Pokémon[a][1][2][3] (an abbreviation for Pocket Monsters[b] in Japanese) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996,[4] and is centered around fictional creatures called "Pokémon". In Pokémon, Pokémon Trainers are people who catch, train, care for, and battle with Pokémon. The English slogan for the franchise is "Gotta Catch ‘Em All!".[5][6] There are currently 1015 Pokémon species.[7]
The franchise began as Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue), a pair of video games for the original Game Boy handheld system that were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in February 1996. Pokémon soon became a media mix franchise adapted into various different media.[8] Pokémon is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The Pokémon video game series is the third best-selling video game franchise of all time with more than 440 million copies sold[9] and one billion mobile downloads.[10] The Pokémon video game series spawned an anime television series that has become the most successful video game adaptation of all time[11] with over 20 seasons and 1,000 episodes in 192 countries.[9] The Pokémon Trading Card Game is the highest-selling trading card game of all time[12] with over 43.2 billion cards sold. In addition, the Pokémon franchise includes the world's top-selling toy brand,[13] an anime film series, a live-action film (Detective Pikachu), books, manga comics, music, merchandise, and a temporary theme park. The franchise is also represented in other Nintendo media, such as the Super Smash Bros. series, where various Pokémon characters appear as both playable and non-playable characters.
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Pokémon.
The Pokémon franchise began as Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue), a pair of video games for the original Game Boy handheld system that were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in February 1996.[14] Pokémon soon became a media mix franchise adapted into various different media, with the Pokémon Trading Card Game released in October 1996, the Pokémon Adventures manga first released in Japan in March 1997, and the Pocket Monsters: Original Series released in April 1997. Pocket Pikachu was released in Japan in March 1998, with the first ever Pokémon film, Pokémon: The First Movie, first released in Japan in July 1998.[15]
In 1998, Nintendo spent $25 million promoting Pokémon in the United States in partnership with Hasbro, KFC, and others.[16] Nintendo initially feared that Pokémon was too Japanese for Western tastes but Alfred Kahn, then CEO of 4Kids Entertainment, convinced the company otherwise.[17] The one who spotted Pokémon's potential in the United States was Kahn's colleague Thomas Kenney.[18]
In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. The Pokémon Company International oversees all Pokémon licensing outside Asia.[19] In 2006, the franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.[20] In 2016, the Pokémon Company celebrated Pokémon's 20th anniversary by airing an ad during Super Bowl 50 in January and re-releasing the first Pokémon video games 1996 Game Boy games Pokémon Red, Green (only in Japan), and Blue, and the 1998 Game Boy Color game Pokémon Yellow for the Nintendo 3DS on February 26, 2016.[21][22] The mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released in July 2016.[23] Pokémon Sun and Moon also released in the same year. The first live-action film in the franchise, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, based on the 2018 Nintendo 3DS spin-off game Detective Pikachu, was released in 2019.[24] The eighth generation of core series games began with Pokémon Sword and Shield, released worldwide on the Nintendo Switch on November 15, 2019.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the company released two additional titles for the Nintendo Switch: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, remakes of the Nintendo DS Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games, on November 19, 2021, and its "premake" Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which was subsequently released on January 28, 2022.[25][26]
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet began the ninth generation of the game series when they released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on November 18, 2022.[27]
The name "Pokémon" is a syllabic abbreviation of the Japanese brand Pocket Monsters.[28] The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the many fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media. "Pokémon" is identical in the singular and plural, as is each individual species name; it is and would be grammatically correct to say "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon", as well as "one Pikachu" and "many Pikachu".[29]
See also: Gameplay of Pokémon, List of Pokémon, and Pokémon universe
Artwork from Capsule Monsters, Satoshi Tajiri's early design concept of Pokémon
Pokémon executive director Satoshi Tajiri first thought of Pokémon, albeit with a different concept and name, around 1989, when the Game Boy was released. The concept of the Pokémon universe, in both the video games and the general fictional world of Pokémon, stems from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular pastime which Tajiri enjoyed as a child.[30] Players are designated as Pokémon Trainers and have three general goals: to complete the regional Pokédex by collecting all of the available Pokémon species found in the fictional region where a game takes place, to complete the national Pokédex by transferring Pokémon from other regions, and to train a team of powerful Pokémon from those they have caught to compete against teams owned by other Trainers so they may eventually win the Pokémon League and become the regional Champion. These themes of collecting, training, and battling are present in almost every version of the Pokémon franchise, including the video games, the anime and manga series, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game (also known as TCG).
In most incarnations of the Pokémon universe, a Trainer who encounters a wild Pokémon has the ability to capture that Pokémon by throwing a specially designed, mass-producible spherical tool called a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is unable to escape the confines of the Poké Ball, it is considered to be under the ownership of that Trainer. Afterwards, it will obey whatever commands it receives from its new Trainer, unless the Trainer demonstrates such a lack of experience that the Pokémon would rather act on its own accord. Trainers can send out any of their Pokémon to wage non-lethal battles against other Pokémon; if the opposing Pokémon is wild, the Trainer can capture that Pokémon with a Poké Ball, increasing their collection of creatures. In Pokémon Go, and in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, wild Pokémon encountered by players can be caught in Poké Balls, but most cannot be battled. Pokémon already owned by other Trainers cannot be captured, except under special circumstances in certain side games. If a Pokémon fully defeats an opponent in battle so that the opponent is knocked out ("faints"), the winning Pokémon gains experience points and may level up. Beginning with Pokémon X and Y, experience points are also gained from catching Pokémon in Poké Balls. When leveling up, the Pokémon's battling aptitude statistics ("stats", such as "Attack" and "Speed") increase. At certain levels, the Pokémon may also learn new moves, which are techniques used in battle. In addition, many species of Pokémon can undergo a form of metamorphosis and transform into a similar but stronger species of Pokémon, a process called evolution; this process occurs spontaneously under differing circumstances, and is itself a central theme of the series. Some species of Pokémon may undergo a maximum of two evolutionary transformations, while others may undergo only one, and others may not evolve at all. For example, the Pokémon Pichu may evolve into Pikachu, which in turn may evolve into Raichu, following which no further evolutions may occur. Pokémon X and Y introduced the concept of "Mega Evolution," by which certain fully evolved Pokémon may temporarily undergo an additional evolution into a stronger form for the purpose of battling; this evolution is considered a special case, and unlike other evolutionary stages, is reversible.
In the main series, each game's single-player mode requires the Trainer to raise a team of Pokémon to defeat many non-player character (NPC) Trainers and their Pokémon. Each game lays out a somewhat linear path through a specific region of the Pokémon world for the Trainer to journey through, completing events and battling opponents along the way (including foiling the plans of an evil team of Pokémon Trainers who serve as antagonists to the player). Excluding Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the games feature eight powerful Trainers, referred to as Gym Leaders, that the Trainer must defeat in order to progress. As a reward, the Trainer receives a Gym Badge, and once all eight badges are collected, the Trainer is eligible to challenge the region's Pokémon League, where four talented trainers (referred to collectively as the "Elite Four") challenge the Trainer to four Pokémon battles in succession. If the trainer can overcome this gauntlet, they must challenge the Regional Champion, the master Trainer who had previously defeated the Elite Four. Any Trainer who wins this last battle becomes the new champion.