Original Title: Japan votes to decide the world's most popular Pokemon
Original Author:  Griffin McElroy
Originally posted on: Joystiq.com on November 7th, 2010 at 7:00 PM

"The Pokémon Company recently polled the hardcore players of its monster-collecting franchise to find out who's the most popular 'mon of all time. You'd think Pikachu, right? Like, that's a totally logical assumption, considering how much exposure that little yellow bastard has received over the years. Unfortunately, you're totally wrong -- first place went to Arceus, a legendary Pokémon first introduced in Diamond and Pearl.

Fellow legendaries Darkrai and Deoxys came in second and third place, respectively, followed by Pikachu in fourth and Meowth in fifth. As Siliconera points out, seeing as how the polls were conducted among hardcore players, the polls probably skewed towards the more powerful guys rather than the more recognizable guys, which is not the best metric for determining popularity. Like, we were clearly the buffest guys at our high school, but we were never elected prom king, you know?"