Official Pokemon stream asks players to "Discover Oddish," mysteriously runs a blank screen for 16 hours, refuses to elaborate

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That's odd(ish)

Oddish as seen in the Pokemon anime.
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon fans have been left perplexed after being commanded by the official Pokemon Twitch channel to 'Discover Oddish' for over 19 hours, with a soundless stream showing nothing but the company's logo for the best part of a day.

The Pokemon Company's Twitch channel is a pretty active one, so to see it streaming something isn't out of the ordinary. With that being said, 'Discover Oddish' certainly managed to turn heads, and you can see why. As the hours passed, fans on Twitter began to question what was going on. Why was there a mostly-blank stream on the channel? Why are we discovering Oddish? What did Oddish do? And perhaps most importantly, when will it end?

"Anybody want to explain to me why the Pokemon Twitch channel has been streaming 'Discovering Oddish' with only the Pokemon Logo showing," one fan questions, four hours into the stream. 

More time went by, and the confusion transformed into memes. "Who up discovering they Oddish," another writes, while one Twitter user questions: "If I follow the Pokemon Twitch account will they discover Oddish?"

Meanwhile, some began questioning if the stream meant something. Was it all a tease for a new regional Oddish variant? You can't blame anyone for thinking that, given that in the run-up to Pokemon Sword and Shield, the company had a 24-hour stream of a mostly still Glimwood Tangle that eventually revealed the adorable Galarian Ponyta. Well, unfortunately for Oddish enthusiasts, it almost certainly isn't that deep on this occasion.

Looking at Pokemon's stream schedule for this week, the company had lined up three hours of Oddish-related anime episodes to go live on September 3 for us to all, uh, discover Oddish, but it seems that the round Grass/Poison type broke containment, and ended up taking over the entire channel for a further 16 hours before it was all over. Good for you, Oddish. It doesn't explain why or how it went on so long, especially when so many people started posting about it on social media, but I guess we'll just have to accept that the whole situation was a bit odd. (Sorry). 

While you're here, be sure to check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games.

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.