In 1999, Pokémon was the second most searched topic on the internet. The first was pornography.
Pokémon Was 1999's Second Biggest Internet Search
The year was 1999. The internet was still finding its feet, dial-up modems screeched their mechanical symphony in homes across the world, and a Japanese video game franchise had just conquered cyberspace. Pokémon ranked as the second most searched term on the internet—trailing only behind, well, adult content.
If that sounds absurd, consider the context. Pokémania was at its absolute peak.
The Perfect Storm of Obsession
Pokémon had launched in North America in 1998, and by 1999, it wasn't just popular—it was inescapable. The Game Boy games had sold millions. The anime aired daily. The trading card game caused actual riots at shopping malls. Kids brought their cards to school, traded them at lunch, and got them confiscated by teachers who didn't understand why a holographic Charizard was worth more than their monthly salary.
Then came the movie. Pokémon: The First Movie opened in November 1999 and made $31 million on its first day alone. Parents who had never touched a video game suddenly found themselves Googling "how to evolve Pikachu" and "where to buy Pokémon cards."
What People Were Actually Searching
Lycos, one of the era's most popular search engines, tracked the top searches of 1999. Their findings painted a picture of internet users' priorities:
- Adult content (unsurprisingly dominant)
- Pokémon (surprisingly close behind)
- WWF Wrestling
- Britney Spears
- The Blair Witch Project
The fact that a children's franchise about pocket monsters competed with humanity's most primal internet impulse says everything about 1999.
The Demographics Tell the Story
Part of Pokémon's search dominance came from who was searching. In 1999, a significant chunk of new internet users were kids getting online for the first time. And what did kids want? Cheat codes. Evolution charts. How to catch Mew. Whether the truck near the S.S. Anne actually hid a secret Pokémon.
These weren't casual searches. They were desperate, obsessive queries from children who needed answers immediately. Every schoolyard rumor about the games sent thousands of kids racing to their family computer.
Meanwhile, parents searched too—trying to understand what their children were so obsessed with, or hunting for where to buy merchandise that was perpetually sold out.
A Time Capsule of Internet Innocence
Looking back, there's something almost charming about 1999's search rankings. The internet was smaller, stranger, and hadn't yet been dominated by social media algorithms. People searched for what they genuinely wanted to know.
And in that brief window, enough of humanity wanted to know about electric mice and fire-breathing dragons that Pokémon nearly topped the charts. It lost only to an opponent it could never defeat.
The franchise has had countless peaks since—Pokémon GO's explosion in 2016, ongoing game releases, a live-action movie. But it never again came quite so close to being the single most searched thing on Earth. 1999 was Pokémon's internet moment, and nothing has matched it since.
