Is Pokémon an unusually popular franchise?

[moon]

Or am I just in the middle of it and therefore don't realize that pokémon isn't that big and special after all, and that other franchises are probably more popular or have even larger fanbases...?

Rephrasing the question: do you think people who aren't into pokémon also view pokémon as an unusually popular thing with a large and active fanbase, or do you think we can be blinded because we are in the middle of it all?

Thoughts!

 

[Kyrul]

I might be a bit blinded since I'm into it. But from what I've observed it's getting more popular. When I was in advanced individual training for the army, most of my platoon chose to play pokemon after course during their downtime. We had 45 people in my platoon and about 30 people played it (I wasn't one of them, I always been embarrassed to tell anyone in real life that I like it). So I think Pokemon in generally popular, given from that observation.

 

[Therizinosaurus]

despite being in the middle of it, I think pokemon is very popular. pretty much everyone plays it as little kids, and then either keeps up with it, or gets nostalgic every couple of years and downloads a rom. EVERYONE played pokemon emerald on their computers in year 12. it was hilarious. but pokemon is arguably Nintendo's second biggest/most iconic francise, after Mario.
x/y is number 9 on the US pre order chart
http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders/

according to Wikipedia, pokemon is the 3rd best selling video game franchise of all time, after Mario and... Mario?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

so no, I don't think its all in our heads. 9 times out of 10, the only people who don't play pokemon are those who think its a kids game.

 

[CliCliW]

Personally, I feel like I'm in the middle of it and choose to surround myself with it, so I feel like it's a lot more popular than it is. It was all the rage for the Game Boy generation. I think it lulled for a while come Ruby and Sapphire. The introduction of the NDS was like a reinvention of Pokemon for the nostalgia kids.

While it probably is popular in the sense that everyone knows about it, it doesn't mean everyone necessarily likes it. It depends on who you surround yourself with I would think.. I am discovering a lot of "Game Boy Kids" and Pokemon fans now that I've come to college, but there's a fair share who will say "Oh that. I think I used to watch the cartoons when I was small". Everyone knows it, but just to different extents.

So do you mean popular in the sense of liking it or knowing about it? In terms of liking it, it has a dedicated fanbase like all games. But in terms of knowing about it, I'd say we have the anime to thank for the fact that everyone knows of it, especially the parent generation.

 

[moon]

I mean both, but mostly people knowing about it I guess. But the more people like it, the more they tell others about it probably, haha, and thus more people know about it. So they can be considered the same maybe.

I'm not even battling and playing and trading, or watching the anime, but I still feel I'm too "in the midst of it all" to properly judge. That's why I made this thread, to see what you others thought haha. Seems like it actually is pretty big then? I'm not as hugely into any other fandom (other than maybe Homestuck a little) so I wouldn't know what level of fan-hype is normal for, say, a series of video games.

 

[ProfGrove]

I was on outside before and can say that this thought sounds a bit blinded. I'm just saying this because I haven't noticed Pokemon for the last 10 years, until jumping back into it.

 

[Snowdrop]

Dude, some of the most popular and least nerdy boys at my school still play Pokemon. I think it's still phenomenally popular, Pokemon posts (especially Eevee) get oodles of notes on Tumblr and Pokemon games sell wildly.

 

[ProfGrove]

Dude, some of the most popular and least nerdy boys at my school still play Pokemon. I think it's still phenomenally popular, Pokemon posts (especially Eevee) get oodles of notes on Tumblr and Pokemon games sell wildly.

It was popular in the 90's, now it's just around. It's not wildy popular or even remotely a phenomena, movies can't even make it to the box office, dvd releases only. I didn't even know about 3rd and 4th gens release when I left and heard one person mention B/W to me. And why, do you say least nerdy, what does that matter?

 

[Snowdrop]

It was popular in the 90's, now it's just around. It's not wildy popular or even remotely a phenomena, movies can't even make it to the box office, dvd releases only. I didn't even know about 3rd and 4th gens release when I left and heard one person mention B/W to me. And why, do you say least nerdy, what does that matter?

Well, if it's still around and people still maintain an interest in it, then it's popular, I'd say. It's maintained its popularity surprisingly well while other things have faded away. I don't recall the movies ever doing that well here in the first place, wasn't the one with Entei the last to ever play in American theatres? Or was it the 4th? Least nerdy as in the kids who aren't into, you know, what is commonly considered nerdy xD I think it's popular because people still hold a legitimate interest in it, and sales are still doing very well. I don't speak to any tweens so I'm not totally aware if a newer generation is into it though, although I assume they are.

 

[ProfGrove]

Well, if it's still around and people still maintain an interest in it, then it's popular, I'd say. It's maintained its popularity surprisingly well while other things have faded away. I don't recall the movies ever doing that well here in the first place, wasn't the one with Entei the last to ever play in American theatres? Or was it the 4th? Least nerdy as in the kids who aren't into, you know, what is commonly considered nerdy xD I think it's popular because people still hold a legitimate interest in it, and sales are still doing very well. I don't speak to any tweens so I'm not totally aware if a newer generation is into it though, although I assume they are.

I don't know, my feelings are mostly based on my experience. I left Pokemon 10 years ago with little interest, nothing at E3 or anywhere sparked an interest or let me know Pokemon was still alive until I both heard and saw X/Y gameplay along with screenshots. I picked up a 3DS XL and am now waiting while playing games I know very little about. I'm really into video games, pick up magazines and all, but little has been said the last 10 years minus the usual Top 100 Pokemon lists like at IGN among other areas of gaming.

 

[Snowdrop]

Not sure how to say this properly, but, like, I think it's generally just more popular among fans and within the fandom... I'd say Pokemon has held up phenomenally well but things like, oh I don't know... Call of Duty and Bioshock are more important for video game magazines. I accidentally subscribed to Game Informer and there was an article about X/Y in there but most of the issues report on different games. Maybe it's different over there, but around me there still seems to be a wide interest in Pokemon. Idk, basically there are more recently popular things but this franchise is still toughing it out pretty well.

 

[François2]

I'm not sure at what point Pokémon can get "unusually" popular - what do you consider an unusual level of popularity?

The Pokémon games are no different to say, a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh. It's not a generally popular thing, but most everyone knows the name, and the fanbase is strong. To my eyes Pokémon is not generally liked, but is rather a niche product that has been very successful at selling to that niche. It's not Halo or whatever, it's not the sort of thing that 90% of people have played, and you'll never see people asking each other to come over to their house for a Pokémon session, but it has its fanbase, and the fanbase remains sizable. Popular within its old fanbase, not so much to the rest of the public. So basically Pokémon is the Madonna of video games.

 

[Spinosaurus]

Sales talk, and sales say Pokemon is the second most popular franchise in gaming. Sales never lie.


Also, ^what? Way more people played Pokemon than Halo. Halo is an iconic series only in gaming, Pokemon is iconic in the media. It's really big.

 

[François2]

Pokémon is more commonly known, but not necessarily more commonly liked or played. I'll admit that "sales don't lie" and perhaps Pokémon outstrips the likes of Halo in terms of units sold, but I still believe it does that without being a thing the general public eats up.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Everyone I have talked to about it in high school says the games are still awesome. For the most part there are more people who play then game than we know. They hide it for the most part. And it still has to be fairly popular with the Anime as well, otherwise they would not continue showing it, especially Cartoon Network. And if I am correct in saying, BW was one of the highest selling games when it came out.

Not to mention that if you combine the games together such as BF4 and CoD: Ghosts. Pokemon is still in the top 10, almost top 5.

Also Pokemon BW2 sold over 865,000 copies in just the month of October in 2011 in the United States.

 

[François2]

For the most part there are more people who play then game than we know. They hide it for the most part.

This is a point, but isn't something being worth hiding in social environments generally a sign towards it being somewhat niche?

 

[Iceshadow3317]

People had hid they they play the pokemon game since the 3rd Gen. When a lot of the fan base left because they couldn't return to Kanto and Johto. A lot of people call it a kid's game. This is why they hide so they are not made fun of, which is huge in todays world. I was lucky to have over 100+ people who played the pokemon game in High School, so we never hid it.

 

[ProfGrove]

I might add that it does/could differ upon where you live. Here, in the states it's nowhere near where it was in the 90's. I'm just speaking from experience, not sure how popular it is elsewhere. I seem to see most kids now being more exposed to COD, at least here. In the states, remember seeing Black Ops being said as being in 1/8 households. So yeah, Pokemon here would be considered niche for me among others.

 

[bobandbill]

I don't know, my feelings are mostly based on my experience. I left Pokemon 10 years ago with little interest, nothing at E3 or anywhere sparked an interest or let me know Pokemon was still alive until I both heard and saw X/Y gameplay along with screenshots.

To be pedantic, there's probably been only two main Pokemon title showcasings at E3: X/Y and FRLG.

I think pokemon is still very popular. Most people will know of it, and the sales are still darn solid (13+ million sales of BW alone, on par with the last few gens). If as Spino says it is the 2nd best selling videg game franchise, then it's big.

It's not Halo or whatever, it's not the sort of thing that 90% of people have played, and you'll never see people asking each other to come over to their house for a Pokémon session,

Halo hit 50 million sales late last year, so that's 11 years. According to this list, the Game Freak main series games alone have sold 85 million copies in that amount of time. That's not counting any of the spinoffs which are numerous (and add at least 15-20 million more sales since 2002). So I'm fairly confident that Pokémon easily outsells Halo. =p It's also a far broader franchise - it has a still-watched anime and various spinoff games.

And yes, I have seen people ask others to play Pokemon. Heck, even at my uni you can see people play and talk about the game. Of course, these things vary region to region, but I don't think that it's any accident.


Granted, it is not as popular as it was back in the RBY days when the anime was fresh and Pokemon just had that wave of popularity to ride. Wikipedia does state RB had 23 million sales while GSC is also in the same ballpark, significantly higher than now. Different times, I suppose, and Pokémon was a new thing, not a series starting to near 20 years. But it's done well to maintain its current form imo.

 

[François2]

Halo hit 50 million sales late last year, so that's 11 years. According to this list, the Game Freak main series games alone have sold 85 million copies in that amount of time. That's not counting any of the spinoffs which are numerous (and add at least 15-20 million more sales since 2002). So I'm fairly confident that Pokémon easily outsells Halo. =p It's also a far broader franchise - it has a still-watched anime and various spinoff games.

I'm not surprised to hear it's outsold Halo, but I'm still not entirely certain that more people have played Pokémon (or at least, play it now). I'm inclined to think Halo is more of a game for people using others' copies than Pokémon is, though I can't say I have the same facts and figures to back me up. Spinoff games seem even more fanbase-exclusive to me, and the Pokémon Anime seems entirely irrelevant to the current generation. But this is all my perception, so.