Millions of people around the globe joined in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the popular Nintendo franchise "Pokémon" on Feb. 27. "Pokémon," a portmanteau of Pocket Monsters, was released in Japan on Feb. 27 1996. Two versions of the game was initially released, "Pokémon Green" and "Pokémon Red." The two games eventually arrived in the United States in 1998.
Since then, the franchise has spawned countless animes, video games, toys and movies. It even had a five-story-tall balloon in last year's Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade.
"Pokémon" was the brainchild of Japanese video game designer Satoshi Tajiri. In an interview in 1998, Tajiri recalls that what influenced him to create "Pokémon" is his love of collecting insects. This is the reason why "Pokémon" gamers encounter these creatures in tall grasses, according to Yahoo Tech.
From its humble beginnings in Japan, "Pokémon" came to conquer the world and invaded the collective consciousness of a generation of kids.
As part of the "Pokémon" 20th anniversary celebration, "Pokémon" publisher announced that it is releasing two new titles for the franchise; "Pokémon Sun" and "Pokémon Moon." Additionally, Nintendo will also rerelease the original "Pokémon Red" and "Pokémon Blue" on the 3DS handheld console.
The "Pokémon" culture started out with just two video game titles. Due to its popularity, helped by the popular "Pokémon" cartoon series, the franchise went to release several updates into the lineup of Pocket Monster's lineup.
Following its 20 successful years in the business, the "Pokémon" franchise has spawned over 900 cartoon episodes, 19 movies and a card game comprised of 68 sets with more than 21.5 billion printed cards that spanned 10 different languages. On average, the franchise earns $1.5 billion annually, according to Venture Beat.
The "Pokémon" video game series alone has sold more than 200 million copies. A figure that is expected to increase once Nintendo launches the two upcoming titles. The whole "Pokémon" universe have become so huge that newcomers can't help but be intimidated by its massive scale of influence.
When the first generation of "Pokémon" was released, it has roughly 151 Pocket Monsters. Six generations later, the current "Pokémon" lineup has around 721 monsters to collect.