14 Best-Selling RPGs - The Most Popular Role-Playing Games in 2022
There are many ways to measure popularity. Here, we've compiled a list of best-selling role-playing games, which have sold the most copies throughout their entire lifespan.
Table of Contents
- 14 Best-Selling RPGs - The Most Popular Role-Playing Games in 2022
- Mass Effect 2
- Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds of Salvation
- Dark Souls 3
- Final Fantasy VII
- Fallout 4
- Elden Ring
- Monster Hunter: World
- Borderlands 2
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls
- Skyrim
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt + Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine
- Pokemon Red / Blue / Yellow
Pokemon Red / Blue / Yellow
Developer: Nintendo
Year of release: 1996
Estimated number of copies sold: 47.5 million
NOTES
The record number of over 47 million copies includes 31 million sold of Blue and Red, 14 million of Yellow, and the remaining part constituted by the digital re-releases for Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. The different color-coded editions are generally the same game with only minor differences in the Pokémon rosters.
No Skyrim, nor The Witcher, nor Final Fantasy characters could match Nintendo's amiable monsters. An unassuming game for the pocket Game Boy console turned out to be the most popular RPG of all time. As it is in Pokemon – the player had to collect more monsterres, defeat other trainers, and complete the Pokedex – an encyclopedia of the game's Pokemons. In the mid-1990s, there was even a multiplayer mode available on the tiny Game Boy, where you could exchange Pokémon and fight duels.
Pokemon Red and Blue have begun a triumphant journey into a billion-dollar franchise. Despite the lack of a quick and easy online purchase option, the game sold like hot cakes, especially in Japan and the United States. Back in 2009, the colorful Pokemon series turned out the best-selling entry for the Game Boy, and the best-selling RPG in history – at that time the result was over 31 million copies. Even if we didn't have the opportunity to play those classics ourselves, the enormous power and popularity of this type of gameplay, or a certain charisma of Pokemon, is confirmed today by the mobile version of Pokemon GO, which almost every smarphone user has played. The Japanese have simply created a game that ignores all differences in age and taste.
