The success of a company is measured in many ways, but when you’re a group or corporation that prides itself on a product, your biggest “measuring stick” has to be the sales that you produce on a yearly basis. For some companies, that’s easier than others, as you either have a product that everyone needs or you produce something that everyone would like to buy should they have the spare cash. In the gaming industry, the Pokemon franchise stands atop the leaderboard when it comes to merch/retail sales. You might not realize that it stands among the best globally when you account for all its yearly sales.
As noted by License Global, the 2023 rankings for the “Top Ten Global Licensors” feature The Pokemon Company at #7! It brought in 10.8 billion in that year, which, ironically, was actually almost a billion lower than the previous year! However, that can be easily explained as the company had a set of big gaming releases in 2022, while 2023 was mainly dominated by DLC content and lesser products.
For context, Walt Disney was the #1 company on that list, with other big names in the top six, including Warner Bros. and Harbro!
What this highlights is that the beloved pocket monsters have a truly wide customer base that are willing to buy a whole bunch of items from the company that makes them. That’s unsurprising in part because of the love that the video games have gotten over the years, including the mobile titles that often have microtransactions that heavily influence the company’s bottom line.
However, they also have all sorts of clothes, toys, cards, and other items to appeal to gamers and people of all ages. It’s a brand that’s been around for quite some time now, and that means they’re “dialed in” to what the people want, which is saying something.
That doesn’t mean it’s all a flawless experience, as fans are still a bit bitter about what happened in Gen 9 with the buggy launch that still haunts the game to this day. The company needs to be careful about its next gaming products, or else risk alienating its customer base and thus losing profits.
That being said, with it being the current #7 global retail brand out there, and the #1 singular franchise brand in terms of sales, they have plenty of money to burn, and thus, they can afford to take a hit every once in a while.
