New Pokemon Title Becomes Fastest Seller

Nintendo Co., the maker of Pokemon video games, said its latest title has sold more than 1 million units in the U.S. since it was introduced two weeks ago, making it the fastest-selling video game ever.

“Pokemon Yellow,” which is played with the company’s hand-held Game Boy device, has surpassed Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda” as the fastest seller. Pokemon, short for “pocket monsters,” are cute cartoon characters that players capture and train.

The characters have been a smash hit among U.S. children since Nintendo introduced its first Pokemon games in September 1998. Pokemon titles occupied the top five best-seller slots for all video games based on units sold in the week ended Oct. 23, Nintendo said, citing figures from researcher NPD Group. There are also plush toys, trading cards and an animated movie set for release later this month.

North American sales of Pokemon games and merchandise are expected to total $1 billion this year, Nintendo said.

Nintendo said it also has sold 80,000 special bundles containing both the Game Boy device and the “Pokemon Yellow” software. This year, North American consumers have purchased more Game Boy units than Sony Corp.’s PlayStation console and Nintendo’s N64 combined, according to research by PC Data Inc.

The U.S. unit of Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo is in Redmond.