On Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, game devs reflect on the series’ impact on their life and work

In the 30 years since it took pop culture by storm back in 1996, Pokémon remains one of the world’s most popular franchises — and the phenomenon shows no signs of slowing. According to the analyst team at Gamesight, Pokémon gaming content has generated over 1.4 billion hours of live viewership across Twitch and YouTube since 2018, while more than 3.6 million Pokémon YouTube videos have accumulated over 66 billion total views. In every single month of the last eight years, Pokémon has never dipped below 1.5 million hours of live content watched. It’s a fandom that doesn’t have sleepy seasons and transcends generations.