Is Pokémon less popular than it used to be?

[BCVM22]

Most Pokemon gamer (including Pokemon GO), fan, follower, viewer, are actually teenagers to adults and not kid.

Not at all. The franchise belongs to the kids, always. Adult fans are a minority. Your perspective is skewed likely because most of the fans with whom you commune are in that minority.

There's nothing to be gained with a "more mature Pokémon anime" nor does that have anything to do with the franchise's current popularity, in a vacuum or relative to times past.

 

[Bluebird55]

On the contrary! Infact, with Pokemon GO, it has become MORE popular!

 

[M.P.]

It certainly isn't now, thanks to Pokemon Go.

 

[Dr. Eeviil]

Meanwhile, B2W2 only has 8.5 million, but ORAS comfortably outsells it, and together 6th gen games have sold better than gen 5. Granted, this is less than 4th gen, but 4th gen has three sets of games and had large advances, including the introduction of wifi play which was huge for Pokemon.

Yeah, the GTS has definitely cost Nintendo some sales. From me anyway. I used to buy both of the main games and the 3rd one, since then I only buy one main, and the 3rd one.

I still have 2 GBC, 1 GBA and 1 GBA SP, 1 DS Lite and 1 DSi. I've only got the one 3DSXL (the red XY edition). I wasn't planning on buying a New 3DSXL, because I really don't like the XL form factor. However I may break down and buy the Sun/Moon edition anyway.

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

On the contrary! Infact, with Pokemon GO, it has become MORE popular!

I honestly feel that Pokemon Go was just a fad. Yea it helped make the franchise popular again for a couple of months, but I still don't think it has made a permanent impact since I read that the number of Go users has fallen recently.

 

[Sky Blue]

I honestly feel that Pokemon Go was just a fad. Yea it helped make the franchise popular again for a couple of months, but I still don't think it has made a permanent impact since I read that the number of Go users has fallen recently.

The users will go up again once gen 2 pokemon are released. After all, you get bored catching the same gen 1 pokemon. I know I stopped playing because of that.

 

[BCVM22]

but I still don't think it has made a permanent impact since I read that the number of Go users has fallen recently.

The thread title asks "Is Pokémon less popular than it used to be?" - the answer to which is yes, but its earliest numbers were never sustainable and it has long since settled into numbers that remain very healthy and have been, are and continue to be sustainable. So there's some pointed irony to be found in the fact that despite that "the number of GO users has fallen recently," its earliest numbers were also never sustainable and it too will also likely settle into sustainable and healthy numbers.

Everything is cyclical.

 

[MattySadler]

Agree with above ^. I was there at the forefront of Pokemon "craze" when it first came out in the late 90s, and it was pretty insane. I remember, just in my year at school, every little boy watched the show and played the Gameboy game, and most played the card game, while the little girls all thought Pikachu was cute. It swept the planet, but it was never going to last. Yes, Pokemon is still very popular, and with each new generation it welcomes a new generation of fans, but it isn't the same as how it was.

Pokemon GO was never going to be more than just a fad. Once the nostalgia factor wore off for all of us "genwunners", there isn't really all that much about the game to keep you interested.

 

[BCVM22]

Pokemon GO was never going to be more than just a fad. there isn't really all that much about the game to keep you interested.

Which is why it's a good thing the format and nature of the game allow them to continue to add new Pokémon and new elements as time and resources allow. This isn't an original Game Boy game, where there's nothing left to do once you've wrung every bit of gameplay out of the cartridge.

 

[hendrix02k]

i think every new generation just makes us feel more distant from the original the one we are most familiar with . What do you guys think ??

 

[Auraninja]

i think every new generation just makes us feel more distant from the original the one we are most familiar with . What do you guys think ??

I'm more "familiar" to the second and third generations personally. The third generation was probably my favorite advance from the previous one, and G/S/C made a lot of necessary changes.

 

[Mrs. Oreo]

The users will go up again once gen 2 pokemon are released. After all, you get bored catching the same gen 1 pokemon. I know I stopped playing because of that.

I'm sure that many people will resume playing Go a bit more when Johto pokemon get added, although from my perspective Gen 1 nostalgia has always been bigger than Gen 2 nostalgia, so I dunno if we can expect the interest in pokemon to re-peak as much as it did when Go first came out. ^^;

 

[Divine Retribution]

It seems to me that Pokemon Go was a playtest for an augmented reality game, just to see what the public reaction to such a game would be (and it was pretty phenomenal). I anticipate we'll see a more fleshed-out AR Pokemon game sometime in the next few years, including all Pokemon and perhaps a more advanced competitive mechanic than Go had.

 

[sheld999]

to me pokemon still popular but with the recent games and stuff many stores here in nz recently brought back in trading cards again and have sales up to 30% off

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

I'm sure that many people will resume playing Go a bit more when Johto pokemon get added, although from my perspective Gen 1 nostalgia has always been bigger than Gen 2 nostalgia, so I dunno if we can expect the interest in pokemon to re-peak as much as it did when Go first came out. ^^;

It most likely wont simply because it rarely ever does. It's pretty rare for a franchise of anything to maintain the starting numbers as it's filled with people who are just testing it out and there's going to be people who simply lose interest or never cared enough about it to continue and as a result the numbers fall. It's the same case with the main series games, obviously not as popular as it first came out but again, very rare for such things to happen. In the end the franchise is very popular still considering the main series games usually are one of the best selling games on the handhelds. The Anime and card games are still both doing well enough to continue.

 

[Weavy]

Yes. Pokémon will pretty much never reach that same height of popularity again from the 90's. While Pokémon Go was very close to getting to that point, in the end it was just a fad.

However, that's not to say Pokémon isn't popular at all. That's far from the truth. It's still a very strong franchise with plenty of fans and isn't coming to an end anytime soon. The mainline games still sell millions upon millions; I don't think any aside from third versions and sequels has sold under 10 million. That's a very impressive feat if you ask me.

 

[mockingjay]

I'm sure that many people will resume playing Go a bit more when Johto pokemon get added, although from my perspective Gen 1 nostalgia has always been bigger than Gen 2 nostalgia, so I dunno if we can expect the interest in pokemon to re-peak as much as it did when Go first came out. ^^;

The addition of Gen 2 Pokemon will help increase popularity and player base for Go again, but it'll never reach the humongous peak that it had when it first began. Johto will bring in fans, not casual audiences.

 

[BlackRaven]

Maybe not more popular

But definitely more well known

 

[Boss1991]

I just heard Pokemon ORAS has finally surpased HGSS as the best selling Pokemon remake, thanks to the boost it got from Pokemon Go player sales. Is there any source for this? I heard it yesterday, on an other Pokemon forum...

 

[Charoshi]

I would say it's less popular than it used to be, but only because Pokemon was basically a massive phenomenon years ago. When I first started playing as kid it was huge, so if it's less popular now it's only because its not new anymore. I still no plenty of people, older or younger, than me who still play/watch it. So while it's not as popular now, it's still humming along nicely.