What Is Pokémon? The Franchise Behind the World's Best-Selling Media IP, Explained by Marine

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Thirty years after its 1996 debut, Pokémon remains the world's best-selling media franchise by overall revenue — and it all started as a Game Boy RPG.

From a Game Boy RPG to a Global Ecosystem

Satoshi Tajiri planned Pokémon, developed by his studio Game Freak, and launched it as "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" for the Game Boy on February 27, 1996. The original 151 species and the Kanto region became the foundation for a franchise that has since expanded past 1,000 species. The TV anime, which began airing in 1997, made Pikachu a global icon, and in 1998 The Pokémon Company was formed by Game Freak, Nintendo, and Creatures Inc. to manage the growing brand across games, anime, and the trading card game.

Thirty Years and Counting

Pokémon celebrated its 30th anniversary on February 27, 2026, with global celebrations including reissued original 1996-style merchandise. The Pokémon Company has announced "Generation 10," the franchise's next major game generation, for a late 2026 release, positioned as a new era for the series while its existing games, anime, and events (like the annual Pokémon World Championships) continue in parallel.

What To Know

Pokémon's original core loop, catch a wide variety of creatures, then raise and battle them, has been copied by so many "monster collecting" games and shows since that it functions as the genre's founding template; understanding it started as a Game Boy RPG (not the anime) reframes why the games remain the franchise's creative and commercial center even for fans who came in through the anime or cards.

Satoshi Tajiri's original concept for Pokémon reportedly drew on his childhood hobby of insect collecting in suburban Japan — a detail that helps explain why the "catch, collect, and trade" structure feels so intuitively satisfying, since it was modeled on a real hobby rather than invented purely for a game.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Wild that Pokémon started as one guy's idea based on collecting bugs as a kid."
• "30 years and it's still the biggest media franchise on the planet by revenue."
• "Curious what 'Generation 10' actually changes about the core formula."

Original Japanese

• 「子供の頃の昆虫採集がアイデアの原点というのは意外でした」
• 「30年経っても世界一のメディアフランチャイズというのはすごいです」
• 「第10世代で何が変わるのか気になります」

Easy Japanese

「ポケットモンスター（ポケモン）」は、田尻智さんとゲームフリークが作ったゲームです。1996年に発売され、世界的な人気シリーズになりました。