Surprising result Pokémon turns 30 - who is the Swiss people's favorite?
Pikachu & Co. conquered the Gameboy 30 years ago. The start of a lifelong collecting craze was born. But how do the Swiss feel about Nintendo's little pocket monsters and who is their favorite?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Pokémon was developed in 1996 by Satoshi Tajiri out of his childhood passion for collecting bugs and grew into one of the most successful multimedia franchises in the world.
- An analysis of Google search data by "The Toy Zone" shows that Pikachu is the most popular worldwide, while Abra is searched for particularly frequently in Europe.
- In Switzerland, Lapras is surprisingly the most searched-for Pokémon, while Nidoran is one of the least popular of the first generation.
Satoshi Tajiri was obsessed with bugs. As a child, it is said that the Japanese player loved to catch and study the creepy-crawlies. For this reason, his classmates called him "Konchu-hakase" (Dr. Insect). Years later, the budding game developer looked wistfully at the concreted-over Tokyo, whose expansion had devoured the natural spaces of his childhood. His nostalgia gave rise to a visionary idea: Tajiri wanted to bring the passion of his childhood into the digital world. On February 27, 1996, Pokémon, short for "Pocket Monsters", was born.
With his team at Game Freak, Tajiri, supported by Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto, developed a concept for Nintendo's Game Boy: fantastic creatures with superpowers that could be caught with capsules (Pokéballs) and battled against other monsters. What began as an ambitious project for Nintendo's console developed into one of the most successful franchises in the world, putting even Mickey Mouse and Star Wars in the shade. Today, the multi-billion dollar Pokémon empire ranges from video games, TV series and movies to investment assets worth millions.
Using Google data to find Pokémon preferences
One question has remained unanswered for years: Who is actually the fan favorite of the now over 1000 Pokémon? Various surveys have already addressed this issue, but most of them were limited to a small group of participants.
"The Toy Zone" has chosen a slightly different approach for its investigation and has taken a closer look at data from Google searches in all countries. Based on the search engine hits, it was possible to determine the most popular Pokémon for each individual country and create a corresponding world map.
Surprising result for Switzerland
There are no big surprises at the top worldwide. Pikachu is number 1, with Glurak and Evoli also making it into the top spots in many countries.
However, the evaluations for Europe and Switzerland in particular are somewhat unexpected. In this country, Lapras has made it to the top of the podium. This is all the more surprising because it is a water Pokémon that is usually found by the sea.
If you take the Google searches of all countries in Europe together, the Psycho Pokémon Abra is the most frequently searched for Pokémon. In total, 2.7 percent of all search queries related to Abra.
Of course, the ranking also shows which are the least popular Pokémon of the first generation. Both the female and male variants of Nidoran are in last place. Pantimos and Kokuna are just ahead of them.
