Best-selling media franchise Pokémon celebrates its 30th anniversary
Over the last three decades, Pokémon has become the best-selling media franchise, having grossed an estimated $147 billion (£117 bn) as of April 2024.
Since these pocket monsters were created in Japan in 1996, they have become global superstars. Fans have been able to catch them on everything from games and TV to films, merchandise and even liveries on jumbo jets!
Pokémon has cemented itself in society and repeatedly made pop culture history, like in 1999 when it was the first videogame on the cover of TIME Magazine.
As the gaming giant celebrates its 30th anniversary, let’s look at some of our most popular Pokémon records…
Most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at auction
On 16 February, social media star and wrestler Logan Paul (USA) sold his PSA Gem Mint 10 "Pikachu Illustrator" card for $16,492,000 (£12,074,206) through Goldin Auctions.
Gem Mint 10 is the highest grade awarded by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), for cards with four sharp corners, perfect colour and full original gloss.
This card is the only known copy with this grading.
Paul bought the card for $5,275,000 (£3.8 m) in 2021, making it the most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at a private sale.
The “Pikachu Illustrator” cards are a sought-after rarity for collectors. Only 39 were printed and they were originally given out to the winners of a drawing contest, hosted by CoroCoro Magazine. The cards were designed by Atsuko Nishida, who is best known for creating Pikachu.
Read more stories about record-breaking celebrities in our Arts and Entertainment section.
Largest collection of Pokémon cards
Owen and Conner Gray (both UK) have amassed 48,339 cards, as verified in Harlow, Essex, UK, on 11 July 2024.
Conner told GWR: “We have all of them bar the Dutch language. That became impossible for us to find.”
Reflecting on one of their most successful auction purchases, Owen said: “There were probably about 3-4,000 cards just thrown into JD Sports bags and in that combination were two gold star Charizards, which today are worth anywhere between £5-25,000 each.
“The slogan is ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”
Best-selling Pokémon videogame
Game Freak’s original 1996 Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version remains the franchise’s biggest hit, having shifted more than 31.38 million units by March 2024.
Originally called Pocket Monsters: Red & Green in Japan, the role-playing game (RPG) is among the top 20 all-time biggest-selling titles.
Unsurprisingly, Pokémon is also the best-selling RPG series, with 485.3 million games sold as of December 2024.
Players had to travel across the Kanto region, catch Pokémon, collect badges and defeat the villains, Team Rocket.
Most valuable Pokémon card collection
The Pokémon Trading Card Game launched in Japan in October 1996, just nine months after the videogame, sparking a collecting frenzy.
Gary “King Pokémon” Haase (USA) began accumulating the cards in 1998, and by 2022 his stash was worth an estimated $10 m (£8.35 m).
Haase, who started by importing cards from Japan before they were available in the USA, has now filled storage units in three different states – and he has no plans to stop anytime soon!
He has numerous first edition Charizard cards that have been graded Gem Mint 10 by PSA.
First player to reach Level 50 on Pokémon Go
After walking 20,614 km (12,809 mi) – the equivalent of 488.5 marathons! – Australian Twitch streamer FleeceKing (aka Daniel Amos) reached the highest level available on 26 January 2021.
Nearly 5,000 viewers watched in real time as he achieved this milestone, accompanied by his mum.
Reflecting on the experience, FleeceKing said: “[She] was just as passionate and super happy for me.”
He set the record at 3 a.m., just 16 minutes before fellow streamer Lauren Lolly (aka Lauren Bertoni) also achieved this feat.