Pokémon
The full story of the biggest media franchise on Earth — from Satoshi Tajiri's bug-collecting dream and the 1996 Game Boy originals through the Pokémania that swept the planet, the trading-card crazes, twenty-five years of games and anime, the summer the whole world played Pokémon GO, Ash Ketchum finally becoming World Champion, and the card-collecting mania of today — told through the real commercials, news reports, trailers, tournament finals and photographs of each moment.
A chronological documentary of 573 moments on Loreline.
last updated 2026-07-26
Eras
- Origins — Satoshi Tajiri turns a childhood spent collecting bugs into Pocket Monsters Red & Green, six years in the making at tiny Game Freak. Within two years Japan has a trading card game, a TV anime — and the Porygon broadcast incident that made world news.
- Pokémania — Pokémon hits the West and becomes a full-blown mania: Red & Blue, the 4Kids anime, cards banned in schoolyards, Burger King promotions, a Time magazine cover and a movie that topped the US box office. Gold & Silver arrive before the wave has even crested.
- Advance Era — The Game Boy Advance generation — Ruby & Sapphire, FireRed & LeafGreen, Emerald — rebuilds the series after the fad-crash headlines, and the first official Pokémon World Championships crown the game as a real competitive sport.
- The DS Years — Diamond & Pearl make the Nintendo DS a Pokémon machine and online trading goes global. Platinum and HeartGold & SoulSilver follow, and the Video Game World Championships are born.
- Black, White & 3DS — Black & White dare a full reboot, X & Y launch worldwide on the same day, and the internet makes Pokémon its own: sixteen days of Twitch Plays Pokémon, the Helix Fossil, and a thousand Pikachu marching through Yokohama.
- Pokémon GO — A Super Bowl ad for the 20th anniversary, then the summer that broke reality: Pokémon GO sends millions into parks and streets, stampedes through Central Park, and puts Pokémon back on every front page. Sun & Moon ride the wave.
- Switch Era — Pokémon conquers the living room again — Let's Go, a Hollywood Detective Pikachu, Sword & Shield and the Dexit revolt — while a pandemic-era collecting boom sends trading cards to prices nobody thought possible.
- The New Golden Age — Legends: Arceus reinvents the formula, Ash Ketchum finally becomes World Champion and hands the anime to a new generation, Worlds comes home to Japan, a Van Gogh Museum collab descends into chaos, and TCG Pocket makes card-ripping a daily ritual for millions.
- — Uri Geller drops his Kadabra ban — ILTV news. ILTV Israel News segment on Uri Geller ending his two-decade grudge against Nintendo and giving permission for Kadabra to return to Pokémon cards, November 2020.
- — Pokémon the Movie: Coco — Japanese trailer 1. Official Japanese trailer 1 for 'Pokémon the Movie: Coco', delayed by the pandemic to a December 25, 2020 Japanese release.
- — New Pokémon Snap — release date trailer. The reveal of New Pokémon Snap's April 30, 2021 date — the first sequel to the N64 photo safari in 22 years.
- — Logan Paul: I spent $2,000,000 on Pokémon cards. Paul reveals a seven-figure vintage haul in January 2021, weeks before his Pokémon Day box break streamed to millions.
- — Local news: COVID-19 linked to trading-card boom. San Diego news coverage tying the pandemic's collectibles surge to nostalgia buying and stimulus-era speculation.
- — WION: Pokémon card frenzy reaches six-figure bidding. International news coverage of record-setting Pokémon card auctions during the pandemic collecting mania.
- — Behind the News: 25 years of Pokémon and the card boom. Australian current-affairs program for schools explains the 25th anniversary and why playground card trading was suddenly back.
- — Pokémon Presents — the 25th anniversary show. The February 26, 2021 Presents that announced Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus for the franchise's 25th year.
- — Pokémon Legends: Arceus — final pre-launch trailer. The last trailer before Legends: Arceus launched January 28, 2022; the open-zone experiment sold 6.5 million copies in its first week.
- — Post Malone — Only Wanna Be With You (Pokémon 25 Version). Post Malone's Hootie & the Blowfish cover recorded for the 25th anniversary, debuted at the virtual concert.
- — 25 Years of Memories. Official anniversary film released on Pokémon Day 2021, marking 25 years since Red and Green.
- — Post Malone — Pokémon 25 virtual concert. Post Malone headlined a virtual concert as a stylised avatar for Pokémon Day 2021, kicking off the P25 music program.
- — TMZ: card boom forces PSA to suspend grading. Grading giant PSA suspended most submission tiers in spring 2021 to dig out of a backlog that had swollen past ten million cards.
- — New Pokémon Snap — overview trailer. Nintendo's overview of the Lental region photo expedition that sold over 2 million copies in its launch window.
- — Pokémon Center Hiroshima. The Pokémon Center Hiroshima store in May 2021. By the franchise's 25th anniversary, official Centers operated in more than a dozen Japanese cities.
- — Target suspends in-store Pokémon card sales. Business news report on retailers pulling trading cards from shelves for customer and staff safety in May 2021.
- — Katy Perry — Electric. Katy Perry's P25 single 'Electric', released May 14, 2021 with a music video co-starring Pikachu on the Hawaiian coast.
- — Target stops selling Pokémon cards after fights. Target suspended in-store trading-card sales in May 2021 after fights and a parking-lot gun incident over restock day drops.
- — KHON2: Target suspends card sales over safety. Hawaii local news on the nationwide Target suspension of Pokémon and sports card sales at the height of the frenzy.
- — Katy Perry — Electric, behind the scenes. Behind-the-scenes footage from the 'Electric' shoot, showing how the video's Pikachu scenes were staged.
- — Pokémon UNITE — launch date announcement. The official July 21 launch-date announcement for Pokémon UNITE, the franchise's first 5-on-5 team battler.
- — Pokémon UNITE launches on Switch. Pokémon's free-to-play MOBA, co-developed with Tencent's TiMi Studio, went live on Switch on July 21, 2021 and passed 9 million downloads in weeks.
- — Leonhart opens Evolving Skies at launch. Leonhart's launch-window Evolving Skies booster-box opening, as the set's Eeveelution alt arts instantly became the most-hunted cards of the boom era.
- — Legends: Arceus — Pokémon Presents trailer. The August 2021 Presents trailer that showed Hisui's open segments, noble Pokémon battles and the game's survey-corps framing.
- — Moonbreon pulled — Evolving Skies launch weekend. A launch-weekend Evolving Skies opening hitting the Umbreon VMAX alternate art — 'moonbreon', the chase card whose mania came to define the modern TCG boom.
- — Secrets of the Jungle — official English trailer. Official English trailer for Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle ahead of its global Netflix release in October 2021.
- — Pokémon 25: The Album — trailer. Capitol Records' trailer for the P25 compilation featuring Katy Perry, Post Malone and J Balvin.
- — Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl launch. The Sinnoh remakes launched November 19, 2021 and shipped six million copies in their first week despite a famously dupe-friendly cloning glitch.
- — Legends: Arceus — launch trailer. Launch-day trailer for the feudal-Sinnoh adventure widely credited with proving Pokémon could reinvent its core loop.
- — Pokémon Presents 2.27.2022 — Scarlet & Violet announced. The Pokémon Day 2022 Presents that closed with the reveal of Scarlet and Violet, the series' first fully open-world generation.
- — Scarlet & Violet — announcement trailer. The live-action-to-gameplay announcement trailer for Generation 9, set in the Iberian-inspired Paldea region.
- — Community Day in Leipzig. Players out for the Stufful Community Day in Leipzig on 23 April 2022. Monthly Community Days, introduced in 2018, keep local GO scenes meeting in person years after launch.
- — Scarlet & Violet — second trailer. The June 1, 2022 trailer introducing legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon and the games' November 18 date.
- — The Pokémon Fossil Museum. exhibition at Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science in 2022, pairing real dinosaur fossils with their fictional Pokémon counterparts.
- — TCG tables at Pyrkon. Pokémon TCG matches underway at Pyrkon 2022 in Poznań, Poland, as organized play rebounded from the pandemic — and from the 2020-21 card-collecting boom that emptied store shelves.
- — Worlds 2022 London — opening ceremony. Attendee footage of the opening ceremony at ExCeL London, the first in-person World Championships since 2019.
- — Worlds comes to London. The entrance of the 2022 Pokémon World Championships at London's ExCeL Centre — the first Worlds ever held outside North America, and the first since 2019 after two pandemic cancellations.
- — Worlds 2022 — first Pokémon GO grand finals. Pokémon GO debuted as a Worlds esport in London 2022; this is the inaugural GO Masters winners final.
- — Worlds 2022 — TCG grand finals. Daichi Shimada defeated Ondrej Skubal for the 2022 TCG Masters world championship in London.
- — Worlds 2022 — VG Masters grand finals. Portugal's Eduardo Cunha beat Guillermo Castilla Diaz in London to win the first post-pandemic VGC world title.
- — Flying Pikachu monorail, Okinawa. An Okinawa Urban Monorail train wrapped for the "Flying Pikachu Project" at Makishi Station in October 2022, matching the Pikachu jets flying tourists into Naha.
- — Pokémon Center Shibuya. The neon-lit Pokémon Center Shibuya inside Shibuya PARCO in 2022, famous for the life-size Mewtwo suspended in a tank at its entrance.
- — IGN: Ash Ketchum becomes World Champion. After 25 years of trying, Ash defeated Leon in the Masters Eight final (aired in Japan November 11, 2022) to become Pokémon's world champion — and made global news.
- — WION: Ash finally becomes a Pokémon Master. International news coverage of the anime milestone, noting Pikachu's tournament-deciding win over Charizard.
- — Plush mascots at a Brazilian Community Day. Pokémon plush lined up at a Teddiursa Community Day gathering in Porto Alegre, November 2022 — Brazilian GO communities are among the game's largest and most organized.
- — Scarlet & Violet — launch trailer. Launch trailer for November 18, 2022; Scarlet and Violet sold 10 million copies in three days, the biggest launch in Nintendo's history.
- — Scarlet & Violet launch glitches — viral clip. One of the viral clips of Scarlet and Violet's launch-week physics glitches and frame drops that flooded social media in November 2022.
- — GameSpot News on Scarlet & Violet's glitches. News segment rounding up the clipping, camera and animation bugs that defined Scarlet and Violet's rocky launch.
- — News: Scarlet & Violet sell 10 million in 3 days. Games-news coverage of Nintendo's announcement that Generation 9 had delivered the biggest launch of any game in the company's history.
- — IGN: Nintendo apologizes for Scarlet & Violet performance. On December 1, 2022 Nintendo formally apologized for the games' technical state and promised patches — a rare public mea culpa for the franchise.
- — Pikachu meet-and-greet in Cebu. A Pikachu appearance drawing families at GMall of Cebu in the Philippines, December 2022 — the mascot tours malls across Asia year-round.
- — Selfies with a giant Pikachu, Stuttgart. Passers-by photographing themselves with a giant inflatable Pikachu outside Stuttgart's Königsbau on New Year's Eve 2022.
- — China Airlines Pikachu Jet inaugural ceremony. Officials at the inaugural-flight ceremony of China Airlines' "Pikachu Jet CI" in 2023, when Taiwan's flag carrier joined the growing club of Asian airlines flying Pokémon liveries.
- — Pokémon train on the Taipei Metro. A Taipei Metro train on the Tamsui–Xinyi line wrapped in Pokémon characters in 2023, part of a Taiwan-wide tourism tie-up that also put Pikachu on planes and buses.
- — Skymark Pikachu Jet at Haneda. Skymark Airlines' Boeing 737-800 "Pikachu Jet BC" taxiing at Haneda in February 2023. Launched in 2021 for the "Flying Pikachu Project", it links Tokyo with the Okinawan islands.
- — Pokémon card vending machine, Nagoya. A dedicated Pokémon card vending machine at a Don Quijote store in Nagoya in 2023, one answer to the scalping and shortages of the post-boom card market.
- — A Timeless Journey — official Ash tribute. The Pokémon Company's own farewell montage to Ash and Pikachu, released as their era of the anime ended.
- — ABC News: a farewell to Ash Ketchum. US network news marks Ash and Pikachu's final episode, which aired in Japan on March 24, 2023 after 26 years and more than 1,200 episodes.
- — Pokémon Horizons — official trailer. Trailer for Pokémon Horizons, the first series in the anime's history without Ash, following new leads Liko and Roy from April 2023.
- — Flying Pikachu train, Taoyuan Airport line. A Taoyuan Metro airport express in "Flying Pikachu Project" livery in June 2023, greeting travellers on the ride between Taipei and Taoyuan International Airport.
- — Pokémon — US syndication promos 1998–1999. A run of American syndication promos from Pokémon's first English season, preserved from VHS recordings of the original 1998–99 broadcasts.
- — Pokémon Sleep — 'How to Sleep' trailer. Launch trailer for Pokémon Sleep, the sleep-tracking app released in July 2023 — first teased back in 2019.
- — Local news: Pokémon Sleep wants you to rest better. TV news explains the app that turns sleep into gameplay, which logged over 100,000 years of cumulative user sleep in its first year.
- — Pokémon Presents 8.8.2023. The August 2023 Presents, headlined by Scarlet and Violet's Teal Mask DLC and the worldwide rollout of Detective Pikachu Returns.
- — Worlds 2023 Yokohama — opening ceremonies trailer. Official trailer for the opening ceremonies of the 2023 World Championships in Yokohama, the first Worlds ever held in Japan.
- — Worlds 2023 opening ceremony — attendee footage. Fan-shot footage from inside Pacifico Yokohama as Pokémon's world championships arrived in its home country for the first time.
- — Worlds 2023 — TCG Masters finals. Vance Kelley versus Tord Reklev in the TCG Masters final at the first Japanese Worlds.
- — Worlds 2023 — VGC Masters finals. Michael Kelsch faced Shohei Kimura for the VGC Masters title in Yokohama, August 13, 2023.
- — Card packs by vending machine, Singapore. A Singapore vending machine selling Pokémon card packs in 2023 — by then the TCG was printing more than 9 billion cards a year to keep up with demand.
- — Pokémon × Van Gogh Museum — official announcement. The official teaser for the Van Gogh Museum collaboration marking the museum's 50th anniversary, with Pokémon reimagined in Van Gogh's style.
- — The Oshawott train in Mie. Kintetsu's "Mijumaru Train" in 2023, wrapped in Oshawott artwork. The otter Pokémon serves as the official ambassador of Mie Prefecture, one of several Pokémon adopted by Japanese regions.
- — Raw footage: the Van Gogh Museum scramble. Visitor footage of the crowd chaos inside the Van Gogh Museum on the collaboration's opening day; the museum later pulled the promo card from the shop entirely.
…453 further moments continue the chronology here. Full text archive: /loreline-text/pokmon.md
- — AT5: chaos at the Van Gogh Museum over Pokémon. Amsterdam's local broadcaster covers the September 28, 2023 opening-day crush, as scalpers stripped the museum shop of the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat promo card.
- — Wooper Community Day, Goiânia. Players gathered in Goiânia, Brazil, for the Wooper Community Day in November 2023, seven years into the game's life and still filling parks.
- — Pokémon Concierge — official Netflix trailer. Trailer for the stop-motion series by dwarf studios set at a Pokémon resort, which premiered on Netflix December 28, 2023.
- — Pikachu and Psyduck donuts. from Mister Donut in Japan in 2023. The chain's Pokémon collaboration returns every winter and routinely sells out by mid-morning.
- — Pokémon Christmas in Taipei. A Pokémon Christmas tree glowing beneath the Shin Kong Life Tower in Taipei, November 2023, part of the franchise's heavy holiday push across Taiwan.
- — Pokémon TCG Pocket — announcement. TCG Pocket was announced on Pokémon Day 2024, promising digital pack-ripping with immersive 3D cards, co-developed by Creatures and DeNA.
- — Pokémon Legends: Z-A — announcement trailer. The Pokémon Day 2024 teaser announcing Legends: Z-A, set entirely within an urban-redeveloped Lumiose City, for 2025.
- — Pokémon Presents — Pokémon Day 2024. The February 27, 2024 Presents that revealed both Legends: Z-A and TCG Pocket in one showcase.
- — Pikachu and Sprigatito in Thailand. Pikachu and Sprigatito mascots greeting fans in Thailand in February 2024, as The Pokémon Company opened a Bangkok office and pushed hard into Southeast Asia.
- — GO Fest 2024 New York — on the ground. Event footage from GO Fest 2024 at Randall's Island, New York, one of three global host cities alongside Sendai and Madrid.
- — The Worlds merch line, Honolulu. The enormous queue for exclusive merchandise at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships in Honolulu. Worlds pop-up stores now sell out so fast that the line rivals the tournament as the main event.
- — Worlds 2024 Honolulu — TCG Masters finals. Fernando Cifuentes faced Seinosuke Shiokawa for the TCG Masters title at the first World Championships held in Hawaii.
- — Worlds 2024 — VGC Masters finals. Italy's Luca Ceribelli beat Yuta Ishigaki in Honolulu to win the 2024 VGC Masters world championship.
- — Pokémon Center Kyoto. The entrance of Pokémon Center Kyoto in 2024, guarded by artwork of legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh — a nod to the bird said to be inspired by Kyoto's temple phoenixes.
- — TCG Pocket — gameplay trailer. Pre-launch gameplay trailer showing TCG Pocket's daily free packs and 'immersive' 3D rare cards.
- — TCG Pocket — launch trailer. TCG Pocket launched October 30, 2024 and was an instant phenomenon: over 30 million downloads and roughly $200 million in revenue in its first month.
- — Pokémon Café Osaka. The Pokémon Café above the Pokémon Center Osaka DX in Shinsaibashi in 2024, where a costumed Pikachu chef greets diners at reserved-seating character meals.
- — Pokémon cosplay in 2025. Group Pokémon cosplay at Galaxy Con Raleigh in January 2025 — three decades in, every generation of games still shows up on the con floor.
- — Raw footage: fight over Pokémon cards at Costco. Phone footage of shoppers brawling over a Pokémon TCG restock at a US Costco — emblematic of the 2024-2025 restock mania that brought back 2021-style scalping.
- — Garuda Pikachu Jet GA in Jakarta. Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-800 PK-GMU, the "Pikachu Jet GA", taxiing in Jakarta. Indonesia's flag carrier unveiled the livery in 2023 as part of the Pokémon Air Adventures programme.
- — 2025 Pokémon World Championships — official trailer. The official trailer for Worlds 2025 in Anaheim, back in Southern California for the first time since 2017.
- — Pokémon Champions — announcement trailer. Pokémon Champions, a dedicated battling game for Switch and mobile built around competitive play, announced on Pokémon Day 2025.
- — Pokémon Center Fukuoka. The Pokémon Center Fukuoka store in 2025. Nearly three decades after the first store opened, the Centers remain a fixture of Japanese department-store floors.
- — TODAY: Pokémon cards see a resurgence. NBC's TODAY show on the lockdown-era collecting revival that sent 1999 Base Set Charizards past six figures.
- — Legends: Z-A — story trailer. The July 2025 story trailer for Legends: Z-A, detailing the Z-A Royale battles fought across Lumiose City at night.
- — Nippon TV: McDonald's Japan apologizes over Pokémon Happy Meal resales. McDonald's Japan apologized in August 2025 after resellers bulk-bought Pokémon-card Happy Meals and discarded the food, forcing purchase limits.
- — News: McDonald's Pokémon Happy Meal sparks frenzy. The February 2021 25th-anniversary Happy Meal cards were bulk-bought and scalped within days, with sealed meals flipped online for hundreds of dollars.
- — Straits Times: the unhappy Happy Meal. Singapore's Straits Times on the Japanese Happy Meal card debacle, with sealed giveaway cards flipped online within hours.
- — Worlds 2025 Anaheim — VGC Masters finals. Giovanni Cischke versus James Evans in the VGC Masters final at the 2025 World Championships in Anaheim, California.
- — Worlds 2025 — TCG Masters finals. Riley McKay faced Justin Newdorf for the TCG Masters world title in Anaheim, August 2025.
- — Still playing, nine years on. Pokémon GO players gathered on a Hannover street corner in 2025. Nearly a decade after launch, the game still musters neighborhood crowds for raid hours and community days.
- — CBS: some Pokémon cards returned over 3,000%. CBS Boston relays Wall Street Journal reporting that top Pokémon cards had outperformed nearly every conventional asset class.
- — Legends: Z-A at the September 2025 Nintendo Direct. The Nintendo Direct segment ahead of Z-A's October 16, 2025 launch — the first mainline Pokémon release also built for Switch 2.
- — Pokémon Legends: Z-A — launch trailer. Launch trailer for Legends: Z-A, released October 16, 2025 with real-time battles and the return of Mega Evolution; it sold 5.8 million copies in its first week.
- — Z-A: Mega Dimension — DLC launch trailer. Launch trailer for Mega Dimension, Z-A's December 2025 expansion adding new Mega Evolutions above Lumiose City.
- — #Pokemon30 — teaser trailer. The official teaser opening Pokémon's 30th-anniversary year, three decades on from Red and Green in 1996.
- — Pokémon Super Bowl LX commercial — What's Your Favorite?. Pokémon returned to the Super Bowl for its 30th anniversary with a celebrity-studded spot asking one question: what's your favorite Pokémon?
- — ABC7: Logan Paul's Pokémon card sells for a record $16.5M. New York's ABC7 on the auction of the Pikachu Illustrator Logan Paul once wore at WrestleMania, setting a new world record for any trading card.
- — Ken Goldin: selling the $16.4M Pikachu Illustrator. Auctioneer Ken Goldin's first-person account of brokering the world-record sale of the Pikachu Illustrator card.
- — Fox Business: Pokémon card sells for $16.49 million. Fox Business covers the record-shattering sale of the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator — reported at about $16.49 million, the most ever paid for a trading card.
- — Pokémon Champions arrives in 2026. Release-window announcement for Pokémon Champions, the cross-platform battle game carrying competitive Pokémon beyond the mainline titles.
- — Pokémon Presents — Pokémon Day 2026. The 30th-anniversary Pokémon Presents broadcast on February 27, 2026, thirty years to the day after Red and Green.
- — TCG 30th Anniversary — global synced release. Official video for the 30th-anniversary Trading Card Game set, released simultaneously worldwide for the first time.
- — Pokémon Champions — overview trailer. Nintendo's overview of Champions' ranked battling, team building and cross-play between Switch and mobile.
- — Scoot Pikachu Jet TR at Taoyuan. Scoot's Boeing 787-9 "Pikachu Jet TR" taxiing at Taiwan Taoyuan in 2026. The Singaporean low-cost carrier has flown the livery since 2022, bringing Pokémon Air Adventures to Southeast Asia.
- — CNBC: what's fueling the Pokémon card frenzy?. CNBC unpacks the speculation wave that sent graded Pokémon cards up thousands of percent during the pandemic.
- — China Airlines A350 Pikachu Jet at Narita. China Airlines' Airbus A350-900 B-18916 departing Narita in 2026, the widebody follow-up to Taiwan's first Pikachu Jet, with flying Pikachu across the tail.
- — Pokémon Champions launches on mobile. The official launch notice as Champions went live on mobile devices in 2026.
Full text archive: /loreline-text/pokmon.md
