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Box art for 'Pokemon Violet' and 'Pokemon Yellow' side-by-side
Image via The Pokémon Company

All ‘Pokémon’ games in order

Catching 'em all is incredibly ambitious nowadays.

Many cultural brands and movements have been ‘just a phase’ over the course of the last half-century or so. Grunge, BlackBerries, Sidekicks, Myspace, you get the idea. One gaming franchise that seemed to just be a phase in the mid ‘90s, was Pokémon.

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However, Pikachu, alongside their ever-expanding roster of pals, endure to this day. In fact, they’re more popular than ever. Initially debuting in Japan for Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1996 (the first generation of games didn’t land on North American store shelves until 1998), Pokémon developer Game Freak’s mainline series has only continued to grow. There are currently nine ‘generations’ of these flagship games, landing on increasingly shiny and powerful handheld consoles.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll only cover off these main titles. While there’s many a spin-off that’s more than worthy of the Pokémon name (we love you, Stadium, Mystery Dungeon, and Detective Pikachu), that list would be absolutely vast. So – to keep things simple, here’s every single mainline Pokémon game, in the order they were released in the U.S.

Related: The Best Pokémon Games Of All Time – Ranked on Attack of the Fanboy

Every main Pokémon game in release order

Image via The Pokémon Company

It is worth noting that some of the games listed in the table below are remakes of earlier titles, usually developed for more modern hardware. The titles of the games alone should be a dead giveaway, however to minimise any confusion, the remakes have also been marked with an asterisk. If you’re using this list in an endeavor to catch ’em all, or become the very best that no one ever was (or perhaps both), we wish you the best of luck. Happy training!

Game Release DatePlatform
Pokémon Red, Green and BlueSept. 28, 1998Game Boy
Pokémon YellowOct. 18, 1999Game Boy
Pokémon Gold and SilverOct. 15, 2000Game Boy Color
Pokémon CrystalJuly 29, 2001Game Boy Color
Pokémon Ruby and SapphireMarch 19, 2003Game Boy Advance
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen*Sept. 7, 2004Game Boy Advance
Pokémon EmeraldMay 1, 2005Game Boy Advance
Pokémon Diamond and PearlApril 22, 2007Nintendo DS
Pokémon PlatinumMarch 22, 2009Nintendo DS
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver*March 14, 2010Nintendo DS
Pokémon Black and WhiteMarch 6, 2011Nintendo DS
Pokémon Black 2 and White 2Oct. 7, 2012Nintendo DS
Pokémon X and YOct. 12, 2013Nintendo 3DS
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire*Nov. 21, 2014Nintendo 3DS
Pokémon Sun and MoonNov. 18, 2016Nintendo 3DS
Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra MoonNov. 17, 2017Nintendo 3DS
Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!*Nov. 16, 2018Nintendo Switch
Pokémon Sword and ShieldNov. 15, 2019Nintendo Switch
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl*Nov. 19, 2021Nintendo Switch
Pokémon Scarlet and VioletNov. 18, 2022Nintendo Switch

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Author
Image of Peter Kohnke
Peter Kohnke
Peter is an Associate Editor at We Got This Covered, based in Australia. He loves sinking his time into grindy MMO's like Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and Old School RuneScape. Peter holds a Masters Degree in Media from Macquarie University in Sydney, AU, and dabbled with televised business/finance journalism in a past life.