The Grand Theft Auto series has nearly outsold the entire Pokemon series as it closes the gap as one of the best-selling series of all time.
This year the Pokemon series is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and to say that we’ve seen a lot of Pokemon games over the last two and half decades, is an understatement.
With almost every mainline Pokemon entry, we see two simultaneous releases. For example, Pokemon Red and Green, Gold and Silver, Diamond and Pearl, Sword and Shield, I could go on. Then of course we have countless spin-off video games with the most recent being New Pokemon Snap.
In an article from GamingBible (originally covered by Tweak Town), it’s revealed that the Pokemon video game series has sold over 368 million units. Additionally, in a recent press release from Rockstar Games, the company said that the Grand Theft series has sold 345 million units.
Sure, the Grand Theft Auto series is still 23 million copies behind Pokemon, but when you consider that the GTA series has had far fewer releases than Pokemon, it’s incredibly impressive nonetheless.
In the same report from Tweak Town, the website breaks down some of the sale numbers of both Grand Theft Auto and Pokemon. The best sellers in the Pokemon series are Red, Green, and Blue, which make up 31 million sales. Gold and Silver amount to 23 million, while Sword and Shield take up 20 million in sales.
Out of the 345 million copies sold in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA 5 alone has made up 2/5 of those sales, which will surely increase furthermore when it also releases on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S this November.
Though we must remember that also later this year Pokemon has Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to release, as well as Pokemon Legends: Arceus coming early 2022. So, it will be interesting to see which franchise hits the 400 million-unit sales first: will it be Pokemon or GTA?
Tweak Town also reports that competing with the likes of Pokemon and GTA in the best-selling video game series’ is Minecraft and The Sims with 200 million-unit sales each, and Final Fantasy with 159 million-unit sales.
Do you think that GTA will eventually overtake the Pokemon series? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games