I was visiting GameFAQs when I realized that you could view their old polling data from as far back as 1999. I think a lot of the results were interesting to learn about. Here are a few highlights.

• In 1999, when asked what they thought about Pokemon, about half of voters said "I don't care about Pokemon" or "I Hate those Little Things." In February 2000, half of voters expected the Pokemon craze to die by the end of Christmas. When asked about Pokemon again in October, 29% of the site said "Hate It!"
• Their 1999 N64 Game of the Year was WWF Wrestlemania 2000
• In March 2000, over 55% of voters rented at least one game every month. Blockbuster still existed.
• About 20% of voters in March 2000 went to arcades at least weekly.
• In August 2000, a poll of what was "Nintendo's Best Franchise" had results of about 37% Legend of Zelda, 24% Mario, 17% Pokemon, 9% Metroid, 6% Earthbound/Mother, 3% Kirby, 2% Donkey Kong, and 1% Star Fox. I'm surprised by how high Metroid was a full generation after the release of Super Metroid, whereas DK wasn't that high despite still being a big series.
• The Xbox is the recurring butt of the polls in 2000. Seriously, just look at any poll mentioning it that year. As late as December 2000, it was voted the 6th generation console that would fare the worst in 2001 (37%), beating out the Dreamcast (27%).

I haven't gotten past 2001 yet, but there's a lot of great stuff to be seen.

Click here for reference.

Blockbuster still exists! Yerp, believe it or not, there is still one whole Blockbuster store that remains open to this very day! It's located in Bend, Oregon, which is a smallish but up-and-coming hipster haven where people tend to favor local, indie, and retro stuff like that, and which is also, increasingly, a tourist destination. Here's their website.

The Bend Blockbuster is apparently surviving the coronavirus pandemic just fine, incidentally! The other month they ran a pretty awesome three-day event that made the national news where four people per evening could rent out the store overnight and watch movies in a '90s style living room set-up complete with couch-bed, a huge, era-appropriate TV, and ready access to a metric ton of VHS tapes for $4 per person. The lady who manages the Bend Blockbuster store stocks the shelves with videos she just buys herself, which not every retailer is technically supposed to be allow but they let her do that anyway because they know her and support the store.

I've never been able to go to Bend, but incidentally I love that there's still one whole Blockbuster around, so I've purchased a membership card for $2 on their site to support them.