Can you think of any Pokemon that have undergone significant popularity changes in recent years? Whether that means becoming increasingly more popular or falling off?
To me, one of the most obvious examples is Jolteon. Not that Jolteon isn’t popular anymore. It still is. But older Pokemon fans will surely remember a time when Jolteon was, by far, the most popular Eeveelution. This even included Umbreon’s early years when Jolteon still had a slight edge. Back then, Umbreon and Espeon were actually kind of on par.
But over the last several years, Umbreon has established itself as the CLEAR most popular Eeveelution. The wild thing is that Jolteon may not even be No. 2 anymore, as Espeon and Vaporeon have closed the gap. Sylveon even has an argument for being right there with Jolteon (I think Flareon is still pretty clearly behind it).
Any other instances immediately come to mind for anyone else?
I think Greninja is a good example. Go back to 2010 and ask anyone what they think of Greninja, they’ll say “what are u talking about?” or “sir, please leave the drive-thru if you’re not gonna order anything, there’s 5 cars behind u.” nowadays greninja’s getting exclusive promos and top chase cards of tcg sets, pretty drastic swing
One of the more drastic falls from grace. Pre-game hype and then a big role in the anime but it didn’t last long, basically a footnote by the time Platinum was released.
A common theme with powerful designs that fail to deliver in-game. For example, there’s no way Steelix wouldn’t be more popular if he had a stat spread like this 75/120/200/20/65/30 and learned Rapid Spin as opposed to 75/85/200/55/65/30 and ending his professional career in his debut generation.
I might say Deoxys. Used to be super popular because of the movie and games, but is less so now.
They would say, “What are you talking about?” because Gen 6 (XY) didn’t release until 2013. And Greninja was pretty darn popular back then too. Definitely more so than Delphox and Chesnaught.
Donphan was one of the first Gen 2 Pokemon unveiled, making an appearance in the first movie. I remember everyone going crazy over it back then. But it didn’t take long for it to fade into obscurity.
As @c0ll3ct0r noted with Steelix, that seems to be the case with a lot of Gen 2 Pokemon (Marill, Snubbull, etc.).
People actually remembered who Seaking was in the late 2000s thanks to the “F*ck yeah, Seaking” meme. Now it’s probably the least memorable Gen 1 Pokemon.
Incineroar seems to have gotten a boost in popularity lately due to the increased interest in VGC and the memes associated with Wolfe Glick’s love-hate relationship with it.
Indeed : Arcanine, Ninetales, and few others were great Pokemon, but it seems they lack popularity now.. Same goes for some Gen 2 mons : Wobbufet, Togepi,.. even though the mons of this gen are still pretty well appreciated !
Deffo agree with Donphan. Seeing it at the very start of the first movie as a brand-new Pokemon felt exciting and special.
I think maybe it didn’t help that it doesn’t really have anything going for it or much of a personality. I’ve never heard somebody say that Donphan is their favourite, and I can’t remember any standout cards for it either (very happy to be proven wrong though!) - just the lazy zoomed-in Sugimori from Genesis and arguably the least desirable Neo Destiny holo in Dark Donphan spring to mind. I know there was a Prime (I have no interest in those personally…) and probably the only decent one I can remember was the non-holo rare from either EX-R&S or Sandstorm (I forget which set).
Oh and I’ve never understood how/why Umbreon suddenly exploded into such popularity. It isn’t just the TCG and the stonks full arts behind it either. Back when Gen 2 came out, and for quite some time after, it was just another Pokemon. When Gen 2 was new, I was way more interested in the likes of Houndoom, Scizor, Tyranitar etc.
Eeveelutions in general were always popular but I don’t remember them being as stupid hype as they have been for some time now. I could obviously be misremembering it but I swear there wasn’t such a call for the cutesy animals and stuff back in the Gen 1-3 days…certainly far less dudes openly going wild for Eeveelutions. Not judging anybody or anything, mind, I just genuinely wouldn’t have even thought it was a “thing” back then for male fans to fill their living room with life size Eeveelution plushes as happens today.
But today it’s hard to tell who’s legit there for the individual Pokémon and its design and who is just there to ride the stonks train and collect Umbreons just because they are popular.
I was in elementary school when Gen3 and Gen4 came out, and I can confirm that the most popular Pokemon were the “perceived powerful” ones: Charizard, Typhlosion, Mewtwo, Sceptile, Giratina, Dragonite, Metagross, Articuno, Arcanine, Gengar, maybe Raichu, Ditto or Lapras. Surely not the eeveelutions,
Being featured in the anime, and especially being a Ash’s Pokemon was very important too.
For Gen 2, I’d even add the Legendary Dogs to this mix. Aside from maybe Suicune, I feel like the others have fell off the radar quite a bit. Marill was always sort of elusive when I was a kid (Pikablu, etc).. but I don’t feel like it has the same allure as it used to these days. Ho-oh also doesn’t seem too popular now, not that he ever was as popular as Lugia, but I feel like he’s sort of flown away just like in the anime even though I liked him more than Lugia, personally:
Donphan had some popularity early on because it was REALLY good in the competitive battle scene, but it didn’t take long for it to get phased out there, too.
Funny enough, my favorite Donphan card is probably the McDonald’s promo.
Oh and I’ve never understood how/why Umbreon suddenly exploded into such popularity. It isn’t just the TCG and the stonks full arts behind it either. Back when Gen 2 came out, and for quite some time after, it was just another Pokemon. When Gen 2 was new, I was way more interested in the likes of Houndoom, Scizor, Tyranitar etc.
Umbreon was definitely popular right from the get-go, but yeah; it wasn’t even CLOSE to what it is now. There really wasn’t any gap between Umbreon and Espeon early on, and as a matter of fact, a legitimate argument can be made that Espeon was the more well-liked of the two in the early days, especially considering it was significantly more fun to use in battle (Umbreon was VERY defensive, which is never a good way to win a popularity contest).
The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or whatever made Umbreon the loved one. For example, the ultimate Play promo card was Umbreon… followed by Espeon and the others. In the anime, Gary’s Eevee evolved into one, and Gladion had an Umbreon. And let’s be honest, the best shiny Eeveelution is Umbreon’s (Sylveon is a nice contender, but all the others are meh)
