. Black and White 2 would also be the last of the Nintendo DS Pokemon games before The Pokemon Company moved on to developing for the 3DS platform.
7. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
Starting up the 3rd generation of Pokemon which dates back all the way to 2002, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire set a high bar for future games. Bringing in a total of $16.22 million, Ruby and Sapphire had major success in both sales and player base.
Although their successor, Pokemon Emerald, did not do great in terms of sales, only bringing in a mere $7 million, Emerald aged in a similar fashion as Pokemon Platinum did as it improved on all of the good qualities of Ruby and Sapphire and more. Emerald would be the last of the Gameboy Pokemon games before moving onto the DS games.