Pokémon Day Date in the current year: February 27, 2024

The Pokémon franchise originated as a pair of role-playing video games developed by Satoshi Tajiri, the co-founder of the video game development company Game Freak. Tajiri first conceived the idea of the game in 1990, when he saw Nintendo’s Game Boy console with the link cable technology that allowed to connect two consoles for multiplayer gaming, and realized that the feature could be used to trade various collectible items within a game.

Inspired by his childhood love for discovering and catching insects and other small creatures, Tajiri came up with the idea of a game where players could capture creatures of differing rarity and exchange them with over players. Once caught, the creatures were to be stored in special capsules, hence the original name of the project, Capsule Monsters. However, it could not be trademarked, so Tajiri renamed the game Pocket Monsters, or Pokémon for short.

The first games in the Pokémon franchise, Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green, were released in Japan on February 27, 1996. Nintendo didn’t have high expectations for the games, but thanks to promotion in the CoroCoroComic manga magazine, they became hugely successful within a few months since their release, and the development of other media in the franchise began.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first released in October 1996, and the development of a Pokémon anime series began around the same time. The first season of Pokémon, telling the story of a young Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum and his very first Pokémon, a Pikachu, was released in April 1997.

In 1999, the Pokémon franchise became extremely popular in the Western world, an unprecedented global phenomenon that was dubbed Pokemania. The Pokémon craze had ended by 2002, but the franchise is still going strong, having become a fixture in popular culture. Another spike in its popularity occurred in 2016 due to the release of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go.

The anniversary of the release of the original Pokémon games is now celebrated as Pokémon Day. The first celebration was organized by The Pokémon Company in 2016 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. On the occasion of the holiday, The Pokémon Company hosts various offline and online events including exclusive announcements and sneak peaks, new releases, presentations, concerts, tournaments, contests, and more.

There are a lot of way to celebrate Pokémon Day. You can participate in one of many official events, play any of the Pokémon games available to you, binge watch the anime series, watch the live-action movie, buy Pokémon cards or merchandise, trade cards with friends, or cosplay your favorite character from the franchise. And don’t forget to spread the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtag #PokémonDay.