Yes, Hamtaro was the 61st most popular anime of all time in 2005.
I have to admit I have never seen this hamster based entertainment. It ran for over 6 years in Japan, however it failed to take off in the US, so it's english-language life was curtailed.
I wonder how many hamsters in the world have been named after characters from this show?
As annoying as that above opening is, the US version with it's vocodered vocals is worse: