The Pokémon of the Year (according to Google) is Greninja. Bet you didn’t see that coming, did ya?
Earlier this month, Google opened a giant poll to determine what Pokémon would be crowned Pokémon of the year. The poll let anyone vote on their favorite Pokémon from each region by selecting one Pokémon from a giant list that’s broken down by generation.
People could vote once per day, so you could technically vote for several different Pokémon from each gen, or you could just stack the deck in favor of your true fav. Not exactly a scientific survey, but what’re you gonna do? Pokémon is a kid’s game.
Millions of votes later, we have our top 10 as revealed by the official Pokémon YouTube Channel. Scott wished for Dunsparce to take the top prize in our previous coverage, and sorry to say, Dunsparce didn’t even place.
Our top 10 are:
10 - Gengar - Gen I
9 - Gardevoir - Gen III
8 - Rayquaza - Gen III
7 - Garchomp - Gen IV
6 - Sylveon - Gen VI
5 - Umbreon - Gen II
4 - Charizard - Gen I
3 - Mimikyu - Gen VII
2 - Lucario - Gen IV
1 - Greninja - Gen VI
Greninja taking top prize is quite a surprise. Although the top-tier evolution of a favorite Gen VI starter, Greninja isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you think of a Pokémon mascot. We’re only speculating, but Greninja’s top honors might be owed to its placement within Pokémon’s chronology. There’s an entire generation of Pokémon fans that never grew up with the Kanto starters and thus don’t have much emotional attachment to them, while older Pokémon players likely picked up Froakie in their X & Y playthrough.
Combine that with the fact that the voting was broken down by generation, and Greninja likely received the most votes simply because most players remember it fondly.
Both Lucario and Garchomp are from Gen IV, which is an interesting development as it means that there were enough votes for two Gen IV Pokémon to reach the top 10. The same can be said for Gen 1, Gen VI, and Gen III. Not a single Gen V Pokémon made the top 10, so it looks like nobody loves Black & White.
A shame. I voted for Darmanitan.
Source: YouTube