Nintendo's fiscal year results for the period ending March 2026 confirm the Switch re-releases moved over 4 million copies, lifting the duo's lifetime total to around 16 million units. That's enough to land them at ninth place on the series' all-time sales chart, sandwiched between Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (16.2 million) and Pokemon Black and White (15.6 million). The data was highlighted by Serebii's Joe Merrick on social media shortly after Nintendo published the financial report.
FireRed's iconic Charizard title screen
From GBA cult classic to modern chart contender
The original FireRed and LeafGreen launched in 2004 as full remakes of the 1996 Game Boy originals, bringing Kanto back to life with updated visuals, quality-of-life features, and the Sevii Islands as a post-game bonus. They sold 12 million copies across their initial GBA run, which was genuinely impressive at the time. The problem? Pokemon never stopped selling. As Sword and Shield, Scarlet and Violet, and the rest of the modern entries racked up tens of millions of sales, the GBA pair gradually slipped out of the top 10.
The Switch re-releases changed that math fast. Four million new copies in a matter of weeks is not a slow burn, it's a proper surge. The key here is that FireRed and LeafGreen were the only way to play a mainline Kanto remake on modern hardware, and a generation of players who either missed the GBA era or wanted to revisit it clearly showed up.
The Switch re-releases of FireRed and LeafGreen are compatible with Pokemon Home, meaning players can transfer their GBA-era catches into modern games for the first time through an official, accessible route.
Where the numbers actually sit right now
Here's the full Pokemon franchise top 10 by lifetime sales, according to Nintendo's latest figures:
The gap between FireRed and LeafGreen and fifth place (Diamond and Pearl at 17.6 million) is only 1.6 million units. With the Switch ports still actively on sale and no sign of demand cooling, that top-five spot is genuinely within reach.
Pokemon's bigger picture in Nintendo's annual results
FireRed and LeafGreen weren't the only Pokemon story in the fiscal report. Pokemon Pokopia, the Switch 2 exclusive life-sim spin-off, cleared 4 million copies within five weeks of launch, making it one of the fastest-selling Pokemon spin-offs in the franchise's history.
Nintendo framed Pokopia's performance as proof of concept for its Switch 2 strategy, writing that the company aims to "convey the appeal of the platform to consumers who play on Nintendo Switch" by continuing to release compelling titles. What most players miss in that statement is the implication: more classic Pokemon re-releases on Switch hardware could follow the same playbook.
Kanto revisited on Switch
What this means for players heading back to Kanto
For anyone jumping into the Switch version fresh, the games hold up better than you might expect. The Kanto region's structure is tight, the rival battles still hit hard, and the Sevii Islands give you a proper reason to keep playing after the Elite Four.
If you're getting back into the swing of things, brushing up on the Eeveelution guide for Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon is worth your time early, since Eevee decisions lock you into a specific path. The same goes for understanding how Pokemon Natures affect your team's stat growth, which our Natures guide for FireRed and LeafGreen covers in full.
With FireRed and LeafGreen now sitting less than 2 million sales behind the top five, and the Switch versions still selling, the next Nintendo financial report could tell a very different story about where Kanto's GBA remakes rank among the all-time greats.
