5 reasons Pokemon is still popular in 2024

With Pokemon Day about to take place, fans are gearing up for the video reveals of the many projects The Pokemon Company has been working on over the last couple of years. This time of year, news about the franchise is all over the internet, and it may leave many users wondering why Pokemon is still as large as it is after 25 years.

While many fans do agree that the franchise has grown stagnant in recent generations, it is in arguably its biggest span of experimentation yet. This can be seen with various side projects that break away from the status quo for the series, like the Legends: Arceus title and the Pokemon Concierge special on Netflix. Here are five reasons why fans love the Pokemon franchise.

---

5 reasons behind Pokemon's popularity in 2024

1) Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a driving force behind how the franchise maintains its popularity (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Nostalgia is a strong force in the gaming community. In fact, nostalgia is a huge contributor as to why there is so much excitement for the upcoming celebration of the franchise. Game Freak capitalizes on our fond memories of the "good ol' days" by remaking old titles from its history. Many fans are anticipating the reveal of the next set of Pokemon game remakes in the coming days.

Since so many older fans are so attached to their fond memories of traveling through the Hoenn or Johto regions on their handhelds, there will always be waves of excitement for every new remake, regardless of its quality. With this in mind, many newer fans may not understand the hype if they started with a modern title.

---

2) Embracing the competitive scene

The Pokemon World Championship is one of the most highly-anticipated yearly esports events (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Over the years, competitive play for the franchise has gone from niche tournaments with little support all the way up to a yearly event on a massive stage for all sorts of different facets of the games. Additionally, the games have been shifting more towards making monsters and items better in the competitive scene, to the point where they have trailers showing off new held items.

Gearing a game towards a more competitive audience also helps improve the game's lifespan in the eyes of players. Having different seasons for ranked battles, as well as introducing more monsters as it ages, helps keep the online scene fresh. Such modes can also motivate players to give the game some serious effort as they grind for the perfect team.

---

3) Diverse side content

Pokemon GO is one of the world's most popular mobile games (Image via Niantic)

The franchise is not only on consoles anymore. Other popular branches of Pokemon media are accessible through all kinds of means. For instance, GO is a popular geocaching mobile game where you can catch monsters in the real world. On the other hand, Unite is a competitive MOBA that receives regular content updates and balancing patches.

Even outside of video games, Pokemon trading cards are some of the most popular collectibles on the market. There are also several issues of manga for those interested, spanning all the way back to the debut of the franchise. The anime is now branching away from the story of Ash Ketchum and introducing different animation styles as well.

---

4) Market Dominance

There is simply no other monster collection game that comes close to Pokemon (Image via The Pokemon Company)

There is also no other monster collecting franchise that can quite hit Pokemon. The franchise has become so well known that any developers that try have their projects written off as "knock-offs." Digimon is the only other series to come close to a similar level of popularity, but this was in the early days when competition was still fierce.

The only other title that has come close to hitting Game Freak's powerhouse is Palworld, a recently released survival game featuring many features from games like Ark: Survival Evolved, with the creature collecting of Pokemon. The game has become quite the hot topic online because of this, with Nintendo even looking for a way to sue the Palworld team.

---

5) Worldwide Popularity

People from every corner of the Earth love Pokemon (Image via Niantic)

Whereas other competitors like Digimon and Yo-Kai Watch were popular in Japan and eventually made their way nationwide with mixed reviews, Pokemon is beloved in every country. With the many regions taking inspiration from different parts of the world, most fans have a region they can relate best to, further helping them immerse themselves in the franchise's universe and add to the experience.

It owes a lot of this brand loyalty to its initial popularity boom in the early 90s. Most fans remember either growing up in that era or alongside an older sibling who introduced them to it through the cards or video games. However, in recent years, thanks in part to the current era of experimentation, we may very well be on the horizon of another big popularity boom.