On the 27th of February, Pokémon Day 2025 will give trainers around the world a glimpse into all the big events coming up this year. Dubbed “The Year of Eevee”, there’s hope for a new Eeveelution (we haven’t had a new one since Sylveon back in 2013!) and of course players are excited for the release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A (perhaps releasing on the Switch 2..?). New art, cards, expansions, spin-offs, and shows are all on the table, hyping up the highest grossing media franchise of all-time.
To celebrate the occasion, we decided to look at how the Pokémon franchise has been performing on live streaming. Pokémon has always relied on building a strong, friendly community ever since the trading mechanic of the original games. Let’s take stock of how live streaming is fostering this community by reviewing the performance of the latest Pokémon game, Pokémon TCG Pocket, and its place among the other Pokémon games being watched throughout 2024.
Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Strong Performance Since Launch
Pokémon TCG Pocket launched back in October of 2024, bringing the brilliant art of the Pokémon TCG to users’ mobile devices. The game was an instant smash hit, generating 8.5M hours watched in its first 30 days as players showed off their rare pulls. This support came from every major live-streaming platform, with Chzzk bringing in almost as many hours watched as YouTube Gaming one week after debut (770K vs. 922K hours watched). However, Chzzk viewership later dropped off after key streamers stopped covering the game (more on this in a moment).
But, more crucially for a game of this kind, Pokémon TCG Pocket has managed to maintain a healthy long-tail viewership. New expansion packs have given players a reason to return to the app, seeing healthy spikes in weekly hours watched upon the release of the Mythical Island (2.6M) and Space-Time Smackdown (2.1M) expansions. This matches the well-known positive effect of DLC on boosting live-streaming viewership. Notably, these later peaks were mainly driven by YouTube Gaming viewership – this makes sense given that YouTube Gaming streamers are generally more global and more child-friendly than Twitch streamers.
Pokémon TCG Pocket Has Global, Diverse Reach
Pokémon does still find a global audience on Twitch, however. While English-speaking Pokémon streamers are the most well-represented on the platform, with close to 18K streamers broadcasting Pokémon TCG Pocket since release, non English-speaking streamers are still covering the game. Spanish, French, and Japanese-speaking streamers are the most well-represented, even though Japanese-speaking streamers tend to gravitate more towards YouTube Gaming (particularly VTubers). Interestingly, other Asian languages like Chinese and Thai are less well-represented among Twitch’s Pokémon community, at just 883 and 114 streamers, respectively.
Looking at the top streamers of Pokémon TCG Pocket in its first 30 days reveals a healthy mix of streamers from different platforms and speaking different languages. Turuokamonohashi (つるおかかものはし), for example, is a Japanese-speaking streamer broadcasting on both YouTube Gaming and Twitch and brought in 346K hours watched over this period – the most of any streamer. However, the other top streamers all came from different platforms (Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Kick, and Chzzk) and spoke different languages (knekro speaking Spanish, and Han Dong-suk (한동숙) speaking Korean). Chzzk viewership was carried by just a couple of individuals, however – if The Pokémon Company wanted to reinvigorate interest in Pokémon TCG Pocket in South Korea, they should consider partnering with one of these streamers on upcoming card expansions.
Pokémon’s Newest Spin-offs Captivate Live-streaming Audiences
Looking at every Pokémon game being watched in 2024 puts some of these figures in perspective. In 2024 alone, viewership for Pokémon TCG Pocket sat at 13.7M hours watched – just 12% of all Pokémon viewership. However, given that Pokémon TCG Pocket was only out for November and December, this is an incredibly strong performance. If expansions keep performing well, one can expect Pokémon TCG Pocket to move up the rankings in 2025. It also outperformed Pokémon GO which sat at 8.7M hours watched (which we’ll look at in a moment).
Among the other games, it’s no surprise that the latest mainline title Pokémon Scarlet / Violet is carrying the bulk of viewership at 41.5M hours watched in 2024. This is impressive considering the game is now over 2 years old. Pokémon’s own MOBA Pokémon Unite performed decently, but not as well compared to other MOBAs like League of Legends or Dota 2 – perhaps due to the game’s more casual take on the genre. Regardless, as we’ve covered previously, the Pokémon esports scene is still alive and well. What’s amazing is how nostalgia is still propping up Pokémon viewership, with retro playthroughs of Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen bringing in 14.2M hours watched last year.
Pokémon GO Finding its Footing After COVID-era High Viewership
Pokémon GO’s lower performance does deserve some attention. Of course the game isn’t as popular now as the mania that surrounded the title when it first released back in 2016, but the game is still growing strong for what is mostly an idle app. Pokémon GO’s highest viewership was, ironically, back in the COVID-era when players couldn’t easily go outside and actually play the game. In 2021, the game hit a peak yearly viewership of 22.6M hours watched vs. just 71M active players (player data sourced here).
One might wonder if Niantic could potentially capitalize on this mindset by giving viewers more reasons to tune in on live streaming, perhaps by showing off events around the world that players can’t easily access? This might not be Niantic’s problem to worry about in a little bit though, with a near $3.5B deal looming on the horizon to sell off the game. This news comes as players share their gripes with the newly introduced Tour Pass – a freemium system similar to the Battle Passes seen in many live service games.
This news notwithstanding, Pokémon’s future looks bright in 2025 with the upcoming release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the ongoing slew of Pokémon-related media being released. We’ll be updating this blog following the Pokémon Day announcement with any major, impactful news that might affect the live-streaming industry.
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