Was Pokémon popular with your real life friends?

I remember the when I was a kid in elementary school and Pokémon was super popular around here. After class we'd all huddle around the undercover area of the playground with Gameboy Advances and play in groups. Was Pokémon popular with your real life friends as a kid? Is it still popular?

It was for a time, in elementary school, but by the 5th grade people were already growing out of it (or switching to Dragon Ball Z). Near the end of high school it came slightly back in vogue, as they say, but nothing like it was.

I mean, I would bring my GameBoy to school to play at lunch even though it was against the rules. Brought my entire card collection one day and played a match against a friend.

Yes, it was quite popular with everyone up until third grade year, then only the ""Nerds"" continued playing it in elementary. Of course, I was one of those, and was good friends with all of them.

No. none of them into Pokemon. even when Pokemon GO was booming, all they know just Pikachu and call the other pokemon with Pikachu. they don't really have interest in Pokemon at all after all. probably the only person who like Pokemon in my area is only me.

Nah, don't have any IRL (or online) friends. In elementary school there was this kid I discussed Pokemon with but that's about it. Never met anyone IRL that showed as strong a love for Pokemon as me sadly.

The anime and the TCG were popular back when I was in elementary, but no one ever seemed to play the games. I didn't even get my own Game Boy and Gold version until a few months before middle school, and by that time the majority of the Pokemon craze had already faded.

Nope. I don't think anyone at the schools I went to as a kid even talked about Pokemon, except maybe one girl who shared my class (I was in their special needs unit) at a mainstream primary school.

Yes it was very popular when I was in early school, a bit less so in high school but some people still played the games. The release of pokemon Go brought a lot back into it, and a few of my friends still play Go.

It was pretty popular with the average kids, but not at my school for some reason. Only a select few really liked it, others didn't really bother. In secondary school kids that still liked Pokémon were bullied...
And right now in my office quote a few people play GO or other Pokémon games. When Sun & Moon came out we ere a dozen playing together on lunchtime

Nearly everyone was into it when I was in elementary school and most of my closer friends were still into it during middle school, although many of them started focusing more on Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering.

No one was really open about liking Pokémon by the time I got into high school, but I did manage to get a few people back into it by teaching them how to play the TCG (something I had only recently learned how to do myself).

I also met some fans in college, but elementary (right around when the first movie came to theaters) was definitely the highest point in popularity. (I haven't really mingled much with anyone since Pokémon GO, so I'm not sure to what extent it has strengthened popularity.)

Oh yeah Pokemon was really popular with my friends back in the day, we'd all bring our GameBoys/DS to school to play and I remember my cousin and I would play all the time when we weren't at school.

It was really popular for a couple of years in elementary school. I would say the people I knew remained interested in it later than a lot of others (my friend group played through gen II, though a lot of people stopped after gen I), but by gen III, it had become fairly unpopular.

Pokémon was actually popular among my real life enemies(ie. this group of guys who liked to make fun of me) while I was in elementary school. By the time I reached high school those guys were long gone, and so was the Pokémon craze.

Aside from my brother, I never encountered real-life, decent Pokémon fans until I was in my twenties.

In one of my last years of elementary school the Pokémon TCG was a huge hype out of a sudden. I think the majority of people were collecting the cards or at least had bought two packs just to show off. As with any hype, it disappeared as quickly as it came.

I don't think anyone of them had played an actual game though.

It was popular in primary school, with many people having played either Gen III or IV. But it died once people left for secondary, where playing Pokémon was considered childish. In retrospect, that feeling has always lived here, but in primary not everyone was allowing others' judgement to lead them yet. Once we entered secondary and had to find new friends, we hid our interests and pretended to be cool. The ones that did not were treated as children and excluded from the more popular groups.

That was school. But away from that... My neighbourhood was full of avid Pokémon fans. Everyone had at least one game (again Gen III/IV), had watched parts of the anime and maybe owned some cards as well. We had both older and younger players around here and I actually got a lot of good Pokémon from the older players, including some RSE events like Deoxys. With the kids my age I explored Kanto, Hoenn and Sinnoh and together (with some help of the internet) we found out lots of secrets. I remember solving the Braille puzzle for the Regis with my friends - we were fanatic as hell trying to do that on our own. That was fun.

It was so fun to go outside and literally everyone around was into the exact same thing. It really felt like a community and I look back on it as a fond time. I am still good friends with those living in my street, Pokémon still being the core of our group.

In elementary school sure, only everyone watched the cartoons and not that many (that I knew of) played the games. In middle school it was still the cartoons but to a lesser degree. And in high school, they're just an endangered species in its entirety.

It wasn't really that popular, most of my friends were aware, but mostly into other franchises. One of my cousins introduced me to the Anime & then I got into the Games. He is the only one who was really into Pokemon.

Pika Pika :chu:

It was huge when I was in elementary school and then I'm not quite sure after that. We all played the card game at lunch.

I mean, during my 4 first grades, yeah, it was a lot. Then people simply call it a bad game. It was rather hard to find people who still loved pokemon, and the friends i still discussed pokemon with me started to have other problems and etc. However, as of lately, i found a lot of Pokemon Lovers who i discuss with as of today. And not to forget the many amount of Young ones who got into Pokemon and i gave advice and info. Heck, at 4th grade, i was known as a master Pokemon Wiz in school, and later on, People started nicknaming me Professor, Professor Oak, etc., IRL, cause all i do is look up some pokemon trivia XD. So basically, i learned, and then passed down my Pokemon Knowledge.