Pokémon (ポケモン Pokemon?, /ˈpoʊkeɪˌmɒn, -kᵻ-/ poh-kay-mon, poh-ki-mon)[1][2] is a media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, a Japanese consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures.[3] The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995,[4] and is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans, known as Pokémon Trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport.

The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. The franchise now spans video games, trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys. Pokémon is the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's Mario franchise.[5]

Cumulative sales of the video games (including home console games, such as Hey You, Pikachu! for the Nintendo 64) have reached more than 200 million copies.[6] In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc. (now The Pokémon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.[7] As of May 2016, the Pokémon media franchise has grossed revenues of ¥4.8 trillion worldwide[8] (equivalent to 46.2 billion USD).

The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006.[9] The twentieth anniversary was celebrated with a commercial at the 2016 Super Bowl[10] using the theme: "I can do that". 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the original games, with the company celebrating by airing an ad during Super Bowl 50, and issuing re-releases of Pokémon Red,Blue, and Yellow.[11][12] The mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go was released in July 2016.[13] The next generation games Pokémon Sun and Moon are expected to be released in November 2016.[14]