On what date did the original Pokémon games debut in Japan, beginning the Pokémon franchise?

The original Pokémon games debuted in Japan on February 27, 1996, beginning the Pokémon franchise.

The releases were Pocket Monsters Red and Green for Nintendo's Game Boy. They were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo after several years of production. The games introduced the central Pokémon formula: catching creatures, training them, battling, trading, and exploring a connected world.

The date is often treated as Pokémon Day because it marks the franchise's original Japanese launch. International releases came later: the games reached North America in 1998 under the titles Pokémon Red and Blue, while the original Japanese Green version was not released overseas at that time.

The first games contained 151 species and were set in the Kanto region. Their success led to an expanding franchise spanning animation, trading cards, films, manga, merchandise, and many later video games. The 30th anniversary in 2026 therefore looks back to this specific 1996 Game Boy launch, rather than to the anime or card game's later debuts.