Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version were the first Pokémon games to be released outside of Japan, becoming available in North America on September 28, 1998, in Australia and New Zealand on October 23, 1998 and in Europe on October 5, 1999. In North America, the pair closely followed the debut of the anime's English dub, which began airing on September 8, 1998, and within a year, Pokémon was well known as a popular Nintendo franchise.

The games are available on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console between the Pokémon 20th Anniversary on February 27, 2016 and the discontinuation of the 3DS Nintendo eShop in March 2023.

Unlike later generations, Red and Blue were not the same as their corresponding Japanese releases Pokémon Red and Green. Besides Pokémon distribution, the aspects of Red and Blue such as graphics, script, and sprite designs are instead based on Pokémon Blue.

Despite being released towards the end of Game Boy's lifespan, they quickly became the best-selling non-bundled games released for the Game Boy as well as being the best-selling role-playing games of all time when also including sales of Pokémon Green and the Japanese versions of Pokémon Red and Blue. Sales exceed 31 million units for all versions combined, which made them the best selling Pokémon games and the only games in the series to exceed 30 million units.