More than 200 million copies of the main entries of the handheld Pokémon series have been sold as of February 29th, according to The Pokémon Company. In this context, main entry excludes any spinoff titles and only counts Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow, Silver/Gold/Crystal, etc.
By adding in all the spin-offs of the handheld franchise, that number jumps up to just over 279 million copies sold altogether, which is a lot since its first initial release just 20 years ago.
That number is only expected to grow when the next entries in the main series, Pokémon Sun and Moon are released for Nintendo 3DS this holiday season. These new titles were announced in a short Nintendo Direct last month.
The handheld series is also celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and one of the many ways it is being celebrated is with the release of Red, Blue and Yellow on the Nintendo 3DS virtual console shop. You can download any of these titles now for just $9.99.