Pikachu is the face of the Pokémon franchise around the world, but how does it stack up in popularity against other Pokémon in individual countries? The developers had a lot of choices when trying to select the official mascot of the Pokémon franchise, and Game Freak's most popular Pokémon was Exeggutor before the launch of Pokémon Red and Green. Clefairy was chosen as the main Pokémon of the first-ever Pokémon manga, but Pikachu quickly took center stage as the most beloved of them all.
One of the reasons why Pikachu became so popular during the original Pokémania boom was how it appealed to both boys and girls. Before the Pokémon anime, the cartoons and toys for kids were largely split down gender lines, with action series aimed at boys and cute series at girls, with rather few exceptions. Pokémon changed everything, as it appealed to everyone, and its lead Pokémon exemplified this best of all, as Pikachu was adorable yet it was also tough, acting as one of the strongest members of Ash's team.
Pikachu might be the perfect Pokémon and it has been a central part of different aspects of the Pokémon franchise, including the games, anime, manga, trading card game, and even the live-action movie. Each country has its own tastes, however, and Pikachu isn't always the most-loved Pokémon in each region, even though it always scores highly. The Gen 1 Pokémon as a whole have remained popular over the years and many of the older fans will dislike the designs of the new ones on sight, even if they do eventually come around to them when playing the new games. Pikachu is still battling its Gen 1 contemporaries for popularity in different countries around the globe.
The Countries Where Pikachu Is The Most Popular Pokémon
The identity of Pokémon's most popular Pokémon across the world was determined by The Toy Zone, which analyzed the Google search data and collated the information by country. It should come as no surprise that Pikachu is the most popular Pokémon in the world, but it's not the most popular Pokémon in every country. These are the countries where Pikachu is the most popular Pokémon:
- Algeria
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Cameroon
- Djibouti
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Georgia
- Guatemala
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Iraq
- Ivory Coast
- Laos
- Maldives
- Mali
- Mauritius
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Nepal
- Niger
- Palestine
- Namibia
- Serbia
- Senegal
- Suriname
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Vietnam
Pikachu is the most popular Pokémon in Africa and Middle & Central Asia as a whole, yet it faced stiff competition from Pokémon like Charizard, Abra, and Gengar. The love for Pikachu hasn't declined much over the years, even though it has competed with cute Pokémon like Mimikyu, Rowlet, and Wooloo. There have been a number of Pikachu clones over the years that have attempted to absorb some of the shine from the most beloved Pokémon of all, yet they rarely attract the same kind of attention. It's usually only a cool battle Pokémon that can challenge Pikachu's crown, such as Greninja topping a Pokémon poll held by Google in 2020, but these victories are only temporary, and Pikachu will remain the face of the Pokémon franchise for years to come.
Source: The Toy Zone