Image via iStockphoto //

In case you were wondering, Pokémon is still the shit with younger generation.

One day I was walking to get the train in inner Sydney and I noticed a bunch of people, teenagers through to 50-year-olds, standing in a group looking at their phones. A church group? A flash mob? A cult? No (well, kinda) – these people were all playing Pokémon Go, hunting a rare Pokémon. It seems that the resurgence of the show, game, cards and merchandise has hit both the bored adolescent and nostalgic older generation perfectly and the financial windfalls are proving it.

The Pokémon Company which is co-owned by Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and Game Freak, made a staggering $USD1.1 billion last year, predominantly from the Pokémon GO or Pokémon TCG. That’s not including merch or toys. It’s a 21.2 percent jump on profits from the previous year, which to those of us who grew out of Pokémon about 20 years ago, is crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQB8scCtrKg

They’ve just released a 2021 version of Pokémon Snap which you may remember as that shithouse N64 game where you went around taking photos of Pokémon for no reason. Plus they’ll be re-releasing Pokémon Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with the augmented reality behind Pokémon Go, Niantic.

You may have missed a bunch of YouTubers sharing videos online of them opening OG card packs that are now selling for thousands of dollars too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dFgZwpeokk

In a world where every person and their PokéDog is talking about crypto and investments, it’s hard not to be thinking about having bought shares during the early 2000s dip in Pokémon relevance… They’re probably worth a bucket load of PokéDollars right now…