Nintendo’s humongous franchise has sales figures to match, including 190,000,000 games shifted and over $24 billion worth of worldwide sales.

We always knew the sales of Pokemon related goods were pretty high, but a new free mini-magazine in Japan to celebrate the launch of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver has given us all sorts of cool facts about the franchise along side some interviews. So get ready for some big figures!

Starting (of course) with the games, 130 million copies of the core RPG titles in the series have been sold, with an additional 60 million units from the spin-off entries. The Pokemon Card Game, which is now selling in over 40 countries, has now reached 14 billion cards sold.

The anime based on the series has reached the TV sets of viewers in 74 countries since its launch in 1997. The Pokemon movies (there has been 12 already) have also made it big, making over $680 million Australian dollars worth in just Japan! These join the roughly 3,500 other items related to the series made by 85 officially licensed companies in Japan.

Now for the number you’ve really been waiting for - the total sales figures. The franchise has now amassed over 24 billion Australian dollars worth of sales worldwide, and half of that is from Japan!

One of the interviews of interest is actually with Akina Minami, the lady on the cover of the magazine. She was introduced to the series while at school in Grade 3 by the Red and Green games, and has enjoyed the series since.

"I love Pokemon," she said. "I normally don’t play RPGs. I usually find it troublesome to raise levels and search for items. But Pokemon doesn’t make those areas feel troublesome, so it’s the one RPG that I play."

Source: andriasang