Pikachu zaps Schwarzenegger: Pokémon’s Super Bowl ad beat Mobile Strike’s

If you ever see Arnold Schwarzenegger fighting a yellow electric rat, you shouldn’t put your money on the Governator.

When it comes to games, only Pokémon and military strategy game Mobile Strike (for iOS and Android) had advertisements during last weekend’s Super Bowl 50. And it turns out that people were much more thrilled to see pocket monsters like Pikachu, Charizard, and Gyarados than Schwarzenegger, who is developer Machine Zone’s key spokesperson for Mobile Strike. The official Pokémon ad has 20 million views on YouTube compared to 13 million for Mobile Strike’s official spot. But according to consumer-sentiment analytics firm Canvs, the difference is even more stark when you examine how Super Bowl viewers felt about the ads. And that reveals how potent a force the Pokémon franchise is — and that it has a lot of potential when it comes to the $30 billion mobile gaming market.