Nintendo's Pokémon Games Are Guaranteed Hits

When Nintendo released the first Pokémon game in Japan on February 27, 1996, no one would have thought that it was the birth hour of the second largest video game franchise in history. Over the next 25 years, the Japanese video game giant went on to sell more than 350 million copies of more than 70 Pokémon titles, trailing only Super Mario in terms of its longevity and global popularity.

As the popular pocket monsters celebrate their 25th anniversary this weekend, we're having a look at the best-selling Pokémon games so far. As the following chart shows, a new Pokémon game is all but a guaranteed mega-seller for Nintendo. The top 8 Pokémon games alone sold more than 150 million copies and a total of 14 different titles reached the milestone of selling 10 million copies or more.