Pokemon fans may have crowned a new fan favorite to replace the series' normal mascots, if an official Twitter poll is any indication. While the results are by no means scientific, they suggest that a few relatively obscure Pokemon have become more popular a few generations after their debut.
Without a doubt, the primary mascot of the Pokemon franchise is Pikachu, the electric field mouse first encountered in the original games' Viridian Forest. From clothes to stuffed animals and even feature films, Pikachu has helmed a dizzying number of consumer goods and multimedia projects. That said, many favor Charizard, the Fire-Flying lizard that serves as the final evolution of starter Pokemon Charmander. Charizard has defeated Pikachu in some popularity polls, and recently featured very prominently in Pokemon Sword and Shield as the signature Pokemon of Leon, the Galar region's Champion.
The winner of the Twitter poll, however, was Dedenne, the Electric-Fairy mouse introduced in Pokemon X and Y. Close runners-up for second and third were the chinchilla-like Cinccino and gem-like monster Sableye. While Pikachu and Charizard appear, they were ranked 7th and 18th, respectively, a far cry from their prominence in most Pokemon media. Although most of the high-ranking entries were smaller, cuter Pokemon, the extremely muscular bug Buzzwole managed to find its way into the top ten. It's also the only Ultra Beast, a type of extradimensional anomaly Pokemon, to make the list.
As the poll was conducted in Japanese, it's possible the poll results are skewed from normal because they included fewer Western players. Another possibility is that excitement over the rumored Diamond and Pearl remakes resulted in a few Pokemon from Sinnoh, the region in which those games take place, getting a boost. While Sinnoh Pokemon did not rank especially well in the poll (the highest being water starter Piplup, at 12th), these Pokemon may have taken away votes from fans that would normally support Pikachu, Charizard, and other long-time series favorites.
That said, if Dedenne really is this popular, it might be a little embarrassing for the teams behind recent Pokemon games. Dedenne was not included in the first wave of Kalos Pokemon to join Pokemon GO, for example. Plus, while it did eventually make its way into Pokemon Sword and Shield via the Expansion Pass DLC, it did not appear in the base game. Even accounting for the DLC, a handful of additional high-ranking poll winners remain completely unavailable in Sword and Shield, including Snivy (ranked 4th), Sewaddle (ranked 6th), and Oshawott (ranked 9th).
Even if Sinnoh Pokemon didn't win the poll, another aspect of the Sinnoh games clearly stands out in fans' minds. A recent Reddit poll found that Sinnoh Champion Cynthia is the most-feared Champion in all of the Pokemon games. Plus, if new games set in Sinnoh really are coming soon, they could expose a whole new generation to fan favorite Pokemon like Lucario and Giratina.