Google is letting Pokemon fans vote for their Pokemon of the Year. Earlier today, Google quietly launched voting for a “Pokemon of the Year” contest, which has ties to this year’s Pokemon Day festivities. Between now and February 14th, players can vote for their favorite Pokemon by searching “Pokemon of the Year” on Google. Any current Pokemon species can be voted for, and players can vote for one species from each region/generation of Pokemon. Variant species (such as Alolan Vulpix) are included in the region that the species first officially appeared in. The voting will end on February 14th at 8:59 AM ET.
While the Pokemon Company hasn’t officially announced the competition, this does seem to be an official tie-in to Pokemon Day. Not only does the contest use the official logo for Pokemon Day, the contest mentions following the Pokemon Twitter account for more details about results.
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We’ll note that this isn’t the first Pokemon popularity contest, but this is the first time that the Pokemon Company has used Google for a contest and has opened up a popularity contest for worldwide voting. Previous competitions have almost exclusively been limited to Japanese fans, or haven’t been officially sanctioned by the Pokemon Company. For instance, a popularity poll last year held on Reddit last year picked Charizard among 52,000 voters.
Personally, we’re excited to see how fans vote, and whether there are any shocking upsets that emerge from the results. You can vote for your favorites simply by Googling “Pokemon of the Year” between now and February 14th. Good luck to all our favorites, and especially Bulbasaur!
You can share who you voted for on Twitter by tagging me at @CHofferCBus! Be sure to listen to our weekly Pokemon podcast (found below) for more discussion on all things Pokemon!