Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary on the 27th of February, since the release of the games ‘Pokémon Red and Green’. Since then, the franchise has massively expanded to different branches such as trading cards, Tv-shows, films, centres, plushies and PokePark KANTO that opened on February 5th 2026 in Tokyo.
Pokémon is a part of Nintendo’s wide network of franchises with it’s original creator and founder of Game Freak, Satoshi Tajiri who was inspired from childhood bug-catching.
With Tajiri’s inspiration we have since seen nine generations of Pokémon (waves of new Pokémon released/designs), games across all platforms from Gameboy to more recently Switch 2. This comes with Pokémon Legends ZA with an estimate sales of twelve million (Bludapedia) and twenty Pokémon Centres located in Japan.
However due constant popularity amongst all ages, Pokémon has stayed relevant to all kinds of fans whether they want to collect and trade cards, play games, watch the shows and films or even just collect the teddies they produce.
On Pokemon’s 30th birthday we see an array of celebrations with events such as ‘Day Out’ aimed for kids and ‘Night Out’ for adult fans. There is also a livestream for future Pokémon announcements.
As well as this, we have seen special editions of TCG Cards with anniversary stamps, multiple 30th logos for each Pokémon as well as in game events for Pokémon Go that receive an average of up to 75 million players a month according to active player.
It’s had such a big impact on the world good and some bad, it would feel wrong to not celebrate such a household name and for a community to gather and enjoy such a monumental thing.
They knew that nostalgia and a recognisable franchise would keep them running for years on years not to mention there was hardly and competition going after the same thing Nintendo and Game Freaks were
Pokémon fan David Peach
Upcoming projects are ‘Pokopia’ which sees a release on March 5th, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen coming to Switch 2 on the date of the anniversary (27th February) and Pokémon’s new generation expected this year. However we will most likely see more announcements with their livestream for ‘Pokémon Presents’.
