The upcoming Pokémon Sword and Shield have the series' fanbase in an uproar at the moment after it was revealed that the games wouldn't feature every single monster. We've already spoken about the topic at length should you wish to join the discussion, but wherever you stand on the matter, the whole fiasco has resulted in a rather interesting fan-made poll.
Reddit user, mamamia1001, recently shared a survey which allowed anyone visiting to vote for their favourite Pokémon. The idea was to find out whether or not "every Pokémon is someone's favourite" - a line which has been thrown around Twitter by upset fans like an annoyingly persistent frisbee over the past few weeks, all in response to the new games' missing Pokémon.
A whopping 52,725 people cast their votes, averaging out at 65 per Pokémon. Four monsters sadly didn't receive any votes at all - although considering there were 809 different ones to choose from, it does go to show that the majority really do have a dedicated fan or two out there. Of course, with an even wider pool of voters, we're sure that each and every Pokémon would have received a vote eventually.
So, let's take a look at some of the more interesting results. First up, the top 20 most popular Pokémon from the survey:
Pokémon | Number of votes | Rank |
Charizard | 1107 | 1 |
Gengar | 1056 | 2 |
Arcanine | 923 | 3 |
Bulbasaur | 710 | 4 |
Blaziken | 613 | 5 |
Umbreon | 607 | 6 |
Lucario | 604 | 7 |
Gardevoir | 585 | 8 |
Eevee | 581 | 9 |
Dragonite | 551 | 10 |
Absol | 542 | 11 |
Typhlosion | 534 | 12 |
Ampharos | 529 | 13 |
Squirtle | 523 | 14 |
Flygon | 510 | 15 |
Ninetales | 471 | 16 |
Tyranitar | 451 | 17 |
Infernape | 443 | 18 |
Snorlax | 433 | 19 |
Torterra | 430 | 20 |
Next up, the number of votes by generation. Those first 151 really are a huge deal to so many fans of the series.
Number of votes by generation | Generation | Average per gen |
18289 | 1 | 121.1 |
9115 | 2 | 91.2 |
9469 | 3 | 70.1 |
7531 | 4 | 70.4 |
4391 | 5 | 28.1 |
2154 | 6 | 29.9 |
1776 | 7 | 20.2 |
And finally, the poor four who didn't get a vote.
Pokémon with no votes |
Silcoon |
Gothita |
Eelektrik |
Yungoos |
If you want to see the full results (right from first place to 809th) you can do so right here. The information is presented in a document which shows all sorts of data based on the results.
Who would you have voted for? Are you surprised by any of the Pokémon listed here? We're surprised but incredibly happy to see the tremendously joyful Ampharos sitting in 13th place.
[source reddit.com, via nintendosoup.com]
Comments 118
Snorlax is #1 In my heart.
Feraligatr not even top 20? My faith in humanity is lost .
Nidoking in 154th?
this list is invalid
I voted joltik when the OP posted this on r/pokemon.
Someone voted for Cascoon but not Silcoon? Anyway, I’d probably vote for either Tyranitar or Cyndaquil. Although I seem to have a Magnemite in every game so maybe that.
Guess this proves that by removing a few pokemons from the latest generations it won't be a big deal whatsoever.
Umbreon the most popular Eevee evolution? I never knew that.
Nevertheless, pretty much none of my favorite Pokemon made that list. The Gen I bias is sadly expected, but that doesn't make me any happier to see it.
How you ignore blastoise like that.....
If there was anything that could confirm that removing some Pokémon from Sword/Shield was a terrible idea, this is it. Every Pokémon is indeed someone's favorite. (...except for those four)
It’s hard to really know what to do with polls like these. Gothita was one of the pokemon that got no votes, for example, but its final evo Gothitelle is a pretty notable gen 5 Pokémon. Like, to the point where there was a rumor it would be in Smash ultimate and people actually believed it.
I vote for :
1. Sawk, that Karate boy. 😍
2. Lucario
3. All Legendary Pokemons from Gen 1 - 7
4. Empoleon
5. Piplup
6. Oshawott
7. Pachirisu
8. Vaporeon
9. Aegislash
10. Ninetales (Alola form)
Glad to see Typhlosion so high on the list. I feel like this image belongs here:
Gengar! God, I would love a Gengar.
It's a generic answer I know, but Pikachu will always be my #1 Pokémon!
Yay my fave Ampharos made it into the top 20!
Excellent try, people who answered the poll, certainly a good effort. However, the correct answers were in fact;
1. Bayleef
2. Grotle
3. Tropius
4. Bellosum
5. Whimsicott
6. Vileplume
7. Mega Venusaur
8. Mega Sceptile
9. Leafeon
10. Snivy
But thanks for playing!
Woah. Didn't expect Torterra, Flygon or Ampharos to be in the Top 20. I thought they were underrated. <3
I wonder if the Torterra sequence in Detective Pikachu had an impact on votes.
All my favorites are in the top 200 at least (barely)
1. Joltik
2. Hawlucha
3. Riolu
4. (Alolan) Marowak
5. (Alolan) Sandslash
6. Houndoom
I like the yellow one.
Yeaaaah my boi Gengar doing work.
Shuckle will always be my number 1. ^_^
Umbreon you sneaky sneak ;D
Where's my Samurott gang?
Yungoos got 0?! Surprising.
For me, emolga :3 just a cutie pie
My taste is a lot different than the other pokehunters then 😂
What?! Meloetta isn't in the top 20?!, that isn't fair...
Just kidding XD
Is more that obvious that my favorite Pokemon isn't the favorite of almost everyone, hehe.
Where did I come. To lazy to look at chart
Given that pikachu is kind of the face of the franchise and that he's pretty much the main seller in the merchandise I'm really suprised that he barely break the top 50 with its 46th position... I guess there most be some kind of bias due to the type of people who go on the the sub...
People like fire types, 6 in the top 20.
@Tethutendo I think Pikachu-fatigue might be a part of it, the little yellow [CENSORED] is in EVERYTHING pokemon-related... >_<
@EmmatheBest Or the argument could also be made that since almost half (42% to be exact) of the Pokemon is not even a favorite of 5% of the player a lot can be removed without much consequence at that a lot of Pokemon would be expensive to make given their low impact.
Yeah, the goodest fire boy is up there in the top 5 where he belongs.
Gengar in it thats amazing!!
Oh cool, look at how many were in Detective Pikachu! And of course, the list is full of some of the most popular ones: Gengar, Eevee, Gardevoir, Flyg...
...Flygon? That is a great design and all, but you hardly ever hear about it or see merch, so that's kind of surprising to see!
wait, wait, wait!
Biddof got votes?!
Just to remind people, every person that not chose Charizard could have chosen Charizard as their least favourite in theory. Just like every person who voted in the poll could vote for Cascoon as their second favourite in theory, which means this poll doesn't say much because in that case Cascoon would be the most popular.
Not saying that some these aren't extremely popular, just to say take it with more than a grain of salt.
I wonder where did Pikachu land. Also weird that people did not vote for the Trump-weasel, but they did for it's even more Trump-like evolution.
#teamyungoos
No votes no votes???
What is going on!
We all know this Pokemon, which looks like Car keys is the best:
https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/0/04/707Klefki.png
… Yeah, one of the many reasons I stopped caring about Pokemon.
"No one will miss half the pokedex!"
Wow, Pikachu isn’t even top 20. Surprising. My votes would be cast to Raichu, Greninja, Wobbuffet, and Goomy.
I didn't knew... I would have voted for Magicarp
I'm honestly surprised Pikachu wasn't in the top 20, seeing as how he's the poster child of the Pokemon series alongside Ash.
Bulbasaur up there, proving you don't need to be evolved to be the best!
Also glad my good boi got 3rd place
What? . This is outrageous and unfair. How can you be the most popular Pokemon, just after Detective Pikachu is the most succesful video game movie of all time and Lets go Pikachu outsold lets go Eevee by a huge margin.
My takeaway from this is that because only the top 130 got more than 2 digits of votes, it doesn't really matter that Game Freak has dropped most of the old monsters from Sword and Shield because deep down most people don't really care.
Growlithe and Arcanine is my favourite! Ever since I was a kid! (I do have other favourites too!)
All of those 4 Pokemon can evolve, which means their evolutions are someone's favorite. You can't just keep an evolved Pokemon while banning an unevolved one, so therefore there's no possible Pokemon that can be banned without removing one that people care about.
@JamesJose7 But this is just 50000+ votes while their is millions and millions of fans
Yeah I hate eelektrik too
Umbreon cracking the top 10(and being the most popular Eeveelution to boot) just makes me giddy to see. ^_^
@Swoltacular Hey, I can't build a party without one either, so I get you there.
The fact that half of the 800+ Pokemon have less than 0.05% of the total votes kinda goes against that "every Pokemon is someone's favorite Pokemon" theory.
And this is among hardcore Pokemon fans on Reddit. If the general audience took this survey, I can't imagine how many more Pokemon would have below 0.05% of the votes.
Out of interest where did pikachu rank? Can’t be arsed to look!
@abe_hikura He does have a cupcake for a nose.
@TJWorks Black/White both Ampharos and Flygon were in my team. Not to mention Flygon came with levitate and was Dragon/Ground Type.
Dunsparce is still my favorite.
Really shocked Mewtwo wasn't in the top 20.
@Kalmaro Yeeaaaaah my boi Umbreon beats Gengar-boi
Night Slash! (70 atk/critical hits land easier)
Super Effective!
@Reigestugatensho I would say focus blast would solve that but umbreon is so tanky, not sure it would work.
Umbreon has Meh attack but Gengar has no defense. Hmmm...
Not supposed by #1 at all. Very surprised Pikachu wasn’t even top 20. Kinda funny to me. All this #BringBackTheNatlDex stuff and their were hardly any votes for Pokémon in the final 3 generations. Obviously it’s important to some, but it looks like a vocal minority thing they I don’t think will hurt sales at all.
The four pokemon that received no votes are part of an evolutionary chain that results in someone's favourite pokemon. So even removing just those four would result in their chains being removed and therefor that would be a terrible idea to some fans.
So gamefreak really can't win on this one. (As far as reasoning goes. Financially they will still win because people will still by these games by the millions).
@EmmatheBest But all of those evolve into or from someone's favourites, so its still bad if they are left out.
@Supadav03 That's a big assumption just using the poll's results.
What's more surprising than Silcoon not getting any votes is how Cascoon got some.
But seriously, it's nice to see how almost every Pokémon has its fans, it's surprising to see how even forgettable middle-stage evolutions and unremarkable first-stages have their fans.
I never would've guessed Charizard was #1. Everyone wanted one when I was a kid, and this confirms that it's still immensely popular too.
@IceEarthGuard and that is exactly why this is solid proof, let me elaborate. First and foremost, most of the times in research you have to conduct an experiment in a subset of the total population to get an understanding that represents the majority. Only people that cared enough about pokemon to take this survey are in this data, meaning that the people who took this survey are hardcore fans of Pokemon. Anyone else wouldn't have noticed it. With that data we can conclude that the fans, who are the ones who complain about the national dex, don't care that much about later Pokemon. In fact, the seventh generation got 9% of the total votes that the first generation got. This is why data is so beautiful.
I voted for Missingno
@LUIGITORNADO Polling results and the fact it was the 2nd most pre-ordered game after E3 ended. Which was post Pokédex news. All tangible indications are pointing to it being another huge seller. Let’s Go did 10 million+, I have no doubt SwSh will clear that. Don’t know if it will get close to S&M 16 million, but there’s a lot less Switch out there than there were 3DS at the time of their release.
My boy Sandslash at number 81. Nice to see he's got some love.
Hooray for Lucario! Vaporeon is my second favorite. Surprised Pikachu isn't in the top 20, but Eevee is... Guess we know who's the REAL mascot for the series!
PIIIIIIKAAAAAAAAAA!!!
@NintendoFan4Lyf
That's pretty bad, haven't played one in a bit?
Dux will always be my number 1.
I FREAKING LOVE GOTHITA!! What is wrong with you people??
@JamesJose7 ??? Of course not everyone will noticed it. "Only people that cared enough about pokemon to take this survey are in this data, meaning that the people who took this survey are hardcore fans of Pokemon"
I can tell you right now that their are many more hardcore fans that didn't even knew about this survey, including me. Not sure where this Survey was done, but you can't expect every Hardcore Pokemon fan are the ones voting, since the majority didn't knew about it.
Plus people are mad because in every other game you can "catch them all." Since this is the strongest excuse for the backlash.
(The data for all the Pokemon was in the games, not that you could catch them all in the certain game).
Wow, people can take away whatever they want from this somehow. They proved that every Pokemon (or it's evolved form) is someone's favourite. So removing Pokemon from the new games will suck for someone no matter which Pokes are removed.
I don't personally mind the restriction but can understand other's dismay. More concerning to me is how disappointing the visuals and animations seem to be, especially since they basically said the reduction in Pokemon was a reason for them to up the quality
: /
@IceEarthGuard Did I ever mention that those who did not take it weren't hardcore fans of Pokemon? no, then you cannot argue as if I did. I said that those who did take it were most likely fans of pokemon. I'm not excluding anyone here. Yet again, this is a subset of the population that can represent the entire population. This is not exclusive to this particular scenario. You can't possibly survey 10 million people, you take a sample group. I'm not the one who says this, researchers devised that methodology.
@EmmatheBest
Then find new one.🙄 Let’s say your first Pokemon game was Red/Blue. Are you seriously trying to tell me, you didn‘t found any new favorite Pokémon in any following game? Times change, people change, Pokémon change.
Charizard is number one...Unoriginal
At least my personal favorite (Ampharos) is getting the attention it deserves.
My fav, Gardevoir, is high up. Arcarnine and Ninetales are awesome too!
Someone voted for Mr. Mime?
Blue was my first game and Wartortle remains my favourite.
@Supadav03 the Pokédex will still have a negative effect on the brand, which could result it overall lower sales as it continues.
@LUIGITORNADO lower than Let’s Go? No way. I’d take any bet on that. And 10+ million is nothing to sneeze at, considering how many Switch system are in the wild.
You’re comment is just as presumptuous as mine so...
I don't think this is really a good sampling, despite the number of votes, just because people voting in a Pokemon poll on reddit are, by definition, going to only be die hard fans who also use reddit. That's a pretty slanted sampling.
If Nintendo and Pokemon hosted a poll like this and made it open to anyone, I bet the results would be pretty different.
Chimecho is the nummer 1 in my heart. Chime-chime!
Lucario's #7 and Ninetale's #16? YESSS!!!!
Nobody likes Yungoos? So everybody forgot ppl made memes comparing Donald Trump with this mon?
Anyways my favorite Pokémon from all time is Hydreigon
@Jacob1092 I see you are a man of taste. This post was brought to you by #BayleefGang
@Supadav03 it isn’t. All I’m saying is that poor decisions will effect the brand and hurt sales over the long run
@LUIGITORNADO it is. You’re presuming it will hurt sales, I’m presuming it won’t. No difference.
@Supadav03 you’re making an assumption based off a list where people voted for their favorite Pokémon, I’m looking at reactions and listening to feedback from multiple websites and social media where people are angry/disappointed about not getting the national dex AND the game’s animations. The Pokémon brand will be effected by this continued mishandling. Word of mouth marketing says so.
@LUIGITORNADO for every malcontent I’ve seen on social media I’ve seen a supporter. And, as I stated before, it’s the 2nd most pre-order game right now. Even after the Pokédex news broke. And many sites have articles expressing why not having all Pokémon isn’t a big issue or even a positive thing. We’re both working off assumptions based on information available to us. Simple as that. So no, there’s no difference dude.
So until there is tangible evidence...we are both presuming, and we won’t have that until there are sales figures.
Anyone appreciate Mega Mawile here?
Aggron being in the top 50 puts a smile on my face. At least I know some people have good tastes, unlike some of the trash in the top 20.
Torterra making the top 20 is a pretty big surprise. I love Torterra but I always thought he wasnt very widespread liked
@westman98 yeah, funny how that works, much the same as in here, the polls and the comments never seem to match up.
It's much more interesting to look at pareto analysis of the votes. 12% of pokemon got 60%, 28% of pokemon got 80% of votes, 45% of pokemon got 90% of votes. That basically shows that if you only included 12% of the most favourite families in the beginning half of the game (collectable at start) and then added another 16-33% (collectable at the post game), you would most likely get everyone happy. That graph shows exactly what gamefreak are saying: there are a lot of unneeded and unliked pokemon (sure, some person might still like them, but those pokemon are deviations).
My top 2
1. Tyranitar
2. Jirachi
My boy Gengar (I even have a Gengar tattoo) robbed of the top spot 😭
This just goes to show that the average Pokemon player is 20+ years of age, with Gen 1 still dominating the polls. Either that, or the original 151 are much more appealing than newer Pokemon.
Charizard taking the win is not surprising, but Arcanine is still the best, in my opinion.
I would have voted for jigglypuff, corsola or Miltank. I have this weird liking for pink pokemon. It was interesting to see the votes the decline steadily from generation 1 to 7
Scyther for me. It was a terrible Pokemon in Red/Blue, but I love its design. Close second is Vaporeon.
Somehow, people still love charizard, despite looking really dumb
I need to know the people who vote for Rhyperior and the other evolution line of it~
Ludicolo is my #1
@EmmatheBest but let’s not forget the fact that their evolution lines got some votes, no evolution line has no vote
@StarViruZ of course Diego Brando's favorite pokemon is Hydriegon...LOL
Poor Yungoos!
...what's that do?
Gardevoir is rank 8, heck yeah.
@Reigestugatensho nice pun lmao but seriously it’s my favorite one, not because of my pfp 😂
My top 10:
1 - Scolipede
2 - Dragonite
3 - Goodra
4 - Charizard
5 - Heracross
6 - Scizor
7 - Drapion
8 - Jungko
9 - Hydreigon
10 - Kommo-o
😍
JIGGLYPUFF!!!
~ puff said ~
@bigcalsworld I know right
@Tethutendo,
yeah, that surprised me too.
What surprised me was Umbreon in the top 20. It's one of my two favourite Eeveelutions, but I didn't realise that 607 other people really like it to the point that they'd consider it a favourite!
I also noted the lack of a certain yellow electric mouse mascot...
Hold the phone, you mean to say people voted for cascoon but not silcoon? Really? You're just voting for angry eyes at this point....
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