Quizzes › Pokémon
Pokémon Trivia Quiz
Pokémon follows Trainers who catch and battle creatures called Pokémon. It begins in the Kanto region, where you pick a starter — Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle — and set out to defeat eight Gym Leaders and the Elite Four to become Champion. Decades of games and the anime have since added new regions, new generations, and hundreds more creatures.
Q1. What is the original full name of the franchise?
Answer: Pocket Monsters. It has been shortened to Pokemon in Japan since launch. For the international release, 4Kids CEO Alfred Kahn suggested adding an acute accent over the e to help pronunciation and "give it a little flair". The word stays the same in the plural: one Pokémon, many Pokémon.
Q2. Whose childhood hobby inspired Pokémon?
Answer: Satoshi Tajiri, who loved catching insects. Tajiri grew up in Machida near Tokyo, catching bugs in its ponds and fields before urban growth destroyed much of the nature there. He described the game as an attempt to "regain the world that he had lost" and "the story of a boy's summer day".
Q3. What was the project's original working title?
Answer: Capsule Monsters. Staff shortened it to Capumon. The name could not be trademarked, so it became Pocket Monsters. The capsule idea came from Ultraseven, a show in which the hero throws capsules that release miniaturised monsters.
Q4. Pokémon Go began life as what?
Answer: A Google April Fools' Day joke. The 2014 "Google Maps Pokémon Challenge" prank was dreamed up by Tsunekazu Ishihara and Satoru Iwata. Ishihara, a fan of Niantic's Ingress, then had it made into a real game. Released in 2016, it reached $600 million in revenue in 90 days, the fastest mobile game to do so.
Q5. On which console did the first Pokémon games launch in 1996?
Answer: Game Boy. Red and Green came out in Japan on 27 February 1996. The Game Boy was seven years old and considered dated, Nintendo had low expectations and the media largely ignored the games, but they became sleeper hits. The link cable for trading monsters was central to the idea.
Q6. Which earlier role-playing game gave Tajiri the idea of trading items between players?
Answer: Dragon Quest II. In it, a very rare item called the Mysterious Hat appeared randomly. Tajiri never found one, while Ken Sugimori found two. When Tajiri learned the Game Boy's link cable could connect two consoles, he realised it could be used to transfer things between cartridges, not just to compete.
Q7. Which secret Pokémon did CoroCoro magazine give away in a 1996 lottery?
Answer: Mew. Mew was a last-minute addition that could not be caught by normal means. Twenty readers chosen at random sent in their cartridges to have Mew uploaded. The promotion boosted word-of-mouth, and Red and Green passed a million sales by that September.
Q8. Which card game inspired the Pokémon Trading Card Game?
Answer: Magic: The Gathering. Producer Tsunekazu Ishihara loved card games and was keen on Magic. The Pokémon TCG was one of Japan's first collectible card games, designed by former EarthBound staff. It launched on 20 October 1996, and over 75 billion cards had been printed by March 2025.
Q9. Who composed the music for the original games?
Answer: Junichi Masuda. Nobody in the early Game Freak team could make music, so Tajiri asked around his contacts and found Masuda. He later became assistant director on Gold and Silver and director of Ruby and Sapphire. Ken Sugimori handled graphics and character design.
Q10. Why was Pikachu chosen as the anime hero's partner?
Answer: To avoid favouring one of the three starters. The production council did not want to unfairly boost Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, so the hero started with something different. They expected Pikachu to appeal to boys, girls and their mothers. Every member of the anime team had to play the game extensively first.
Q11. Which anime episode caused health problems for more than 10,000 viewers in 1997?
Answer: "Dennō Senshi Porygon". Rapidly flashing red and blue lights in episode 38 caused headaches, nausea and in some cases seizures. The show was halted for four months and new broadcast guidelines were introduced, but the franchise kept growing, and the first film became one of Japan's biggest of 1998.
Q12. Tajiri's fanzine Game Freak, which became the company's name, was inspired by which film?
Answer: Freaks (1932). He self-published the first issue at 17 in 1983, when Japan had no video game magazines. Illustrator Ken Sugimori joined him, and in 1986 they formed an informal development team, officially incorporating Game Freak in April 1989 after finishing their puzzle game Quinty.
Q13. Who reportedly said, "This is it. This is the idea I've been waiting for"?
Answer: Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. Tajiri pitched Pocket Monsters at Ape Inc., a company co-founded by Nintendo and Shigesato Itoi, and Nintendo's Takashi Kawaguchi took it to Yamauchi. The contract was signed in early 1990, with delivery planned for that October. The games were not finished until December 1995.
Q14. By how much did Nintendo's profits rise in 1999, partly because of Pokémon?
Answer: 250%. Pokémon made up over 30 percent of Nintendo's revenue that year, cushioning the blow as the Nintendo 64 lost out to Sony's PlayStation. Two scholars later argued Nintendo might have struggled to survive without it, and 4Kids was named America's fastest-growing company.
Q15. Which South Park episode satirised Pokémania in 1999?
Answer: "Chinpokomon". It portrayed the franchise as cheap merchandise in an evil Japanese plot to invade the US; co-creator Matt Stone said Pokémon was "scary huge" at the time. Critics attacked the trading cards as gambling-like, and a 1999 class action claimed booster packs were a lottery.
Q16. Roughly how much did Nintendo of America reportedly spend launching Pokémon in the US?
Answer: $50 million or more. Market research said American kids did not like Pokémon, but president Minoru Arakawa ignored it, spending about as much as the NES launch. Staff had considered making the designs "cooler" for America with muscular redesigns, but Arakawa decided they did not work.
Q17. Which TV network won the bidding war to air the anime nationally in the US?
Answer: Kids' WB. By December 1998 Pokémon was already the highest-rated syndicated children's show on weekdays, prompting Warner Bros. and Fox Kids' owners to compete. It debuted on Kids' WB on 13 February 1999 with the network's most-watched premiere and held the top spot for 54 weeks.
Q18. Which real place inspired the region in Pokémon Sun and Moon?
Answer: Hawaii. Director Shigeru Ohmori chose it for its warm sunlight, clear moonlight and distinctive habitats, which suited the idea of regional variants. Released for the franchise's 20th anniversary in 2016, the games were meant as a celebration of Pokémon as living creatures.
Q19. Which games were the first in the series to be fully open-world?
Answer: Scarlet and Violet. Released in November 2022, they let players take on gyms in any order and travel with up to three friends. Sword and Shield and Legends: Arceus had been only partly open. The first Generation X games, Winds and Waves, were announced on the 30th anniversary in February 2026.
Q20. How many Pokémon species had been introduced by early 2026?
Answer: 1,025. The original games had 151, most based on real animals or folklore creatures. Black and White deliberately left out older Pokémon and added over 150 new ones to put new and old players on a level field. Over 489 million Pokémon games had been sold by March 2025.
Pokémon quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
What is the original full name of the franchise?
Answer: Pocket Monsters. It has been shortened to Pokemon in Japan since launch. For the international release, 4Kids CEO Alfred Kahn suggested adding an acute accent over the e to help pronunciation and "give it a little flair". The word stays the same in the plural: one Pokémon, many Pokémon.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Whose childhood hobby inspired Pokémon?
Answer: Satoshi Tajiri, who loved catching insects. Tajiri grew up in Machida near Tokyo, catching bugs in its ponds and fields before urban growth destroyed much of the nature there. He described the game as an attempt to "regain the world that he had lost" and "the story of a boy's summer day".
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
What was the project's original working title?
Answer: Capsule Monsters. Staff shortened it to Capumon. The name could not be trademarked, so it became Pocket Monsters. The capsule idea came from Ultraseven, a show in which the hero throws capsules that release miniaturised monsters.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Pokémon Go began life as what?
Answer: A Google April Fools' Day joke. The 2014 "Google Maps Pokémon Challenge" prank was dreamed up by Tsunekazu Ishihara and Satoru Iwata. Ishihara, a fan of Niantic's Ingress, then had it made into a real game. Released in 2016, it reached $600 million in revenue in 90 days, the fastest mobile game to do so.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
On which console did the first Pokémon games launch in 1996?
Answer: Game Boy. Red and Green came out in Japan on 27 February 1996. The Game Boy was seven years old and considered dated, Nintendo had low expectations and the media largely ignored the games, but they became sleeper hits. The link cable for trading monsters was central to the idea.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which earlier role-playing game gave Tajiri the idea of trading items between players?
Answer: Dragon Quest II. In it, a very rare item called the Mysterious Hat appeared randomly. Tajiri never found one, while Ken Sugimori found two. When Tajiri learned the Game Boy's link cable could connect two consoles, he realised it could be used to transfer things between cartridges, not just to compete.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which secret Pokémon did CoroCoro magazine give away in a 1996 lottery?
Answer: Mew. Mew was a last-minute addition that could not be caught by normal means. Twenty readers chosen at random sent in their cartridges to have Mew uploaded. The promotion boosted word-of-mouth, and Red and Green passed a million sales by that September.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which card game inspired the Pokémon Trading Card Game?
Answer: Magic: The Gathering. Producer Tsunekazu Ishihara loved card games and was keen on Magic. The Pokémon TCG was one of Japan's first collectible card games, designed by former EarthBound staff. It launched on 20 October 1996, and over 75 billion cards had been printed by March 2025.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Who composed the music for the original games?
Answer: Junichi Masuda. Nobody in the early Game Freak team could make music, so Tajiri asked around his contacts and found Masuda. He later became assistant director on Gold and Silver and director of Ruby and Sapphire. Ken Sugimori handled graphics and character design.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Why was Pikachu chosen as the anime hero's partner?
Answer: To avoid favouring one of the three starters. The production council did not want to unfairly boost Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, so the hero started with something different. They expected Pikachu to appeal to boys, girls and their mothers. Every member of the anime team had to play the game extensively first.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which anime episode caused health problems for more than 10,000 viewers in 1997?
Answer: "Dennō Senshi Porygon". Rapidly flashing red and blue lights in episode 38 caused headaches, nausea and in some cases seizures. The show was halted for four months and new broadcast guidelines were introduced, but the franchise kept growing, and the first film became one of Japan's biggest of 1998.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Tajiri's fanzine Game Freak, which became the company's name, was inspired by which film?
Answer: Freaks (1932). He self-published the first issue at 17 in 1983, when Japan had no video game magazines. Illustrator Ken Sugimori joined him, and in 1986 they formed an informal development team, officially incorporating Game Freak in April 1989 after finishing their puzzle game Quinty.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Who reportedly said, "This is it. This is the idea I've been waiting for"?
Answer: Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. Tajiri pitched Pocket Monsters at Ape Inc., a company co-founded by Nintendo and Shigesato Itoi, and Nintendo's Takashi Kawaguchi took it to Yamauchi. The contract was signed in early 1990, with delivery planned for that October. The games were not finished until December 1995.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
By how much did Nintendo's profits rise in 1999, partly because of Pokémon?
Answer: 250%. Pokémon made up over 30 percent of Nintendo's revenue that year, cushioning the blow as the Nintendo 64 lost out to Sony's PlayStation. Two scholars later argued Nintendo might have struggled to survive without it, and 4Kids was named America's fastest-growing company.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which South Park episode satirised Pokémania in 1999?
Answer: "Chinpokomon". It portrayed the franchise as cheap merchandise in an evil Japanese plot to invade the US; co-creator Matt Stone said Pokémon was "scary huge" at the time. Critics attacked the trading cards as gambling-like, and a 1999 class action claimed booster packs were a lottery.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Roughly how much did Nintendo of America reportedly spend launching Pokémon in the US?
Answer: $50 million or more. Market research said American kids did not like Pokémon, but president Minoru Arakawa ignored it, spending about as much as the NES launch. Staff had considered making the designs "cooler" for America with muscular redesigns, but Arakawa decided they did not work.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which TV network won the bidding war to air the anime nationally in the US?
Answer: Kids' WB. By December 1998 Pokémon was already the highest-rated syndicated children's show on weekdays, prompting Warner Bros. and Fox Kids' owners to compete. It debuted on Kids' WB on 13 February 1999 with the network's most-watched premiere and held the top spot for 54 weeks.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which real place inspired the region in Pokémon Sun and Moon?
Answer: Hawaii. Director Shigeru Ohmori chose it for its warm sunlight, clear moonlight and distinctive habitats, which suited the idea of regional variants. Released for the franchise's 20th anniversary in 2016, the games were meant as a celebration of Pokémon as living creatures.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
Which games were the first in the series to be fully open-world?
Answer: Scarlet and Violet. Released in November 2022, they let players take on gyms in any order and travel with up to three friends. Sword and Shield and Legends: Arceus had been only partly open. The first Generation X games, Winds and Waves, were announced on the 30th anniversary in February 2026.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
-
How many Pokémon species had been introduced by early 2026?
Answer: 1,025. The original games had 151, most based on real animals or folklore creatures. Black and White deliberately left out older Pokémon and added over 150 new ones to put new and old players on a level field. Over 489 million Pokémon games had been sold by March 2025.
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
Pokémon by the numbers
- First games
- Red and Green, 27 February 1996
- Created by
- Satoshi Tajiri (Game Freak)
- Species (early 2026)
- 1,025
- Game units sold (2025)
- over 489 million
- Cards printed (2025)
- over 75 billion
- Anime episodes
- over 1,300
- Pokémon Go
- $600 million in 90 days
- The Pokémon Company founded
- 2000
Source: Wikipedia: Pokémon
About the Pokémon quiz
Everyone has a favourite Pokémon, so naming them makes a weak quiz: fans get every answer and everyone else gets none. The franchise's own history is the better test. It began with a boy collecting insects in suburban Tokyo, picked up ideas from Dragon Quest and Ultraseven, and was nearly sunk by an anime episode that sent children to hospital. That history is full of decisions most players never think about, which is what makes it good trivia.
Questions cover the games and the anime — starter and legendary Pokémon, type advantages, evolutions, Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, regions from Kanto onward, and Ash and Pikachu's journey.
What this Pokémon quiz covers
Rather than asking you to name Pokémon, this quiz covers the story of the franchise: Satoshi Tajiri's insect-catching childhood, the Dragon Quest item and TV show that inspired trading and capsules, the Mew lottery, the card game, why Pikachu got the starring role, the Porygon episode, Pokémania in America and how Pokémon Go began as a joke. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Pokémon quiz — frequently asked questions
Do I need to know the names and types of Pokémon?
No. There are no type match-up or "who's that Pokémon" questions. The quiz covers who made the franchise, why it took the shape it did and how it spread around the world.
Does it cover the newer games?
A little. Most questions are about the 1990s, from the Game Boy launch to Pokémania, but a few reach Sun and Moon, the open-world games and the species count in 2026.
Is the anime included?
Yes. Several questions cover the anime, including why Pikachu became Ash's partner and the 1997 episode that made thousands of viewers ill.