Franchise · 1996–present
The Pokémon game franchise had sold over 440 million units by 2022, making it the best-selling video game franchise in history and a multimedia property encompassing anime, trading cards, merchandise, and a mobile game with over $6 billion in lifetime revenue.
Pokémon Red and Green launched in Japan in February 1996 on the Game Boy, designed by Satoshi Tajiri and developed at Game Freak. The games sold 10.23 million copies in Japan alone and launched an interconnected media property — anime series, trading cards, merchandise — that multiplied the games' reach beyond any previous game franchise. By the time Pokémon Red and Blue reached North America in September 1998 the anime series was already airing and the trading card game had already sold out its first print run; the launch was arguably the largest coordinated cross-media entertainment event the industry had experienced. Every mainline paired release since has debuted near the top of its launch week charts. Pokémon GO (2016), a mobile augmented-reality title, added an estimated 1 billion downloads and produced over $6 billion in lifetime revenue as a separate line — not included in the 440 million game units figure.