Pokemon

Guess what! Pokémon is a hit! This little fad our parents politely protested and told us to get over can still crank out the sales needed to keep calling this the longest trend in history. Take that, adults of 1998! I wish I had a time machine so I could wave these new figures in your faces.

Pokémon X and Y has sold 12 million units worldwide collectively, and The Pokémon Company has announced that it is the fastest selling game in the Nintendo 3DS library, beating out New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

Along with the sales, The Pokémon Company has revealed the 17th Pokémon movie, which will air in Japan this year, will be localized into English.

While not nearly as popular as the first two generation of Pokémon games, both of which were able to cracked 20 million between all units, 12 million is still really impressive for a company everyone loves writing off as dead and a series that has now gone through six generations. Most modern day series kick the bucket after the third or fourth entry comes up short in the sales department.

This new figure puts it on the same level as Pokémon Ruby and  Sapphire, which broke 12 million on the Game Boy Advance. We have yet to see if it can catch Pokémon Diamond and Pearl which sold 17.6 million on the much more popular DS, and Pokémon Black and White which sold 15.7 million. In total, the series has sold 245 million at this point, putting it in second place only behind the core Super Mario platforming games.

What is it about this series which just draws us back in each and every time?