https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuYeHPFR3f0Even if a little misguided, the pokemon company put more than twice the effort in promoting pokemon outside of japan between the 90s and early 2000s, they slowed down and eventually gave up around 2005. It's not a huge surprise that people didn't care anymore until pokemon go.
In fact pokemon go is a perfect example of how much attention they can bring to pokemon when someone gives half a shit
