In my opinion

1st wave of Pokemon fans: Gen 1-3

2nd wave of Pokemon fans: Gen 4-5

3rd wave of Pokemon fans: Gen 6-7

4th wave of Pokemon fans: Gen 8-

Almost every wave is a new console, a new generation of kids, and a new interpretation on what a Pokemon game “is”.

These aren’t ultimate rock-solid categories, there is just enough big changes converging on each of these different waves, combined with time between them, that you can feel a tangible enough difference between the games and what fans value about them.

Also I think Gen 3 is a bit of a limbo period while things were being figured out on what an ongoing pokemon series looked like- but that’s actually why I chose “waves” of fans, because pokemon became “uncool” by Gen 3 until a new “wave” of Pokemon fans arrived with the DS/Gen 4.

Hopefully this somewhat explains why everyone has a different idea about what makes Pokemon “Pokemon”, because Pokemon has changed over time & people started at different points, meaning “Pokemon” is different to everybody.

I also think it explains why Gen 4 hype is so huge lol

There seems to be a bit of confusion, this isn’t about people’s favorite pokemon games, this is when lots of new players were introduced to the series (aka waves) combined with when significant change happened in the games (comparatively). It’s not a reflection of quality either.