--- title: Pokémon at 20: The Story Behind the Game description: The first Pokémon game launched 20 years ago, on Feb. 27, 1996 canonical: https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/ author: Matt Peckham article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-26T18:00:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:30:28.012Z article:section: History og:title: Pokémon at 20: The Story Behind the Game og:description: The first Pokémon game launched 20 years ago, on Feb. 27, 1996 og:url: https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95e1de817c48b906/69887f03f887dcf4b7e94c48/1101991122_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nov. 22, 1999 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pokémon at 20: The Story Behind the Game twitter:description: The first Pokémon game launched 20 years ago, on Feb. 27, 1996 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95e1de817c48b906/69887f03f887dcf4b7e94c48/1101991122_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How the Pokémon Craze Started 20 Years Ago by [Matt Peckham](https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Feb 26, 2016 6:00 PM UTC  The Nov. 22, 1999, cover of TIME The Nov. 22, 1999, cover of TIMETIME by [Matt Peckham](https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Feb 26, 2016 6:00 PM UTC On Feb. 27, 1996, a trio of quirky creatures crept out of Japanese designer Satoshi Tajiri’s head and onto Nintendo’s crazy popular Game Boy: Bulbasaur, Squirrel and Charmander became the first of development studio Game Freak’s exotic monster-pets you had to catch, then train to do your bidding in disarmingly cute, tactically intricate battles. In the two decades since, the Pokémon series has soared to become second in record-holding franchise sales only to games starring Nintendo’s indefatigable mustachioed plumber, Mario. And it’s still going strong, poised to finally land on smartphones and tablets later this year with _Pokémon GO_, an augmented reality game about deploying players to hunt Pokémon in the real world, and a critical part of Nintendo’s delayed foray into the wild and wooly mobile-verse. _In 1999, a TIME cover story explained how the whole thing started:_ --- > “” --- **_Read the rest of the story here, in the TIME Vault:_** [Beware of the Poké-mania](http://time.com/vault/issue/1999-11-22/spread/92/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/"},"headline":"This Is How the Pokémon Craze Started 20 Years Ago","datePublished":"2016-02-26T18:00:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:28.012Z","description":"The first Pokémon game launched 20 years ago, on Feb. 27, 1996","url":"https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/","keywords":["Video Games","Newsfeed","Tech","Pop Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95e1de817c48b906/69887f03f887dcf4b7e94c48/1101991122_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95e1de817c48b906/69887f03f887dcf4b7e94c48/1101991122_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nov. 22, 1999","caption":"Nov. 22, 1999","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/video-games/","name":"Video Games"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4236157/pokemon-20-anniversary/","name":"This Is How the Pokémon Craze Started 20 Years Ago"}}]}] ```