Greninja Voted As 'Pokémon of the Year,' Fans React
Don’t you just love democracy? As the company that produces Pokémon turned 35 years old on February 27, the yearly competition to decide the #1 Pokémon is just as intense as ever. Unfortunately, Snorlax did not take home first place, as I was expecting it to. After weeks of tallying up votes, the ultimate winner of the competition is Greninja
Threw together a quick infographic for Pokemon of the Year, showing the top 30 from each region.#PokemonDay #PokemonOfTheYear #SavedYouAClick pic.twitter.com/C1UJvUlYjy
— Pokemon Database (@pokemondb) February 27, 2020
Greninja came to fans in generation IV in 2006, under the Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl title. The blue frog-like Pokémon is capable of learning water and dark moves. Along with winning the 2020 fan-voted Pokémon prize, Greninja can be seen in other Pokémon games like Super Smash Bros., or in the movie Detective Pikachu.
Pokémon were sorted into their voting blocks by the regions the creatures first appeared in. Since the original Pokémon game is the title most players are familiar with, the Kanto region has the most votes when compared to any other region. One Twitter user created beautiful charts and reported data analyses that helps describe the voting results just a bit better than most can.
On the other hand, Hoenn’s 11th place could have been top-10 anywhere else.
Meanwhile, Kalos was extremely top-heavy. Outside of Greninja, the popularity drops off sharply.
I’ve made a graph to better illustrate such trends: pic.twitter.com/A3rlBf0qjW
— a Poon over troubled Donkus (@poondonkus) February 27, 2020
The Twitter user–with a very interesting name– even compiled data to help discover the reason why certain pokémon are more popular than the others.
Updated the chart with some fixes, also to include the recent mobile game Pokemon Masters. pic.twitter.com/7Rarl2yuQn
— a Poon over troubled Donkus (@poondonkus) February 27, 2020
While some users on Twitter were happy for Greninja taking home the gold, many were still fairly emotional about their favorite Pokémon’s final position in the voting.
Anyone remember when Greninja also won Japanese Pokemon general election 720 poll and was given out at showings of Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel in Japan? Man, there is no end to this justice for Greninja!😄 pic.twitter.com/XmeeCrVdRZ
— JJSponge120 (@JJSponge120) February 27, 2020
At least it wasn’t Charizard..
— Location: State of Anxiety™ (@pokemaniacsteph) February 27, 2020
The #PokemonOfTheYear results are in! The top 10 are:
#10: Gengar
#9: Gardevoir
#8: Rayquaza
#7: Garchomp
#6: Sylveon
#5: Umbreon
#4: Charizard
#3: Mimikyu
#2: Lucario
#1: Greninja!
The winner received 140,559 votes!— Pokemon Database (@pokemondb) February 27, 2020
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