During the "Pokémon Game Show" event just held at the Tokyo Big Sight to introduce Pokémon X and Y, The Pokémon Company released an interesting piece of data. As of March the 31st the critter training and collecting franchise has sold over 172,000,000 units worldwide since its debut in 1996 with Pokémon Red and Blue (Red and Green in Japan).

That's most definitely a staggering number, and it's destined to grow soon, as preorders for the upcoming Pokémon X and Y are already looking stellar, while the new Anime series based on the original game will probably bolster sales as well.

And they say that JRPGs are dead...