Game Freak’s insanely popular monster catching series Pokémon continues to sell gangbusters.
In a new report from The Pokémon Company, it’s been revealed that almost 500 million games have been sold since the series’ debut 27-years-ago.
Despite their poor performance and high number of glitches, the most recent games in the series — Scarlet and Violet — have also been sales successes. In just over a month, the two games managed to sell 20 million copies on Nintendo Switch.
Found on The Pokémon Company’s website, the game series has crossed over 480 million software units sold. When the next game in the series launches, presumably next year, we can expect the series to cross the 500 million mark with ease.
However, it’s not just Pokémon games that are selling like hot cakes. In fact, the company’s data also reveals that Pokémon Cards are continuing to grow. With the release of the Scarlet and Violet base set, fans everywhere are already out buying cards.
According to the company, over 52.9 billion Pokémon cards have been produced in 14 languages around the world. Of course, this only counts the official product making us wonder how many bootleg cards have also been produced.
The massive numbers coming from The Pokémon Company actually isn’t too surprising. Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time, crushing Mickey Mouse, Star Wars and Harry Potter by tens of billions of dollars in revenue. It’s the biggest worldwide success ever.
Currently, Game Freak is hard at work on the DLC expansions for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. However, that’s not all it’s working on.
Alongside more Pokémon content, the game studio is working on a brand-new action adventure game: Project Bloom. While not much has been revealed, the new game aims to be a true next-gen experience on all consoles.
Furthermore, more Pokémon titles are always in the works. Teases in Scarlet and Violet seem to point to either Australia as Pokémon‘s 10th generation locale or Greece. In our opinion, either would be awesome.