Pokémon Success: Video Games, Trading Card Game, Show, and Toys!

Pokemon USA released a press release showing the success of Pokemon in the video games, trading card game, the TV show, and the toys. It's a long read, but that's because Pokemon has a long list of successes!

Press Release (June 18, 2007) Pokémon Top-Selling Video Game for Second Consecutive Month After 10 years in the marketplace, Pokémon continues to enjoy the kind of popularity and recognition that have earned it the envious toy industry moniker of "evergreen property" -- no easy feat, given the trend and fad driven world of toys and games. With a decade under its belt, a new generation of kids are playing, watching, collecting and trading their Pokemon, while the brand has surged to the top of the charts in a number of categories. According to independent sales data released late last week by the NPD Group, Pokémon Diamond(R) is the #1 selling video game across all formats for the second consecutive month, with sales of 331,000 units in May. Year-to- date, in terms of number of units sold (January - May, 2007), Pokémon Diamond is the best-selling title, with Pokémon Pearl(R) ranking at number four over the same time period; even more significant given that the two related titles exclusively for the Nintendo DS(TM) hand-held game system were not released until April 22, 2007. To date, the two games have sold a combined total of 2,330,000 units in the U.S., with over 1 million copies sold within the first five days of release. Findings from a study conducted for Pokémon USA, Inc. by NPD in March 2007 show that more than nine out of 10 kids, ranging from first graders to high school seniors (ages 6-17), are aware of the Pokémon brand. Interesting to note is that children progress through different product categories and grow with the brand. A new generation of Pokémon fans are engaging with the franchise at a particularly young age. For example, Pokémon toys and the animated TV program are appealing to kids at a low entry age (ages 6.1 and 6.2 respectively), and as they grow older, other aspects of the brand are of interest. "Research has shown that Pokémon's cross category brand strength is driven heavily by its loyal kid fan base, particularly ages 6-11. In addition, according to the research, it is the likeability of the Pokémon characters -- their cuteness and variety -- that give rise to the appeal of the products and the brand itself," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. Pokemon brand categories include video games, a trading card game, an animated TV series on Cartoon Network, DVDs and licensed toys and merchandise. In addition to stellar sales of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl video games, Pokémon USA, Inc. is announcing other strong results in advance of Licensing International Expo 2007: * ICv2, a source for information on the business of pop culture products, ranked the Pokemon Trading Card Game as the #1 collectible trading card game as of spring 2007. Current trading card game sales are running upwards of 400% over last year. * Pokemon expanded its TV viewership -- airing seven days a week -- when it moved from broadcast to cable in 2006, joining Cartoon Network's Saturday morning and weekday lineup. In its first season the show premiered with Saturday morning ratings growth of +29% for Boys 6-11 and +39% for Kids 2-11, consistently ranking as the top show in its timeslot. Season 10 of the animated series -- "Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl" -- debuted June 4 and was the #1 show for Boys 6-11 on all channels (cable and network) for the entire day with a rating of 5.4. * Jakks Pacific became Pokemon master toy licensee in January 2007 and launched the new Pokemon toy line at mass; sell through numbers for the new figures ranged from 21% to 27% in the first three weeks on shelf, without TV advertising. Sales continue to increase, and in July, Jakks will release the first of a series for the latest collection of toys for "Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl." Arcadia Investment Corp. analyst John Taylor attributes Jakks' stock climb to the Pokemon master toy license. In other video game news, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl will soon expand the Pokémon universe to Wii(TM), Nintendo's new home video game system. Diamond and Pearl owners will be able to use their Nintendo DS hardware units as controllers for Pokémon Battle Revolution -- launching June 25 -- the first Pokémon game available for Wii. Players also will be able to export characters to the Wii game.