Pokémon (video game series)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Pokémon video game series has sold more than 515 million units worldwide. That makes it the fourth best-selling video game franchise, behind only the Mario franchise, Call of Duty, and Tetris. It started in 1996, when Pocket Monsters Red and Green appeared in Japan for the Game Boy. Their creator was Satoshi Tajiri. How did a pair of handheld role-playing games about collecting creatures grow so large? Who builds these games today, and what does a player actually do from hour to hour? Which characters keep coming back, and what changed with each wave of sequels?

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• 2. The Makers

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  Game Freak develops the core Pokémon games, while Nintendo and The Pokémon Company publish them. Ken Sugimori worked alongside Tajiri on the creation of the series.

  Creatures supports the work through its Pokémon CG Studio. That studio builds the 3D models of the Pokémon seen in the games, and Creatures also develops some spin-off titles.

  In 1998, Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak jointly established The Pokémon Company. It manages licensing, production, publishing, marketing and deals for the franchise across Asia. The Pokémon Company International handles the same work worldwide.

  The developers call the main role-playing line the core series. Everything else is a spin-off, and spin-offs come from many different companies. They cover action role-playing, puzzle, fighting, and digital pet games.

  The core games arrive in generations. Remakes of an original usually follow about a decade later, on whatever console is newest at the time.

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• 3. Turn-Based Battles

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  Battles are the heart of every Pokémon game, and a player's active party holds between one and six Pokémon. The first in the lineup enters the fight automatically. Battles train Pokémon, because they earn experience and grow stronger, and they also carry the story forward. Two players can fight each other by connecting at least two game systems.

  At the start of each turn, both sides may use a move, use an item, or switch the active Pokémon. Against a wild Pokémon, the player may also try to flee. Moves reduce the opponent's Hit Points, or HP, and a Pokémon at zero HP faints and cannot fight. When an opponent faints, the winner gains experience points, and enough of them raise its level. If every Pokémon in the party faints, the player loses some money and returns to the last Pokémon Center visited.

  Every Pokémon has a type, an elemental attribute that sets the strengths and weaknesses of the creature and its moves. Types relate to one another like rock-paper-scissors. A Pokémon takes double damage from a type it is weak to and half damage from a type it resists. Some types also carry special properties outside the damage chart, such as immunity to certain status conditions.

  Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire introduced abilities, which give Pokémon different attributes during battle. Abilities are absent from Let's Go, Pikachu!, Let's Go, Eevee!, Legends: Arceus, and Legends: Z-A.

  Pokémon Legends: Z-A leaves the turn-based format behind for real-time battles. The player and the Pokémon move around the field and use moves strategically, though the party still holds one to six Pokémon. Levels still rise through battle or items. In Z-A, the player returns to a Pokémon Center only after a wild Pokémon has inflicted enough damage on the player personally.

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• 4. Catch, Evolve, Trade

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  The Poké Ball is the tool that turns a wild creature into a teammate. In most Pokémon games, the player first weakens the wild Pokémon in battle and then throws the ball. A captured Pokémon either joins the active party or goes into storage.

  Evolution changes a Pokémon's form and appearance and makes it stronger. It can be triggered by reaching a certain level, by using an item on the Pokémon, or by a high level of friendship.

  Trading lets two players swap Pokémon by connecting two compatible games. The series revolves around catching as many Pokémon as possible, so trading is treated as an important part of play. Certain Pokémon can evolve only through a trade.

  Shiny Pokémon are alternately colored versions of ordinary creatures, and they are significantly rarer than a standard Pokémon.

  The Pokédex is the fictional catalog of every Pokémon species, and it gives the long game its purpose. Once the story is finished, the game stays virtually open-ended, and the goal becomes obtaining at least one member of every species. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, filling the Pokédex is a larger part of progression than in any other game.

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• 5. Towns, Gyms, Rivals

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  Each Pokémon game is set in a fictional region of the Pokémon World, typically based on a real-world location. The player begins by receiving a Starter Pokémon, usually from that region's Pokémon Professor, and chooses among three. A rival often acts as a roadblock or boss opponent. A major subplot in most games is defeating a criminal organization that tries to take over the world by misusing powerful creatures called Legendary Pokémon.

  At a Pokémon Center, healing is free, and the PC lets players organize their collection and store or withdraw items. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! retired the PC. In every game since, except Legends: Arceus, players can reach Pokémon outside the party at any point when not in battle.

  Poké Marts are shops where players spend the money they win in battles. Certain cities have specialized shops, such as a pharmacy or a department store.

  A Pokémon Gym appears periodically in a town, and each one houses a powerful Trainer called a Gym Leader, who functions as a boss. Beating a Gym Leader earns a Gym Badge. After collecting eight Gym Badges, the player may challenge the region's Elite Four and then the Pokémon League Champion.

  Pokémon Sword and Shield replace the Elite Four with the Champion Cup, a single-elimination tournament that decides who earns a shot at the Champion. Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon have no Gyms at all, and trials serve a similar purpose.

  The Battle Frontier, Battle Tower, and Battle Maison are battle-focused facilities in many games, and they unlock once the story has been beaten. Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Legends: Z-A drop Gyms entirely and have only a single major settlement each. In Z-A, an event called the Z-A Royale has the player climb in rank by battling strong opponents from Lumiose City.

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• 6. Recurring Faces

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  Red, the silent player character of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, is one of the few characters to return across the series. He is also the male protagonist of FireRed and LeafGreen. After his debut he has no distinct storyline in the wider narrative. In Gold, Silver, and Crystal and their remakes, he is the strongest opponent a player can battle. Sun and Moon, from 2016, show him twenty years after the first games. He is the main protagonist of the Pokémon Adventures manga and the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga, and he appears in the anime adaptation Pokémon Origins.

  Professor Oak is a Pokémon researcher who has studied the creatures his whole life and was a Trainer himself in his youth. In the first games, he gives the player their first Pokémon. He appears in various roles in Gold, Silver, Crystal, and Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, and he plays a recurring part in the anime. Characters based on him have appeared too. His relative Samson Oak is in Sun and Moon, and a character dubbed Grand Oak appears in the spin-off Pokémon Home.

  Blue is Professor Oak's grandson and the player character's childhood friend, and he is the rival in the first games and their remakes. He is pushy and competitive, and he is always a step ahead of the player's progress. He becomes Pokémon League Champion, but the player defeats him. In Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes he is a Gym Leader who has mellowed. He returns in Black 2 and White 2, in Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, and beside Red in Sun and Moon. In the Pokémon Adventures manga he is Red's rival.

  Giovanni leads the villainous organization Team Rocket and also runs the Viridian City Gym in Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and their remakes. After that he disappears. In Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes, Team Rocket tries to find him, and a special event in the remakes reveals why they fail. He appears again in Black 2 and White 2. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon he leads an organization called Team Rainbow Rocket, the primary antagonist of the post-game story. He leads Team Go Rocket in Pokémon Go, and he is a primary antagonist in Pokémon Masters EX. In the anime, he is the boss of Team Rocket.

  Steven is the Hoenn League Champion in Ruby, Sapphire, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire. He is interested in rocks and minerals, and he acts as the player's mentor. He helps stop Team Magma and Team Aqua, and he is also the final boss of the game. In Emerald he is a wandering Trainer, and his friend Wallace becomes Hoenn League Champion in his place. Steven returns in HeartGold, SoulSilver, Black 2 and White 2, and the anime.

  Cynthia is the Sinnoh League Champion, first seen in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. She is interested in mythology and history, and she spends her time researching sites tied to the Legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh. She helps the protagonist against Team Galactic, and she is the final boss. Cynthia reappears in Black and White, Black 2 and White 2, Sun and Moon, and the remakes of Diamond and Pearl. She is a recurring character in the anime as well.

  Hex Maniac is not one individual but a Trainer class that specializes in Ghost-type Pokémon. It was introduced in Ruby and Sapphire and redesigned for X and Y. The redesign shows a woman with messy dark blue hair, a purple headband, a long black dress with a spiderweb pattern around the waist, and darkened eyes with a spiral pattern. Since then, the character has been cited as one of the most popular, helped by an unexplained encounter in X and Y. The franchise has used this version for events about urban legends. One named Helena, called Sayoko in Japanese, is a playable character in Pokémon Masters EX.

  A member of the international police first appears in Pokémon Platinum, investigating Team Galactic. He is a master of disguise, and though he starts out incompetent, the series treats him more seriously as it goes on. In Black and White, he asks the player to help catch members of Team Plasma. In X and Y, he poses as a detective to apprehend members of Team Flare, and he ends up taking in an orphan girl named Emma. In Sun and Moon, he helps the player capture the Ultra Beasts that were unleashed there, and he alerts the player to the Legendary Pokémon Necrozma. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, set five years after X and Y, Emma has taken over his office in Lumiose City and works as a detective herself.

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• 7. Sales and Acclaim

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  Within the first five months on sale, the original Game Boy games sold almost 3 million copies. They are credited as a factor in the Game Boy holding strong sales in Japan well beyond the usual lifespan of a game system.

  By the 24th of November 2017, more than 300 million Pokémon games had been sold worldwide across 76 titles, counting spin-offs. As of the 29th of February 2016, the series had sold over 279 million units, including 210 million for the mainline games. Guinness World Records gave the series eight records in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. They included "Most Successful RPG Series of All Time", "Game Series With the Most Spin-Off Movies" and "Most Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures Caused by a TV Show".

  The games anchor a wider franchise that is among the highest-grossing media franchises ever. The anime has run for over 1,300 episodes and 20 feature films. The trading card game has grown to around 3,000 unique cards and still draws players to official international tournaments. The spin-off Pokémon Go has crossed 1 billion mobile downloads worldwide.

  IGN placed the series 17th on its ranking of the most desired game series, praising a premise with solid, addictive play mechanics. GamesRadar named Pokémon the number one Nintendo game "not made by Nintendo". Its reasoning was that having to catch every creature makes the games addictive.

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• 8. Generations of Change

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  Each generation begins when an official sequel in the main role-playing series introduces new Pokémon, characters, and sometimes new gameplay ideas. The anime, manga, and trading card game all refresh their Pokémon with every new generation.

  The first generation, from 1996 to 1998, introduced 151 species, running from Bulbasaur to Mew. When Red and Green proved popular, an enhanced Blue version followed, and it was reprogrammed as Pokémon Red and Blue for international release. Green never left Japan. Pokémon Yellow, a second enhanced edition, used the Game Boy Color palette and looked more like the popular anime. It reached Japan on the 12th of September 1998, and Europe and America in 1999. These games are set in the region of Kanto, though that name was not used until the second generation. Spin-offs included Pokémon Pinball, the on-rails photography game Pokémon Snap, and Pokémon Stadium. Several species also co-starred in Super Smash Bros.

  Pokémon Gold and Silver launched in Japan in 1999 for the Game Boy Color. Australia and North America received them in October 2000, and Europe in April 2001. The second generation added 100 species, from Chikorita to Celebi, for a total of 251. It also added a day-and-night system that follows the real-world time of day, the Dark and Steel types, Pokémon breeding, and the region of Johto. After exploring Johto, the player can travel east to Kanto. The Pokémon Mini handheld console went on sale in December 2001 in Japan.

  Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire arrived in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. FireRed and LeafGreen remade the first games, and Emerald followed as an enhanced edition. The third generation brought 135 new Pokémon, from Treecko to Deoxys, for a total of 386. It added the region of Hoenn, natures that affect stats, two-on-two battles, Pokémon Contests, and Secret Bases that players could customize. The day-and-night system was dropped because of internal-battery save problems. Only 202 of the 386 species could be caught in Ruby and Sapphire. Around this time, the franchise had shipped over 100 million games.

  In 2006, Japan received Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS, and North America followed on the 22nd of April 2007. The fourth generation added 107 species, from Turtwig to Arceus, for a total of 493. It was the first with 3D graphics in a main series game, mixed with sprites. It also brought online trading and battling through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the return of the day-and-night system, Super Contests, and the region of Sinnoh, which has an underground area for multiplayer. Platinum came next. HeartGold and SoulSilver remade Gold and Silver, reaching Japan on the 12th of September 2009, and added the Pokéathlon.

  Pokémon Black and White debuted in Japan on the 18th of September 2010, and reached North America, Europe, and Australia in March 2011. They are set in the region of Unova. The fifth generation introduced 156 new Pokémon, from Victini to Genesect, the most of any generation so far. Every one was original, an attempt to make the games feel brand new. Triple Battles, Rotation Battles, Pokémon Musicals, and seasons, represented by Deerling and Sawsbuck, were new. Black 2 and White 2 reached Japan on the 23rd of June 2012 as direct sequels set two years later. They featured new protagonists and the Pokémon World Tournament, and they broke the tradition of a third version.

  On the 8th of January 2013, Satoru Iwata announced Pokémon X and Y in a 10-minute Pokémon Direct video conference. The games reached the Nintendo 3DS worldwide on the 12th of October 2013 and are rendered in full 3D. The starters were Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. A month after the reveal, Sylveon appeared as a new evolved form of Eevee and the Fairy type was introduced. Sylveon remains the last Eeveelution revealed. The sixth generation added 72 Pokémon, Mega Evolution, the region of Kalos, and compatibility with Pokémon Bank. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire remade the third generation in November 2014. In July 2016, Niantic and Nintendo released the free-to-play augmented reality game Pokémon Go.

  Pokémon Sun and Moon launched on the Nintendo 3DS on the 18th of November 2016 in Japan, North America, and Australia, and on the 23rd of November in Europe. They were the first games since the second generation to be backwards-compatible with other titles. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were announced on the 6th of June 2017 and released on the 17th of November 2017. Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! reached the Nintendo Switch on the 16th of November 2018. They remade Yellow with mechanics borrowed from Pokémon Go. The seventh generation introduced 88 new Pokémon, Alolan forms, trials, and Z-moves. It was the first to add new Pokémon mid-generation, with five in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and two in the Let's Go games.

  Pokémon Sword and Shield were confirmed on the 27th of February 2019, the 23rd anniversary of the franchise, and released worldwide on the 15th of November 2019. They are set in the Galar region and brought Dynamax, Gigantamax forms, Max Raid battles, and Pokémon Camp. The Isle of Armor expansion arrived on the 17th of June 2020, and The Crown Tundra on the 22nd of October 2020. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, developed by ILCA, remade the fourth generation on the 19th of November 2021. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a prequel to those remakes, followed on the 28th of January 2022. The eighth generation introduced 96 new Pokémon.

  Pokémon Scarlet and Violet reached the Nintendo Switch on the 18th of November 2022. Their expansion, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, came in two parts. The Teal Mask arrived on the 13th of September 2023, and The Indigo Disk on the 14th of December 2023. An epilogue, Mochi Mayhem, followed on the 11th of January 2024. The ninth generation has introduced 120 new Pokémon so far, bringing the overall total to 1025. Pokémon Legends: Z-A was announced on the 27th of February 2024 and released on the 16th of October 2025 for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2. It returns to Lumiose City in the Kalos region and brings back Mega Evolution for the first time since the Let's Go games.

  On the 27th of February 2026, Pokémon Winds and Waves were announced for the Nintendo Switch 2, with a release year of 2027. They open the tenth generation of the series.

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