The core Pokémon games are the franchise’s renewal engine, not The Pokémon Company’s revenue engine. Nintendo publishes them abroad and sells them everywhere, and TPC’s cut arrives as a payment no document sizes: on our model, Nintendo paid TPC only ¥2–5bn for console Pokémon in the last year without a new main-series game. The games still sell in waves: Scarlet and Violet have reached 28.66m copies on Nintendo’s own table, second only to the 1996 originals. But in years with no launch, Nintendo’s tabled Pokémon units fall to 1.87–5.04 million, and TPC’s revenue has grown straight through those troughs.
Where the games stand in November 2026
Nintendo’s results of 5 November print three main-series games, the ones still in its consoles’ top-ten lists. Scarlet and Violet stand at 28.66m, Sword and Shield at 27.36m, and Legends: Z-A at 13.31m across its Switch and Switch 2 editions. Everything older drops off Nintendo’s pages, so the ranking below fills the rest from a compiled table, graded lower.
The two Switch generations are the best sellers since Red and Green
Main-series Pokémon games, cumulative copies to September 2026, millions. Dark bars are on Nintendo’s own table; pale bars come from a compiled table (grade B).
- Nintendo’s own table, 30 September 2026
- Compiled table (Merrick), September 2026
Scarlet/Violet and Sword/Shield sit second and third, behind only the 1996 originals. Legends: Z-A, about a year old, already outsells Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Platinum.
Built from and .Show the numbers
| Main-series game (first release) | Nintendo’s own table, 30 September 2026, m copies | Compiled table (Merrick), September 2026, m copies | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red/Green/Blue (1996) | – | ||
| Scarlet/Violet (2022) | – | ||
| Sword/Shield (2019) | – | ||
| Gold/Silver (1999) | – | ||
| Diamond/Pearl (2006) | – | ||
| X/Y (2013) | – | ||
| Sun/Moon (2016) | – | ||
| Ruby/Sapphire (2002) | – | ||
| Black/White (2010) | – | ||
| Let’s Go (2018) | – | ||
| Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (2021) | – | ||
| Legends: Arceus (2022) | – | ||
| Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (2014) | – | ||
| Yellow (1998) | – | ||
| Legends: Z-A (2025) | – | ||
| HeartGold/SoulSilver (2009) | – | ||
| FireRed/LeafGreen, GBA (2004) | – | ||
| Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (2017) | – | ||
| Black 2/White 2 (2012) | – | ||
| Platinum (2008) | – | ||
| Emerald (2004) | – | ||
| Crystal (2000) | – | ||
| FireRed/LeafGreen, Switch (2026) | – |
Nintendo’s own table, 30 September 2026. Printed in Nintendo’s results of 5 November 2026 while each game sits in its console’s top ten. Z-A counts the Switch and Switch 2 editions together.
Compiled table (Merrick), September 2026. A compiled list, not a filing, graded B. FireRed/LeafGreen’s 2026 Switch re-release is download-only and Nintendo prints no figure for it.
The new games of 2026 are harder to count, because they are not all Nintendo’s to report. Pokopia, the Koei Tecmo co-development, shows 4.04m overseas on Nintendo’s table and a dash for Japan, where TPC sells it. Nintendo’s own results show what that split hides. Its presentation puts Pokopia’s worldwide sell-through at more than 4m in its first five weeks, Japan included, while its sales table, which leaves Japan out, showed 2.41m at the end of March. Japan alone took a million copies in the first four days. A compiled worldwide figure puts it at 5.30m. The download-only Switch release of FireRed and LeafGreen is put at 4.0m on the same compilation; Nintendo prints nothing for it. Pokémon Champions, free to play and download-only, appears in Nintendo’s release list with no units at all. TPC counts it in downloads, 20m by August across Switch and phones.
TPC’s own sales announcements do not settle which count is bigger, because no per-title figure on TPC’s own basis has been found. Every dated per-title number it has released, from Sword and Shield’s first week to Pokopia’s first four days, carries the footnote 任天堂株式会社調べ, “counted by Nintendo”. TPC’s franchise-wide total is the only count it publishes in its own name, and it states no basis. That total runs well ahead of Nintendo’s tables, and Japan sales of the games TPC sells there explain only part of the gap, so until TPC says what its total counts, Nintendo’s tables are the auditable floor and the rest cannot be priced as TPC revenue.
A new region every three or four years
The rhythm was set early. Gold and Silver arrived in 1999, then a new generation every three or four years through Scarlet and Violet in 2022, each a new region, new creatures and two versions. The tenth, Winds and Waves, is due in 2027.
Each generation does most of its selling at once. A main-series game launched worldwide within one of Nintendo’s fiscal years sells 64–95% of its lifetime copies in that first year. So the calendar, not the catalogue, sets the volume: Nintendo’s tabled Pokémon units ran 1.87–5.04 million in the three no-launch years and 10.63–34.12 million in Switch-era launch years. That bunching is Nintendo’s; how little of it now shows in TPC’s own revenue is the last section’s point.
What brings players back is the new place. Games that return to a region players already know sell less: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sold 57% as many copies as Sun and Moon, and Legends: Z-A, set in the region of X and Y, sold 58% as many as Scarlet and Violet at the same age.
Every return to a familiar region sold less
Each follow-up’s sales as a share of the game it followed.
- Launch year to March
- Total sales over the game’s life
No follow-up set in a region players already knew matched the game before it.
Built from .Show the numbers
| Year | Launch year to March, % of earlier game | Total sales over the game’s life, % of earlier game | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond and Pearl remakes vs Sword and Shield | – | ||
| Legends: Arceus vs Sword and Shield | – | ||
| Legends: Z-A vs Scarlet and Violet | – | ||
| Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire vs X and Y | – | ||
| Ultra Sun and Moon vs Sun and Moon | – |
Launch year to March. Switch games, compared on Nintendo’s launch year to March; months on sale differ (Arceus 2.0 against Sword and Shield’s 4.5; Z-A 5.5 against Scarlet and Violet’s 4.4). The game before = 100%.
Total sales over the game’s life. The two 3DS pairs, compared on final lifetime sales. Ultra Sun and Moon also suffers from late-3DS timing.
The growth from one new region to the next is mostly the console’s. Per console owner, Sun and Moon sold about 0.67–0.82× X and Y’s rate and Scarlet and Violet 0.75–0.78× Sun and Moon’s, at the same point in each console’s life. What survives the adjustment is the follow-up penalty: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sold only 0.43–0.44× Sun and Moon’s rate per owner in their launch year.
The gaps between regions are now filled with cheaper renewal. FireRed and LeafGreen came back on Switch in February 2026 as a download, with TPC as publisher in Japan and Nintendo as seller. On the compiled count it sold about four million copies in its first seven months.
The console sets the ceiling
A new region brings players back, but the console decides how many there are to come back. Sword and Shield launched onto a Switch base of 35–56m consoles; by Scarlet and Violet it was about 108m.
Each Switch generation launched onto a bigger base
Nintendo Switch consoles shipped worldwide to date, millions, with each Pokémon launch marked.
- Switch consoles shipped to date
- Switch base around each launch, readings either side
Scarlet and Violet launched onto a base two to three times the size of Sword and Shield’s.
Built from and .Show the numbers
| March | Switch consoles shipped to date, m consoles | Switch base around each launch, readings either side, m consoles | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | – | ||
| 2019 | – | ||
| 2020 | (35–56) | ||
| 2021 | – | ||
| 2022 | – | ||
| 2023 | (108–123) | ||
| 2024 | no figure | – | |
| 2025 | no figure | – | |
| 2026 | – |
Switch consoles shipped to date. Nintendo’s cumulative Switch shipments at each March. March 2024 and 2025 are not in the trainer’s notes, so the line runs straight from 2023 to 2026. Shipments, not active owners; Switch 2 is not included.
Switch base around each launch, readings either side. The base at the year-end readings either side of the launch month. Legends: Z-A (October 2025) launched onto at most 155 million Switch consoles, the December 2025 reading.
Winds and Waves will be released on the Switch 2 only. Nintendo had shipped 26.35m Switch 2 consoles by September 2026 and forecasts 16.5m for the year to March 2027. Z-A’s Switch 2 Edition alone has sold 4.04m. To match Scarlet and Violet’s first year at the rate of buyers per console that game managed late in the Switch’s life, the Switch 2 would need 108–126m owners. Early owners of a console buy more: at the rates X and Y and Sword and Shield reached early in their consoles’ lives, it would take 44–78m, still more than the Switch 2’s 23.68m of June 2026. These are illustrations of how much the console matters, not forecasts. A Winds and Waves launch below Scarlet and Violet would be a smaller console, not a weaker franchise.
Nintendo sells the box; TPC gets a slice
TPC’s name is on every box, but for the core games Nintendo is the seller. Overseas it is also the publisher. In Japan TPC has been the publisher of record since Ruby and Sapphire in 2002, with Nintendo the seller, and Winds and Waves carries the same credits. The exceptions are spin-offs. TPC sells Pokopia itself in Japan while Nintendo publishes it abroad, and Nintendo’s results footnote the split. Champions is split by device: Nintendo sells the Switch version, TPC the phone version.
So the money for the core games flows from Nintendo to TPC, at a rate no document gives. In Nintendo’s latest year fans spent at least ¥147bn on console Pokémon at list price. On our model TPC receives 17–37% of that: about ¥21–45bn in the year of Z-A, and ¥2–5bn the year before. The rest goes to shops and to Nintendo.
TPC’s revenue no longer waits for the games
Set against TPC’s whole business, the release calendar has all but disappeared. The Tokyo company’s revenue grew every year from 2021 to 2026, launch or no launch. The year of Scarlet and Violet’s add-ons, with no new main game, grew 27%, faster than the year Scarlet and Violet launched, at 15%.
TPC’s revenue rose in launch years and gap years alike
The Tokyo company’s revenue by year, with the years that had a new main-series game marked.
- New main-series game that year
- No new main-series game
The gap year after Scarlet and Violet grew faster than the launch year itself.
Built from .Show the numbers
| Year | New main-series game that year, ¥bn | No new main-series game, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | – | ||
| 2022 | – | ||
| 2023 | – | ||
| 2024 | – | ||
| 2025 | – | ||
| 2026 | – |
New main-series game that year. 2022: Diamond and Pearl remakes and Legends: Arceus; 2023: Scarlet and Violet; 2026: Legends: Z-A.
No new main-series game. The 38% rise in 2025 came with TCG Pocket (October 2024), not a console game. Tokyo parent only; the group is not shown.
The pattern held into 2026. Nintendo’s share of its affiliates’ profit, mostly TPC’s, reached ¥60.8bn in the half to September 2026, up 37.7%, in a half with no new main-series game. The cards and their 30th-anniversary year did that, not the games. What the games still set is the rhythm: each new card generation in Japan has started within about two months of a new game generation.