I was in primary school back then. Tthat was when I first came into contact with the franchise when the fad took over my school sometime during the middle of my third grade year.
Pretty much everyone was clutching their Gameboys or peddling cards… until my principal banned the cards from the school.
I heard there was a high profile news of some kids getting stabbed over the cards. And schools started panicking promptly mass banning the cards from the premise.
On top of that, the whole “anti-Pokemon” and “Pokemon is Satanic” rhetoric was at it’s full swing in the backdrop.
So parents and school basically converged on the fad.
Also, there was a short period in the late generation 1 cycle where the fad was just peeling off. It “wasn’t cool” to play Pokemon anymore.