Would you say the general age range of the viewers has changed?

P

poke07

New Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
286
Reaction score
1
The other day somebody commented to me (not in a mean way, but just as an observation) that they thought it was strange that I was still watching Pokemon and that it was a show for little kids.
My first reaction was *he's right* but then I thought more about it..

I've noticed recently that fewer younger kids and more "older people" (meaning teens and college) seem to like the show. My theory is that since the TV show has been on going since 1999, not very many new, younger children are just now getting into it. However, the people who started watching in 1999 are still interested because they got into it when it was originally advertised. So now the people who were young when they started watching it are older.

I was curious if anyone agreed with me or had other opinions on the idea.
 
I really always thought that the younger kids still watch Pokemon more than others who are in their teens or older. Maybe, it's because older people don't like to talk about them watching the show, but I have seen the younger ones talk about it.
 
Its probably the same. The only difference is Pokemon isn't a fad like it was back in 1998-2001, so its not the big thing that kids watch like when we were all younger.

The other difference is as said, we were all younger and many of us kids ourselves when pokemon first started. The show has been going on for 10 years, so if you started watching in 1998 subtract 10 years from your current age and that's how young you were when you first started watching. If you were 8 when you first started watching, you're now 18. If you were 11 when you first started watching, you're now 21. And so forth.

The reason it seems that "older people" are watching is because we've all grown up, but some of us are still watching.
 
You're on a Pokémon forum where you're basically surrounding yourself by "older" people.

Like Scott said, the fans of ten years ago grew up from kids to adults, and some of them still like the show.
 
Well they sell Pokemon T-shirts at Hot Topic in adult sizes so I guess plenty of older people much watch it
 
If I see the ages of some people in these forums or at bulbapedia I would say: Yes. I was only 4 or 5 when the show started
 
It hasn't changed one bit. Most of the show's viewers are still in the 5-10 age range, and it's not like these older fans popped out just in recent years, they were always there. The only difference now is that some of the older fans grew up on Pokemon.

We're just growing into the anime version of the Transformers fandom.
 
Pianoplaynfool said:
You're on a Pokémon forum where you're basically surrounding yourself by "older" people.
Click to expand...
Yes, there's quite a bit of self-selection bias in online forums, and they tend to skew toward the older demographic. It's less likely that a 5-10 year-old is visiting here than an 18-22 year-old college student with a lot of time on their hands.
 
I would say that there are still kids around 5-11 years old that still watch the show. One day when I was at a toy store there were a bunch of litle kids looking at the pokemon.

Also, like said before, on this forum is mostly older teenagers and people in there 20's. They still like the show because they grew up with the oringional series.
 
I would say generally it hasn't changed, it's simply widened. When the show first came out for the most part the only teenaged people watching the show were probably teens with younger siblings who were watching the show. Therefore they didn't really follow it, but simply watched it while spending time with their siblings. However now there is the group of people who have predominantly always watched the show since they were young. The largest percentage of people watching the show are still like young children though. I work at a pool over the summer and all the kids there that are like 5-11 are still interested in pokemon and talk about it. Remember, people on the forums is really a small percentage of who watch the show since none of the little kids watching it are on here. The majority of people watching the show hasn't changed, it's probably gotten smaller though just because there's a greater percentage of older viewers.
 
SUPEREPIC said:
When the show first came out for the most part the only teenaged people watching the show were probably teens with younger siblings who were watching the show.
Click to expand...

Nah, the series has always attracted the early-to-mid-teen crowd. I was introduced to the series shortly before turning 14, and it was wildly popular at both my school and other places I went in my relative age group. Looking at the age polls that have been on this site and others, a rather large portion of the "older fans" are in their mid-twenties now. Sure, they've probably been following the series for years and years, but they were still in their mid-teens when introduced to it in the first place.
 
Anytime I see anyone in real life doing anything Pokémon-related, it's little kids. The comic shop down the street from my apartment has TCG tournaments, and whenever I pass by when they are doing it, it's all little kids.

My boss' little boy came in to work on Halloween dressed as Pikachu, and one of my professors has said multiple times his little kids are obsessed with Pokémon. One time I was in class, and he said his kids were really excited that day because "new Pokémon characters were coming out." I struggled for a while to try to figure out what he was talking about since this was in October or November, but then I saw that there was a new TCG set out that day.

I was 11 when I got into Pokémon, and I got made fun of really bad in school for it. For a few of my teenage years, getting picked on got so bad that I acted like I didn't like Pokémon at all, stopped watching the show, and playing the games. Eventually everyone grew up and learned to mind their own business, thankfully.
 
I would think the demographic has widened, but I do suspect that the majority of the fans will always be younger. However I do believe that the number of "older" fans has increased in comparison to the years after the initial launch because of all the people that grew up with it and remained fans of the series. When it first came out I do not think that many people above the target audience picked it up, but now there are quite a number that have stayed fans since being introduced to the series when it first came out or shortly thereafter and are thus between the ages of say 17 and 25.
 
Argy said:
Anytime I see anyone in real life doing anything Pokémon-related, it's little kids. The comic shop down the street from my apartment has TCG tournaments, and whenever I pass by when they are doing it, it's all little kids.
Click to expand...

Actually, at most tournaments, the largest group will likely be the masters-the oldest division. League tends to skew downwards.
 
well i dunno lets see i watched it 4 years ago and again today so yea i guess so
 
I think that the big fans that discuss characters, tactics and upcoming events about Pokemon are older,but in reality the biggest group that are watching the show are still kids. I started watching Pokemon when I was 4 or 5 years old and now 10 years after that I decided to watch a little because when I stopped I was around the end of the Johto Master quest season. But when I started I suddenly realised that I`m waiting for the next DP ep. :D
 
Its the same, nothing changed much. Its not as big back in 99, but a lot of my cousins kids who are 2 to 11 all love Pokemon. For me I seen more boys taken by interest than girls, although girls like it too.
 
Personally, I'd say yes, the general age range of the viewers has definitely changed.

While the target audience for the Pokemon anime will always be kids 6 to 11, nowadays, there seems to be a much larger older audience than there was before. I would contribute this to the fact that, a lot of people have grown up watching show. Therefore, they have continued to watch Pokemon, despite being much older than the "target age". Plus, there are also people who may have lost interest in the past, but have recently become fans of the show again.


However, the kids in my area don't seem very interested in the Pokemon anime. They all love the games of course, but the kids don't seem to care much for the show at all. I discovered this when I attended the Toys R Us Pokemon events (for Darkrai and Dragonite). In my area, mostly teens and people in their 20's seem to like the Pokemon anime. And as for the kids, they seem to be more into Ben 10, Bakugan, and other TV shows.

What I think is that, because most kids haven't seen season one and they don't really know what happened when the series started, nowadays it might be difficult for some people to get "hooked" on the Pokemon series. Especially if they don't have the new games.

Although, if kids have Diamond and Pearl, then I guess they would be more likely to watch the show.
 
Last edited:
PokemonTrainerLisa said:
What I think is that, because most kids haven't seen season one and they don't really know what happened when the series started, nowadays it might be difficult for some people to get "hooked" on the Pokemon series.
Click to expand...

That's not exactly true. The anime resets itself at the start of each gen with a fresh start, the kids who started watching at the beginning of DP don't really need to see the previous seasons to "get hooked."

Sure, it would be nice for everyone to go see the original seasons to see how everything started, but its not essential for these new generation of kids.

The anime starts over every 4-5 years so kids can join in at the start of every gen without having to have seen the previous seasons. The writers usually do give backstory when older characters or Pokemon appear, so its not that big a deal for them.
 
Not really, but there have been huge advances in technology since I was in second grade, which lets people that like Pokemon get together... Like Bulbapedia.

Overall I have to say generally the ages stay the same, although the amount of younger (elementary school) fans probably has gone down significantly from the Kanto days.
 
Please note: The thread is from 17 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom