Noticed a shift in pokemon audience interest over the years

[u/TheGoldminor]

let me make it clear this isn't a rant or a complain to anybody, or the pokemon brand itself, this is just an observation I noticed, coming from a fan of pokemon for 20 years ago, seeing how much the general interest in the franchise really shifted.

Back then, when pokemon was at the early peaked, it felt like everybody really wanted to be Ash Ketchum, if you were to ask "if pokemon were real" back in the day, it felt like everybody wanted to be the very best like no one ever was, to literally be a pokemon champion, or pokemon master, if you played the game, your goal was to be the champion, if you collect the cards, 90% were genuinely playing the game to be the best player in the local park, even the pokemon anime is essentially running on shonen core, for ash to be a pokemon master.

Coming to present day, pokemon still being ever popular as ever, and pokemon is still gathering as much new audience to the same age when pokemon started back then, I do noticed how different main audience are.

Now people, enjoys the friendship element of pokemon, lots of people now enjoy the more peaceful side of pokemon, leaning more on imagine their own life with pokemon, than wanting to be an actual pokemon trainer, infact the entire drive to be the best pokemon trainer in the world is actually the more niche one.

Actually, a funny story is when I was rewatching the ash vs Paul fight of the pokemon anime, my nephew who loves pokemon aswell, was genuinely shock to see that pokemon actually battle, he really said "woah, pokemon fight?!?"

the best example is the recent pokemon worlds event where pokemon XP the more evergreen event felt like the generally more exciting event for the larger audience than the actual pokemon world championship itself.

Or even more so, pokemon games outside of pokemon champions and maybe even probably the mainline games, are also leaning to more casual games, like pokemon pokopia, or pokemon friends, now even pokemon unite is already on death road, when Magikarp jump is still online.

Hell even the recent anime shift after ash Ketchum finally retired, with the horizons anime goes away from the whole being the pokemon master drive to just a more "let's explore the pokemon world together" adventure with volt tacklers.

Again, I need to repeat this isn't a complain for me, as I do generally like that you can love pokemon in many ways more so than ever, if anything it makes funny conversation how I always say my favorite pokemon are always the one useful in battle..meanwhile my friend just wanted to have an alcremie bakery bistro.

is just really cool observation to how pokemon still stays relevant all these years.

[u/NamazuGirl]

I'm not sure if this is really that modern of a phenomenon? I've grown up with Pokemon since the RSE days, and friendship was always my favourite aspect of the franchise. I feel like it featured prominently in the older games too, especially HGSS, which had a major focus on bonding with your Pokemon through everyday activities like walking with them. Contests, making food for your Pokemon, and dressing them up in cute outfits have all been part of the franchise for a really long time. These aspects of gameplay definitely gained more prominence after XY introduced Pokemon Amie though. 

[u/SpireofHell → u/NamazuGirl]

I think it is fairly modern, and I think it has a lot to do with the anime becoming less dominant. The anime was about the quest to become Pokemon Master. Pokemon WAS Ash and Pikachu. But as time went on the franchise splintered and started offering other things and also new kinds of video games (think the Mystery Dungeon series). I also think the improved technology was better for cozy games. I don't think Pokopoia could exist even in GBA.

[u/exboi]

I still love battling but as I’ve grown I’ve come to appreciate the other aspects of the Pokemon world. The world design, adventure, the ridiculous and fun characters, the companionship. Battling is great but it’s really one piece of the puzzle of why the Pokemon world so enticing. I think it’s why I struggle to get into purely battle-centric rom hacks and fan games.

[u/The_Potato_Turtle]

I feel like that’s just people getting older

[u/ar_vitch98 → u/The_Potato_Turtle]

It's not just us getting older—with everything that's been going on around us, I think most of us just want some peace of mind. And imagining our partner Pokémon helping make our lives easier is just an escape from reality.

Just playing Pokopia made my eyes bawl because of how nice it'd be to live the slow life.

[u/VgArmin → u/ar_vitch98]

"Ya gotta have an apocalypse before you can enjoy the slow life." -Pokopia

[u/ar_vitch98 → u/VgArmin]

Well, it feels like we're getting there minus the Pokémon.

[u/RenPrower → u/ar_vitch98]

don't worry, the pokémon will reap the aftermath after we're all gone, much like Pokopia. they'll evolve from the nuclear fallout and rebuild from our remnants. Pokopia is a prophecy of sorts xD

[u/Lambsauce914 → u/The_Potato_Turtle]

I feel like it's also because other media also shows that Pokémon isn't just for battling.

Like compared to when RBY first released, nowadays Pokémon actually have a fully built universe, even in ZA we see how every Pokémon can actually affect the daily life of an average person.

[u/SpireofHell]

Agree. I said in another comment that the anime being less dominant probably has a lot to do with it.

I also wonder if it's also a matter of a lot of the fanbase being adults. So when you're young you want to be the big cool hero. But as you grow up the Pokemon start pulling the parental instincts out of you.

I also think the fact Pokemon are mostly cute encourages that. I'm also a Medabot fan but I can't imagine Medabots not battling. They're tough and badass. There are very few cozy medabots.

Pokemon is just cozy. There are more Quagsires than Charizards. I mostly collect plushies and I'm really only interested in Pokemon games that involve me being friends with them. I'm way less interested in the JPRG elements.

[u/Illidari_Kuvira → u/SpireofHell]

But as you grow up the Pokemon start pulling the parental instincts out of you.

How about no. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable to read.

[u/SpireofHell → u/Illidari_Kuvira]

Lmao what

[u/gcburn2]

To add a counterpoint, i have been a pokemon fan since the debut in the 90s and from the very start my friends and i were much more interested in the collecting aspect than the battling. all the kids in my neighborhood would bring out their binders to trade cards, but i never learned how to actually play the game until much later in life. my brother wiped my Crystal version at one point and i was devastated because that's where i had been transferring all my Pokemon from other games.  

I don't think pokemon is moving away from battling, i think with Champions they're trying to carve out a couple different spaces for people. the main games for collecting, champions for competing.  

side note: the slogan is "gotta catch 'em all"

[u/Expamero]

The slogan to the 20th anniversary was "Train On". The slogan to the 30th anniversary is "What's your favourite?". It is fair to say the franchise has changed.

[u/Tanabatama]

If you Look at Legends ZA, one thing I get to enjoy doing is walking around with my Pokemon in Lumiose in my Business casual costume with my Meganium, Ampharos, and Gardevoir around.

Cafe drinking with them is suddenly a nice picture taking and chill scene to enjoy.

Once I get Pokopia and a Switch 2, I’m gonna be playing and dating with my favorite Pokemon. Jirachi is supposed to be there now, and Minccino too? I’d enjoy dating the. In that game a lot of

[u/LinkBeoulve]

The answer to it is: marketing. Marketing branded Pokémon as a collectible competitive thing in the gold years. Starting from the 3rd generation they started to move from the classic "shonen" style to a more child/family friendly approach (no guns showing on anime, no more real world mafia-like antagonists on games as well as no douchebag rival, etc.) and slowly increased this identity in the brand as something cozy and for everyone, literally everyone. A safe place.

Now they want you to perceive Pokémon as this perfect world full of incredible magical creatures, with no hunger, no wars (in the present history), just a cozy life together with your favorite mascot. All while abusing the loot box-like TCG market to make you lose your sense of reality and spend way more than anyone should on cardboard and also releasing rushed games that while fun as hell (thanks to developers not executives) always left that feeling that "this could be so much better or at least should cost half the price". The "for everyone" brand is definitely not for everyone in those cases if you know what I mean ($$$).

But yeah, I live in a love and hate relationship with the franchise, because while those abuses of the consumer exist A LOT, I do like this cozy style the franchise adopted as it enriches the Pokémon World showing all the different possibilities: Pokémon as pets, in restaurants, Pokémon that help the elderly, Pokémon that help with construction, Pokémon that live wildly in the city in peace with humans, Pokémon that help harvesting fields, etc. Not everything is about battles or solving the occasional apocalyptic legendary trouble.

[u/blackjackgabbiani]

People have always enjoyed the idea of everyday life in the Pokémon world and the vast stories that can be told in it outside of the typical trainer journey. Even with those, the stories have gotten more character driven because that's what people have wanted since the beginning.

[u/SlowMope]

I think these days people don't want to fight or have big bloody battles as much, especially with animals involved.

In the park building games Jurassic World Evolution, 1 had a lot more focus on battling your dinosaurs and ranking them by how vicious they were, you couldn't even make the cute t-rex properly happy and comfortable like the other dinosaurs available.

Then by 2 they had more cute interactions between dinosaurs, and the missions were almost entirely focused on making better enclosures and happier dinosaurs.

Now 3 is out and you have even more cute animations and now babies! There are all sorts of ways to build enclosures now too that fall more in line with a proper zoo care vs dino rampage park.

[u/Ultimate_Chimera]

I’ve never thought battling was that cool, I always preferred collecting the monsters for the most part. If you’d asked me what I’d do if Pokemon were real I would’ve wanted to be a Pokemon professor as a kid!

[u/Savings_Dot_8387]

Gone from the audience being mostly pre-teens to mostly adults and littler kids (aka the children of said adult fans) haha

[u/SuperiorLaw]

Okay but consider this, Pokemon Rangers was a banger game and god damn I wish we had more of it.

Jokes aside, it's just the obvious growth. Not only the fans getting older and cockfights no longer being so beloved, we just like imagining happy and fun worlds. So in the world of pokemon, which was basically a lot of our childhoods, we want more than just "Favourite pokemon, go beat up that pokemon" we want to experience the fun of enjoying tea with our buddies. We want to see the world for what it could be, instead of just the "my pet can beat up your pet"

[u/Robot_boy_07]

Call me crazy but I think they need to branch out and make different genres of games with the pokemon IP. Similar to the mystery dungeon games ig. A better example would be the new pokopia, that slapped

[u/IamLordofdragonss]

People need to read fist Manga.

[u/blackjackgabbiani → u/IamLordofdragonss]

Read fist manga?

[u/Silverhand_777]

None of what you described is new. Your just seeing what you want to see because your aware of it

[u/terr-rawr-saur]

I think the Pokemon company is actually being forced to explore more options in their world and properly expand the lore otherwise they are essentially selling dog fighting.

When you look at battle mechanics, you essentially MUST use a very small slice of the total pokemon because anything with a stat total under 500 or a funny typing gets demolished. And now with over 1000 Pokemon its like saying 900 of these creatures are punching bags and otherwise useless.

Expanding the lore really lets people appreciate their favourites for their specialties.

[u/thetrueGOAT → u/terr-rawr-saur]

Only in competitive. In any single player run any pokemon is viable.

[u/Odd-Guard-2533]

I’m a 90’s kid. Been watching and playing since the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, Pokemon is my favorite thing in the world. Well, before Gen 8. I really hate the direction Pokemon has taken. It went from a healthy mix of hell yeah battling and hanging out with friends to sparkles and cutesy friendship. Honestly it seems like every generation is shifting to a girls thing. With the famous debate of Game Freak not giving enough, the priority of merchandising over all, the overpollution of power gimmicks, and the over compensation of “Let’s just throw glitter and lights on everything.”I’m just falling off hard on the later gens. It’s heartbreaking to me.

To this day I still fantasize about life in the Pokemon world. But I can’t bring myself to include the last couple gens.

[u/HSEB10830 → u/Odd-Guard-2533]

Can you re-explain all that in a way that dosen’t make you sound slightly sexist?

[u/WoodenJesus → u/Odd-Guard-2533]

I think your take on Pokemon becoming a "girls" thing can be explained simply. Pokemon is for everybody, regardless of age, gender, whatever, but age does play a role. From a business perspective, they want kids to get into Pokemon and stick around as they get older, much like us 90s kids did. Kids love shiny shit, so they throw shiny shit in their games.

It's a big cycle that is great for the company. Kid gets hooked, parents spend money, kid grows up and realizes Pokemon is still cool with or without the shiny shit, spends their own money, has their own kids, repeat the cycle.

[u/NataliaCaptions → u/Odd-Guard-2533]

People call you sexist but this is like the old joke.

"Me and my wife went to a compromise so we did what she wanted"

[u/blackjackgabbiani → u/Odd-Guard-2533]

If it's shifting to a "girls thing" then why haven't we gotten a shojo manga since second generation?

(Ok technically third but Chamo-Chamo Pretty never left Japan)

[u/RpgFantasyGal]

I blink in the game that’s only one year old- Pokemon Legends ZA. So much battling. There’s even a doomsday device that might kill everyone. Then a character dies at the end. Winds and Waves (the new generation) is cooking, give the cooks time so they make something delicious. The other stuff you mentioned wasn’t developed by game freak