Digital Monster
virtual pet series
The Digital MonsterJPN is a digital pet created by WiZ and Bandai that spawned the Digimon franchise. It was released by Bandai in 1997, on June 26th in Japan, and on December 5th in North America, targeted at boys 8 years and older. It was similar to earlier virtual pets with the distinction of being a fighting pet that could connect with others like it.
The original Digital Monster model released in 1997 sold 14 million units worldwide, including 13 million in Japan and 1 million overseas, up until March 2004. By 2005, more than 24 million Digital Monster units had been sold worldwide.
In 2017, a 20th anniversary edition was released in Japan which allows the owner to choose from any of the eggs from the first five versions of the original toy, as well as several new ones unlocked through various methods. This edition was released worldwide in 2019, the anniversary of the franchise outside of its home country.
History
Key figures involved in the development of the Digital Monster include Makoto Kitagawara and Kenji Watanabe of WiZ and Ayumu Horimura of Bandai. Kitagawara and Watanabe had been in WiZ's game department before being moved to the toy department. Once there Kitagawara helped with debugging and spec documents for a second generation of Tamagotchi, and that was when discussions for a male-oriented Tamagotchi began.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Digital Monster” as virtual pet series. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as virtual pet series. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1747487. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2017.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
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This entry incorporates text from “Digital Monster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.