Pokémon Scarlet/Violet May Not Be the Series' Best-Reviewed Games, but It's Behind Only Red/Green/Blue in Terms of Sales

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are some of the best-selling Pokémon games ever.

As shared by the webmaster of Serebii.net, Joe Merrick, and spotted by Eurogamer, the two games combined have sold north of 25 million copies, which is more than any other Pokémon game since Pokémon Red/Green/Blue, and that sold 31.4 million copies when it released way back in 1996 on the Game Boy.

Scarlet/Violet's 26,790,000 sales only just pip Sword/Shield to second place, which has sold 26,720,000 copies.

Gold/Silver and Diamond/Pearl round out the top five games by units sold with sales of 23.7 million and 16.7 million, respectively.

Scarlet/Violet had a mixed reception when it launched, debuting to mainly mixed or average scores that make it one of the lowest-received mainline games of the entire series, with fans complaining of technical issues, performance troubles, and bugs.

We thought Game Freak's latest instalment was "Okay," awarding it 6/10 and writing in IGN's Pokémon Scarlet and Violet review: "The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which Scarlet and Violet feel deeply unfinished."

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set to release sometime later this year. It's set in Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon. A leak sharing unknown information about numerous Pokémon games, including Legends Z-A, spilled online last October, and Nintendo has recently subpoenaed Discord to track down the user behind the "TeraLeak."

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.