Pokémon Game Sales in 2021 the Best for the Series Since Gold and Silver's Launch
2021 was a great year to be a video game company, or at least it was if you had a big existing franchise to repackage and make tons of money off of. A surprising number of 2021's best-selling games were also best-selling games in 2020, and the rest were part of big, beloved franchises. Like Pokémon, for instance.
In fact, 2021 was huge for the Pokémon games. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, despite being remakes of games from 2006, were the third best-selling games in December and the fourth best-selling games the entire year in the US, according to The NPD Group. They were also the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles for both the entire month of December and for the full year.
Specifically, a lot of people were buying physical copies of not just Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but other Pokémon games too, like New Pokémon Snap. In total, physical sales of Pokémon games in 2021 were the best they've been since 2000 when Pokémon Gold and Silver first came out in the US. That doesn't count digital sales, of course, which didn't exist for Pokémon games in 2000 and have likely surpassed total sales ever since, but it's still a massive milestone.
Have you played Battlefield 2042?
Pokémon games aside, Call of Duty was, as usual, 2021's favorite game to throw money at. Vanguard was the best-selling game for both December and the full year, and Black Ops: Cold War was the second best-selling game of the year.
That makes Call of Duty the best-selling gaming franchise for the 13th consecutive year and marks the third year in a row that a Call of Duty game has topped the charts for a full year since Red Dead Redemption 2 broke its previous streak in 2018.
The rest of the top sellers of 2021 should look pretty familiar.
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