Pocket Monsters (English: Pokémon) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, a company founded and with shares divided between Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.
The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995 and is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans, known as Pokémon Trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport. The English slogan for the franchise is "Gotta Catch 'Em All". Works within the franchise are set in the fictional Pokémon universe.
The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. It has since become one of the most successful video game franchises in the world, with over 300 million copies of various Pokémon video games sold worldwide as of November 2019. The franchise also includes an anime television series that aired from 1997 to 2019; nineteen animated feature films; trading card games; toys; books; manga comics; apparel; and other media.
