This thread is meant to be a place to discuss sales figures and related statistics for Pokemon video games. Think sales numbers, total units per country, number of downloads, revenue generated, number of DLCs sold, etc.
With Scarlet and Violet winding down, PLZA releasing, Pokopia and Champions scheduled for next year, and Gen 10 on the Horizon, I felt it made sense to create a new thread for all Pokemon video games.
Here are the most recent sales figures for all the main Pokemon video games. Of note, the PLZA numbers are only the first four days of its release.
I will try to update this thread as new figures are known.
The numbers are still absolutely wild for R/G/B and shows how the world really was captured by Pokemon.
With the Switch having sold 154 million+ units and selling 27 million+ copies of S/V compared to the Gameboy/Gameboy colour having sold 118 million+ units and hitting 31 million+ copies.
S/V also launched as the first open world Pokemon experience in a time where gaming has never been at an all time high, with an established fan base for over 20+ years and more consoles sold and can still fall just shy of the originals is insane.
Also, I’m not smart enough to look much deeper in statistics but I’d imagine the worlds population has grown by a few billion since then as well which surely would play some part in it too. That adds a little more shock to how Pokemon hysteria was in the 90’s if the world had less people in it!
I’m very interested to see after a year or two of the Switch 2 being released how gen 10 will sell and if it will be an exclusive or still be available on Switch 1. Will they try and drive copies of the game up by being on both consoles or try to drive units of consoles up by having it on the one.
New sales numbers have been posted by Nintendo. The figures come from a couple places, but here is a link to Nintendo’s 3rd quarter report.
Of note is that PLZA has sold over 12 million copies! Quite impressive for a game less than 6 months old. Roughly a third of those are Switch 2 versions. From what I could tell, PLA is around 15 million. Shouldnt be long before PLZA passes it. This is a good thing and should motivate Pokemon to make future Legends titles.
Pokopia has sold over 2.2 million copies in its first 4 days. Quite impressive! Over a million of those are in Japan. It’ll be interesting to see how this game fares relative to the mainline titles in Pokemon, as well as other Switch 2 exclusives
I guess we still have 1.5 years before Winds and Waves releases but it’s still hard to see how it will even come close to SWSH if the number of Switch 2 units sold is that low.
I suppose WiWa might be a console seller, but then again, the % of people who bought SV vs owned a Switch is below 20%.
I know I’m just one person, but I’ve always been a “I’ll wait for Pokemon” console buyer. I’ve never gotten a Nintendo console before a Pokemon game was available, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve held off longer and longer. I took my NDS to college but dragged my feet on getting the 3DS until I was gifted a used one. By the time I got a Switch, I was still finishing up SWSH when PLA was out. SV was probably the first game in a decade or more that I played on release.
I’ve told anyone that asks if I’m getting a Switch 2 that I’m waiting for WiWa, at bare minimum. PLZA is still playable on my Switch, and Pokopia is cute but less compelling not being mainline. Overall, I feel the same way I did when Let’s Go came out: between the backlog of games I’ve already bought for the system I have, and the abysmal library of new exclusives, I can’t justify the expense yet. I’m hoping that I can play WiWi at/close to release, and in the 1.5 year wait there will be enough non-Pokemon games released that I can enjoy while I wait for the next one.
All this to say, I think there will be a respectable uptick in Switch 2 purchases the closer we get to WiWa - but I don’t disagree that reaching SWSH/SV numbers is a stretch.
For context, the Switch 1 had sold ~52 million consoles by December 2019 (sources below). The console released in March of 2017. The Switch Lite was released September 2019. I assume some Switch Lites are in that total, though most were Switch 1 by that point.
The Switch 2 being just over a year old (June 2025) and having roughly 23 million units is pretty crazy. The price is also quite higher. The msrp is going up to $499.99 USD Sept 1, originally at $449.99.
I picked 2019 as that was when SWSH released, which, for a time, was the the biggest mainline game outside of the originals.
Will the Switch 2 be at 52 million by December 2027? My guess is no. However, I think WIWA have a great chance of doing well, especially if people are going to be incentivized to buy both versions.
Yeah, my last game prior to SWSH was RS. Then I outgrew Pokemon - but also the subsequent different consoles didn’t help. I think I emulated DP in university or something though.
Got the Switch during the pandemic to play SWSH and also picked up Mario Kart but like you SV was the first game since RS I played on release. It was nice to discover new Pokemon in-game and I thought I might do it for WiWa but not sure I can really justify buying a new console when I’ve only really used it to play Pokemon on and off over the years.
It’s definitely a lot better experience to discover as you go rather than just look at datamined sprites but with the price hike and the lack of other reasons to use it, it just seems too much.
And though I’m not a gamer, how much of an upgrade really is it? WiWa looks a lot better than SV (not that I really cared that much about graphics) but other games already looked good. Pokemon/Game Freak’s incompetence is the anomaly amongst other studios.
I guess the Switch has had a decently long life, but it just feels unnecessary to upgrade. And with all the existing competition and the cost of living going up, it just seems hard to see how WiWa (and the Switch 2 itself) will do as well as its predecessors.
