Pokémon ships 100 million worldwide

TOKYO--The Pokémon series has hit a new milestone of 100 million cumulative worldwide unit shipments, Nintendo announced in its latest investor relations report. The company commented that Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen shipped 6.09 million units in the business year that ended March 31, 2005, pushing the series past the 100 million mark.

Also contributing to the record was Pokémon Emerald, which shipped 1.72 million units during the same period. Nintendo thus far has released 12 Pokémon games for its handheld machines, which have shipped a total of 100.86 million units. This number does not take into account Pokémon games released on home consoles.

Pokémon's new record further stabilizes its position as the second-best-selling series for Nintendo, following the Mario franchise, which has shipped 181.17 million units worldwide to date--59.48 million units for home consoles and 121.69 million units for handhelds. The Donkey Kong series trails behind as the company's third-best-selling series, with 46.51 million units shipped worldwide--16.40 million units for consoles and 30.11 million for handhelds. The Legend of Zelda series is Nintendo's fourth-best-selling franchise, with 46.33 million units shipped worldwide--15.15 million units for consoles and 31.18 million for handhelds.

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen was Nintendo's best-selling title of the last business year, followed by Super Mario 64 DS, which sold 2.53 million units. Other games that sold more than a million units in the last business year include Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (1.88 million units), Mario Party 6 (1.43 million units), and Sawaru Made in Wario, the Japanese version of WarioWare: Twisted! (1.28 million units). The Classic NES series of GameBoy games has also been a success, with a total of 7.57 million units shipped worldwide since the first batch of games were released in Japan last February.