A Japanese Pokemon Game Popularity Poll

Yung Dramps

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Ok so, I dunno where else I can possibly post this that wouldn't be necroposting, so here I go.

Tonight, I came across something fascinating after doing a wee research on the topic. As the title of this thread implies, it's a Japanese favorite Pokemon game survey with well over 1000 respondents. When I found this I expected something similar to us westerners' consensus with Gens 1, Platinum and BW1/2 at the top, 3d games near the bottom, so on and so forth. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!

-The most immediately shocking observation to me: XY in second place. Like damn, either the Japanese really saw something in that one we didn't or this is just a meme pick like how they bullshitted Dedenne to the top in that one recent Twitter contest.
-Relative to how its worshipped amongst the fanbase here, Gen 5 honestly did kinda so-so. BW1 was only mid-tier in regards to first entry placements, and BW2 is trailing out of the top 10 behind SWSH, SM and Emerald.
-On the flip-side, Gen 4 seems to have the most congruence in opinion between the western and Japanese fans. They love it, we love it: Sinnoh appreciation is a universal constant.
-Third versions seem to really have a hard time sticking over there. Platinum's the only one in the Top 10 and even that's trailing behind OG DP, which I highly doubt has anything to do with quality. Crystal, Emerald, USUM, all of them are languishing amidst the lower ends of the mainline placements.
-Detective Pikachu stands as the lone spinoff in the top 10. Wonder how much of this is because of the movie and how much is because the Japanese fanbase got attached to the game much more than we did?

What else sticks out to you, gents?
 
Polls like these are cute. I find it very easy to believe that 102 people would vote for XY as their favorite, even if it can be surprising to see come in second over the other mainlines. I think being the first 3D mainline title might've gave a big impression and post-SWSH discussion might've had a kinder eye sent towards it.

The third games have the caveat of being on their own. They always sell less than their paired counterparts, likely because those lead the generation and not everyone buys the follow ups to begin with...so the first set always stick out more to people.

Also like every possibel game was on this poll. Even the smash bros games. It's easy to see why Crystal only got like 6 votes.
 
Yung Dramps said:
-Third versions seem to really have a hard time sticking over there. Platinum's the only one in the Top 10 and even that's trailing behind OG DP, which I highly doubt has anything to do with quality. Crystal, Emerald, USUM, all of them are languishing amidst the lower ends of the mainline placements.
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My personal opinion (which is a opinion and I'm too lazy to check if this has factual evidence) is that a big chunk of the "casual" playerbase won't really tend toward buying a third version because "they already played the game".
If you're the kind of player who only finishes the story, maybe just finishes the dex and doesn't really touch the game anymore, aren't a competitive player, and don't happen to swim in money, paying the full price (40€ at the time, 60€ nowadays) to play the same game with slight differences again isn't a compelling option, and since Pokemon games (almost) never go on sale, the option "eh i'll pick it up on discount" isn't there either.

That is also one of the reasons for which I do think the DLC system does/will sell more than the third version system in both short and long term.
 
Worldie said:
My personal opinion (which is a opinion and I'm too lazy to check if this has factual evidence) is that a big chunk of the "casual" playerbase won't really tend toward buying a third version because "they already played the game".
If you're the kind of player who only finishes the story, maybe just finishes the dex and doesn't really touch the game anymore, aren't a competitive player, and don't happen to swim in money, paying the full price (40€ at the time, 60€ nowadays) to play the same game with slight differences again isn't a compelling option, and since Pokemon games (almost) never go on sale, the option "eh i'll pick it up on discount" isn't there either.

That is also one of the reasons for which I do think the DLC system does/will sell more than the third version system in both short and long term.
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Generally, third versions usually sell around roughly half the amount that the main paired versions do. Emerald, Platinum, and USUM all hovered around roughly 8 million sales in their entire lifetime, and Crystal only sold around 9 million, as opposed to the usual 16-18 million that main paired versions usually sell.

Granted, it's not really a surprise, since third versions have always been literally DLC disguised as a brand new game. The sales already show this, since it's evident that casual players are not compelled to buy what is essentially the same game again except with adjustments and added content. So the result is that only more serious Pokemon players usually end up buying the third versions, and I think Game Freak probably understood this since the beginning, which is why stuff like the Battle Tower was only in Crystal and not in GS, and later the Battle Frontier was almost exclusively in the third versions of the generations it was in (Emerald and Platinum), with HGSS merely copypasting it.

The DLC system is sort of hard to gauge, since while it costs less immediately than buying the base game+third version, at the same time you're still paying for more content. Granted, Pokemon has always done this since the beginning with GSC, but the Expansion Pass sales are hard to gauge immediately compared to third versions. Like third versions, it still depends on how attached you are the the game itself if you actually want the DLC in the first place: I know plenty of people who skipped out on buying Sword and Shield's DLC because they weren't attached enough to SwSh to bother with it. Even though it costs less, from what I can see in the end it still largely ends up catering to the more serious crowd for the most part and people who weren't all that attached to SwSh probably still won't bother.

It'll be interesting to see if that trend continues in the future if they continue the DLC route over third/"upper" versions.
 
When discussing this last night in a Discord server I actually received an interesting theory about XY's placement: Pokemonamie. Japanese people seem to love their virtual pet sims based on the enduring success of franchises like Tamagotchi, so the introduction of this function maybe that has something to do with it.
 
Yung Dramps said:
Ok so, I dunno where else I can possibly post this that wouldn't be necroposting, so here I go.
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You could have posted them in the old "General Popularity Poll" thread.

I know you said you didn't want to Necropost, but the thing with necroposting, in my opinion, is that as long as you had a good reason to make a post there you're more "reviving the thread". Necroposting I more considered something where you post a throw away comment in a dead thread.

Like for the poll thread a necropost would be responding to some of the polls choices whether you agreed with them or not. Since those polls are long over the results don't really matter as much so commenting on just them now isn't really adding anything that probably has also already been said.

Now, if there was a new poll you wanted to comment on than by all means revive the thread, it was meant for that very purpose and would once again start legitimate conversation.

It's a fine line for sure and varies depending on thread topic, but there is a difference between necroposting and revival with the core question being "would posting in this dead thread stir up conversation again".

Yung Dramps said:
What else sticks out to you, gents?
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  • 1. Gen I getting #1 isn't a surprise, as we're going to see Nostalgia played HARD with this poll.
  • 2. Hmm, XY got second. I'm wondering if maybe because XY didn't have an enhanced version(s). Since they listed the enhanced version(s) as their own game, fans of that gen were split between choosing the original games or the enhanced version. This was a bad idea and really tilted the balance, the candidates should have been like: RBGY, GSC, RSE, FRLG, DPPt, HGSS, BW1&2, XY, SM&U, LGPE, SwSh+DLC. MAYBE have a secondary poll within that choice asking if you preferred the originals or enhanced, but for the main poll keep them as one. But they didn't thus XY, which didn't have an enhanced version, likely got a lot of votes. In addition to that XY was the gen when a lot of people got back into Pokemon due to the full 3D jump and the XY anime was considered favorably.
  • 3.. DP third maybe because of BDSP hype? Though with it getting 101 and Platinum down at 8 getting 36, this just proves how splitting the originals & enhanced tilt the scales making the results questionable. While they would still have lost to Gen I, DPPt would have a solid placement in second if their votes were combined. XY would be third, GSC would be fourth, RSE fifth, & BW sixth.
  • 4 & 40 (& 9). Yeah, no reason why GS should be above HGSS aside from nostalgia. I was considering saying they should also combine the remakes BUT I felt that would be tilting the scale in the other direction. Let the remakes stand on their own. BTW Crystal is done in 40th with 6 votes,
  • 5, 14 & 21. While it doesn't hurt Gen III's results as, should note Emerald did get 22 votes in 14th place so would at least make it appear more loved than them counting the RS votes solo. Though I'm not surprised ORAS didn't get that many votes, with 15 it's under Emerald; now once again nostalgia probably boosted the originals but then again adding in more Emerald content & improvements probably wouldn't have hurt...
  • 6 & 14. No I didn't mistype, Emerald and B2W2 actually got the same amount of votes, 22, so share the 14th spot. Now this does mean Gen V doesn't overcome Gen III, though I'm not surprised either. It's a known fact that Gen V was a major drop off point for a lot of players likely due to the games sticking to sprites (I think casual players attitude at the time was games should be 3D ) & being released on the DS's midlife/end of life (why play a Pokemon game that's likely not to have major advancements from the previous gen when they could wait a few years for the new handheld console and the Pokemon game on that that's likely to have more advancements due to better technology). Sound like I'm making excuses for my favorite gen not selling well? Maybe, but with DP and XY selling better than it there has to be some conclusions to be drawn.
  • 7. Um, okay, side game from out of nowhere. Wait, let me do some quick math... and no, not even combining the votes for SM & USUM has it getting more than Detective Pikachu. I guess a lot of people liked the movie, the game itself wasn't bad though kind of awkward how the game ended on a cliffhanger to be continued in Part 2... and then the movie kind of told the whole story including the suspected twist concerning Tim's father. So either Part 2 has a forgone conclusion or it's going to have to come up with a different set of answers... if it's still coming out.
  • 8. While I think it should be combined, I guess there is something to say to the improvements that Platinum brought that got it on the top 10. Honestly I'd say that Emerald may be the enhanced version that did the most differences as it had to combine both the Aqua & Magma stories, but it's down at 14 with over 10 vote difference so what makes them different? Well, I guess one factor is the DS was more popular than the GBA, maybe due to no small part of DS being the handheld parallel to the Wii. Another factor is also maybe Platinum having come out right after DP while Emerald came out after FRLG. Platinum came out when people's minds were still on Sinnoh while Emerald came out when people possibly thought Hoenn was done with as they released a Kanto remake instead. I'm more leaning on the DS excuse (oh, and BDSP hype) though not discounting the latter.
  • 9. Only remakes on here, and makes sense as I think despite their flaws were the most popular remakes. FRLG were good and nice to see they included the Sevii Islands & Abilities but I feel all the improvements of Gen IV, notably the Physical-Special split, really let HGSS be its own game compared to its originals. In addition HGSS had some popular features like Walking Pokemon & Pokeathlon.
  • 10. Yellow sneaks its way onto Top 10 thus denying Platinum as the only enhanced version of the Top 10. Not really much else to say but Gen I nostalgia strong.

This one is probably going to be more snark than constructed criticism, fair warning.
  • 11 & 44. Huh, so RS Pinball was THAT close to being on the top 10 (BTW original Pinball was 44 with 5 votes, maybe could have combined the pinball series together). I wonder why they stopped the Pinball series after RS, like I understand why they wouldn't have one each gen but each console would made sense. Could of had a DP Pinball, XY Pinball, and now a Switch Pinball. They're bringing back Snap, now I think the fanbase should throw their weight behind a new Pokemon Pinball!
  • 16. Oh, right, this is a Japanese poll so Blue is here. Eh, all it means is that Gen I would have an even BIGGER claim to the #1 spot.
  • 16, 18, 19. SMASH?! Okay guys, just because Pokemon is in it doesn't mean it's a Pokemon game. Like Animal Crossing and Mario Maker has Pokemon stuff, are you going to put the Animal Crossing & Mario Maker on here? No? Than why is Smash on here?
  • 25. Ouch, 25 spots until a Mystery Dungeon game? Well, maybe had they combined the Mystery Dungeon games under one group it would have worked better. "But, Mystery Dungeon games also go by a generation release". Yeah, but at the same time it's also a side series. A core series remake can stand on its own cause it gets wide attention. But the side games really don't and peoples favorites are more likely to be split throughout the side series. It makes more sense to have all games in a side series (Mystery Dungeon, Pinball, Ranger, Colosseum, etc.) to all under one category instead of separated as people also do usually consider the franchise under one label instead of individual games.
  • 26. Huh, funny how Snap is getting a new game yet this poll suggests Pinball & Hey You Pikachu (#19) was more popular.
  • 27. What is this? *Checks Google*... huh? *Checks Bulbapedia*... oh you got to be kidding... WHY ARE YOU INCLUDING THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU! That's not going to cause confusion at all! For those who don't know, 27 is pretty much the first version of the Detective Pikachu game which only had the first 3 chapters, essentially giving Japanese players the taste of Detective Pikachu, before the full proper game was released. Internationally we just waited until the full game was completed.
  • 28. Nice to PokePark get some love. It had potential but sadly I don't think Pokemon Company probably didn't have much care for it.
  • 32 & 49. *Sigh* Don't worry Colosseum you're still got a cult following.
  • 49. Why are the two POKKEN games separated... Whoever made this list should be fired.
  • 58. Huh, Pokemon Ranch, that reminds me we going to see Hayley put somewhere now? Like, she should have been made the host of HOME instead of the stupid Grand Oak concept...
And going to stop here, really nothing else to comment on.

ScraftyIsTheBest said:
It'll be interesting to see if that trend continues in the future if they continue the DLC route over third/"upper" versions.
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Don't know, I think it might depend on whether they just want to add in new content (can be done via DLC) or have a whole new main story to tell (which would need an enhanced version). DLC is likely cheaper to do so going forward would likely be the default choice to add in new content. But GF is unpredictable and if for a future Gen they got a sudden idea for a new way to tell the game's story they'll like release an enhanced version. Not saying they couldn't do a DLC thing where they maybe add in a new Save Slot specifically to play the new story they want to tell, but as we see right now they'll likely release a physical version later on anyway so might as well make it its own version from the get-go.
 
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Pikachu315111 said:
DP third maybe because of BDSP hype?
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This poll was done mid-2020, so that's not a thing lol.

You do raise a good point about the splits between various versions of mainline games. Y'know what? How about I just sum them all up and see what happens...

1. Red and Green + Blue + Yellow: 211 Votes
2. Diamond, Pearl and Platinum: 137 Votes
3. X and Y: 102 Votes
4. Gold, Silver and Crystal: 97 Votes
5. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald: 91 Votes
6. Black and White 1/2: 66 Votes
7. Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: 41 Votes
8. Sword and Shield: 27 Votes

Even with this considered, X and Y is still at a VERY respectable 3rd place. Meanwhile Gen 5 continues to underperform relative to its hype in the english-speaking fanbase with it being the worst-performing of the 2d generations in this poll.
 
I wonder if Mega Evolution had any role in deciding XY’s popularity? It’s probably safe to say that Megas were the most popular in terms to super mechanics, and XY were the games that promoted them the most. I just spoke to a casual fan who didn’t get into Pokémon through the video games, but rather through the anime and manga thanks to Mega Charizard and is feeling disappointed that they were removed, or at least not as promoted as they once were, hence why XY are ranks highly.
 
Yung Dramps said:
This poll was done mid-2020, so that's not a thing lol.

You do raise a good point about the splits between various versions of mainline games. Y'know what? How about I just sum them all up and see what happens...

1. Red and Green + Blue + Yellow: 211 Votes
2. Diamond, Pearl and Platinum: 137 Votes
3. X and Y: 102 Votes
4. Gold, Silver and Crystal: 97 Votes
5. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald: 91 Votes
6. Black and White 1/2: 66 Votes
7. Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: 41 Votes
8. Sword and Shield: 27 Votes

Even with this considered, X and Y is still at a VERY respectable 3rd place. Meanwhile Gen 5 continues to underperform relative to its hype in the english-speaking fanbase with it being the worst-performing of the 2d generations in this poll.
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To me this generally aligns really well with how popular the games were worldwide at their primes. RGBY was obviously the beginning of the Pokemon surge, so it being so high is not at all surprising.

I think the next two (DPP and XY) were also the big resurgences of Pokemania when Pokemon made another surge in popularity and were essentially "revolutionary" jumps for the series for the slew of new features and great new Pokemon they added to the franchise. Pretty much *everyone* had something to enjoy out of those games. Gold and Silver is a bit behind but that's because it's sort of subject to the "sequels will never be as popular as the original" mentality, but even then it was still existing at a point when Pokemania was big. Whereas Gens 4 and 6 were the biggest resurgences of Pokemania for the franchise. Plus the multiplayer aspect! Interacting with people who played Pokemon became even better in these generations than ever.

From there RS and BW (and SM too it would seem) just seem to suffer from the overall recession of Pokemania that followed their preceding generation. RS was notorious for its soft Dexit that drove older fans away and the general atmosphere of Pokemon being in decline at the time made it a risky time to be a Pokemon fan back then, so it never achieved *quite* as much popularity as the games that rank above it, even though it's still respectable.

BW1 while praised by the fandom in hindsight generally...isn't the most widely memorable from what I've seen across the fandom at large. It's great and has its praise, that's for sure, but I think the fact that it wasn't a revolutionary game for the franchise is what makes it less memorable to many. It didn't do much to improve upon Gen 4 aside from graphical updates and the other thing holding it back was it came late in the DS's life cycle, so it was kind of left in the dust. Plus it didn't add any new standout features that made it stand out, and it focused much more on being a story-driven experience. It is a fantastic game for sure, but I've said it in another thread, I really believe that only more serious Pokemon fans truly appreciated and remember Gen 5. As praised as it may be, it was definitely a game designed to appeal more heavily to dedicated Pokemon players than to a wider audience like the games that ranked above it did. Its big appeal after all was the story it had to tell: it was pretty damn close to being a bona fide RPG, and it did well at that. I think SM/Gen 7 is in a pretty similar situation: it's a very story-driven experience like Gen 5 was, and in general is less casual friendly than Gen 6 due to it both being story driven and a genuinely challenging game, so it appeals much more to the core/hardcore Pokemon players who want difficulty and a story to experience, whereas a game like X and Y is more casual friendly and has a lot of cool features that draw in a wider set of players to enjoy and remember.

Sword and Shield...yeah I think we all know what a mess that game is LMAO. The sheer outrage some of the decisions made about it sparked is no secret, and from what I understand even Japanese fans were upset about Dexit so it being so low in popularity is not surprising. Personally while I don't dislike it to the extent that many others do I do understand why it has a not-so-warm reception in general. This is also before the Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor came out, it would seem, and Tundra was really what redeemed Sword and Shield for me and that didn't exist yet.
 
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