The History of Pokemon

Over the last two decades, the world of Pokemon has been alive and well. With a series of over a hundred video games, a thriving trading card game, an anime series over 1000 episodes long, 23 films to its name, and enough Pikachu plushies to populate the world, it’s no wonder this twenty-year-long phenomenon is the highest-grossing franchise ever. So how did this series of handheld video games manage to capture the hearts of millions and evolve into what it is today? Well, flip your caps and ready a Pokeball, because we’re about to catch up on the history of Pokemon!

Pokemon is a series of games, anime, movies, and more that revolves around the cute, spectacular monsters called Pokemon. While the world of pokemon began with only 151 of the titular creatures, there are now over 900 unique species of Pokemon, with new ones added in all the time. They range from mechanical creatures, like the gear pokemon Klink, to mysterious cave-dwellers, such as the gem-eating Sableye, and of course, tamer ones like Bidoof, which are just an adorable combination of a beaver and a mouse.

In the main games, players take on the role of a Pokemon trainer, whose ambition it is to collect every species of Pokemon, put together a team of powerful Pokemon in order to fight other trainers, and battle to become the strongest Pokemon trainer in the region. While there are as many different kinds of Pokemon games as there are kinds of Pokemon, this is the main idea behind the franchise. And it all started with the first generation of games.

Released only in Japan in the spring of 1996, the first two Pokemon games were called Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green. While director Satoshi Tajiri had the reputation of a talented game designer, nobody believed Pocket Monsters was going to catch on. The idea for the games, hatched from Tajiri’s childhood love of catching and collecting insects, puzzled Nintendo, and at the time, the Game Boy handheld was thought to be a dying system. Hopes were low. And initial sales of Pocket Monsters Red and Green were not especially impressive.

But like a Magikarp flung over a waterfall, the first Pocket Monsters games evolved into their own beast. Through great word of mouth and rumors of the secret Pokemon Mew hidden within the game, sales numbers steadily grew until the games became an undeniable phenomenon. Between 1996 and 1997, the Pocket Monsters games sold over 4.5 million copies, collectively beating out global hit Final Fantasy VII as 1997’s best-selling game in Japan. What was thought to be a flopping fish turned into the mighty sea serpent Gyarados.

In 1998, Pocket Monsters finally got a Western release. Renamed Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue, North Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders began catching Pokemon in fall 1998, while European trainers joined a year later. Unlike the Japanese release, Pokemon struck the West like a Pikachu’s Thunderbolt. Pokemon Red and Blue became the fastest-selling Game Boy games in the United States and sold more than 31 million copies worldwide. Over twenty years later, the world is still just as electrified by Pokemon.

Since the first generation of titles, The Pokemon Company has released over 120 Pokemon games. That’s a number more staggering than a Tyranitar’s hyper beam. It becomes easier to fathom when you understand how Pokemon games are released. The mainline games are released as pairs that are grouped into generations. The first generation of Pokemon games (in the West) are Red and Blue. The latest generation, gen 9, is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Alongside these generational pairs, it's not uncommon to see an enhanced third or fourth version, like gen 1's Pokemon Yellow or gen 7's Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. These often following soon after the release of their initial version but feature quality of life updates and extra content.

These pairs are by design. A feature of the original Game Boy handheld system was the Link Cable, which gave players the ability to connect their game to a friend’s. While most games used the Link Cable purely for multiplayer gaming, Tajiri had a different idea: trading. He envisioned a game where players could trade Pokemon between friends in order to fill out their Pokedexes, which cataloged the Pokemon players had caught. By making two different versions of the game, developers were able to make certain Pokemon exclusive to one version of the game or the other, forcing players to interact and trade in order to “catch ‘em all.”

Outside of these mainline games is a wild assortment of spin-off titles. Ranging from the sleuthing mysteries of Detective Pikachu, to the flopping fun of Magikarp Jump, to the safari photography of New Pokemon Snap, and even several different pinball games, there are enough Pokemon spin-offs to make a Hitmontop dizzy.

The biggest hit amongst these spin-offs has been Pokemon GO. Intended to get players up and moving, Pokemon GO is a mobile, location-based Pokemon game where players have to venture out into the real world in order to catch Pokemon, battle and hold gyms, and fight off Team Rocket. In the three months following its release, it was downloaded over 500 million times and, as of July 2021, has made over $5 billion in revenue. Suffice to say, living out the real-life fantasy of being a Pokemon trainer has been a badge of honor for many.

Hatching as nothing more than a couple of games on the Game Boy, the Pokemon franchise has evolved into something incredible. With every new generation of games comes a new generation of trainers. As they begin their journey to become the best there ever was, they come to discover the cute, amazing monsters that have been capturing the hearts of fans for years. And as long as that magic continues to evolve as it has, Pokemon won’t be going extinct any time soon.

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