Pokémon may refer to the video game franchise, an individual Pokémon creature, or a Pokémon species.

Franchise

Also called "Pocket Monsters" in Japan and some other countries, Pokémon is a megafranchise including video games, an anime, a Trading Card Game, a manga, and much merchandise. The concept of Pokémon was first created by Satoshi Tajiri and all Pokémon games are published by Nintendo Inc., Ltd for their video game systems, including the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, and Nintendo DS. The games include strategy games and RPGs where the player becomes a "Pokémon Trainer" who encouners, captures, trains, and collects many Pokémon creatures; puzzle games; and pinball games. They were first released in 1996 in Japan, and were first released in the USA in 1998. For more information, see History of Pokémon.

Individually

An individual Pokémon may be encountered in the wild, caught, trained, and battled with. In the games, individual Pokémon have many characteristics including stats, DVs, specie, Level, EVs, Nature, personality value, Experience, and known moves.

Species

Pokémon species are "kinds" of Pokémon, such as Bulbasaur or Zubat. Individual Pokémon of certain species can change into some other species by evolving, such as a Bulbasaur evolving into an Ivysaur. There are currently 388 official Pokémon species.

Species have certain characteristics inherent to each one. Examples include elemental types, how many EVs are awarded when a Pokémon of the specie is defeated, base stats, sprites and alternate color sprites, moves it learns by leveling up, moves it can learn by TMs and HMs and by Move Tutors, base experience, experience required to level up, and evolution.

Oftentimes, a specie's name can refer to an individual Pokémon of that species instead. For instance, "Bulbasaur is a Grass-type" refers to the Bulbasaur specie, but "Bulbasaur uses Vine Whip" refers to a single Bulbasaur. In the National ID system, they are numbered from 1 to 151.

Initially when the Generation I games Pokémon Red, Pokémon Green (in Japan only), Pokémon Blue, Pokémon Yellow, and Pokémon Stadium were released, there were 151 Pokémon species.

When the Generation II games Pokémon Gold, Pokémon Silver, Pokémon Crystal, and Pokémon Stadium 2 were released, 100 more species were added, making a total of 251.

When the Generation III games Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Box: Ruby/Sapphire, Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon FireRed, and Pokémon LeafGreen were released, 135 more species were added, making a total of 386.

Currently, two species from the fourth generation have been revealed to the public, Munchlax and Lucario (Japanese name).