Deep Pocket Monster
OK, let’s begin with the PokéTuber I consider to be the best: Pat Flynn, aka Deep Pocket Monster
Flynn is not the biggest by far, his sizeable follower count having stalled recently just shy of 700,000. But he is the most interesting. A self-made millionaire, Flynn decided about four years ago that he wanted a new hobby, and set out to create a Pokémon YouTube channel with a defined ethos of promoting kindness and giving back. But rather than simply join the throng of people sat at tables, tearing open packs, his channel has always opted for more original ideas.
These are as varied as deliberately buying the weirdest Pokémon-related items he can find on eBay, and then opening them in horror on camera (the Pikachu-chu being a classic), to buying people’s entire Pokémon card collections, sorting through his plunder, and then revealing how much he paid.
Too many of the successful channels become about a rich person having more money than you to spend on the hobby you share, but Flynn’s backward approach to this makes for a refreshing change. Already rich, rather than rich because of, his approach is to give everything away to his viewers. Those collections he buys—it’s invariably because the person who owned it was in trouble, and needed the help. His live-streams are dominated by the generosity of his followers, as viewers buy each other subscriptions to his membership club, with the openings all given away to viewers chosen at random. Frequently Flynn interrupts himself to give genuine, impassioned pleas to his viewers to find confidence in themselves, and to form generous, sharing communities.
His ongoing friendly rivalry with Poké Vault (see below) is a joy, and there’s no new episode alert that gets me clicking faster than when he’s uploaded one of his complete-a-set challenges, many of which conclude with improbably tear-jerking examples of kindness and community.
Flynn is also behind 2023’s new convention, Card Party, that proved to be a hugely popular event featuring most of the names you’ll find in this list, and is set to happen again in 2024, this time in Florida.
