More than Eight in Ten Americans Have Seen or Heard About Pokémon Go in the News

Pokémon Go has taken the media by storm, generating thousands of news stories since its recent debut. In order to better understand general awareness and knowledge of the app, Ipsos conducted a short online survey and found that a large majority of Americans recall having seen Pokémon Go on the news recently (83%).

In addition to seeing or hearing about Pokémon Go in the news, most have at least heard of the game in general (93%), including nearly one in five (16%) who say they know a great deal about it. This includes a significantly greater proportion of millennials that say they know a great deal about the app (35%), compared to both middle-aged respondents (14%, 35-54) and those over the age of 55 (2%). Men (23%), those living in the Northeast (23%), and those with kids living at home (31%) are also among those most likely to claim they possess a good deal of knowledge when it comes to Pokémon Go.

While not quite three in ten Americans can correctly identify Bulbasaur as being a Pokémon character (29%) – this jumps to a majority among Millennials (52%), significantly outperforming respondents over the age of 55 (10%) and those 35-54 (28%) who correctly selected this character from a list consisting of five character names. Those with kids at home (45%) are also among those most likely to correctly identify a Pokémon character. Nearly one in five Americans (18%) incorrectly identified the Inca citadel Machu Picchu as a Pokémon Go character.

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted July 17-18, 2016. For the survey, a sample of 1,005 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii was interviewed online in English.