But does the amount of Pokemon available affect how good an entry is as a whole? No, of course not, but if you rank them by how many Pokemon they have, it’s easy to see which ones are better. Here is a list of all the major Pokemon games, from the original Red and Blue to Generation 9’s Scarlet and Violet, along with their Regional Pokedex sizes.
Pokemon, a popular video game series and multimedia brand that features over a thousand strange creatures called Pokemon or Pocket Monsters, has been entertaining fans for almost 30 years. Despite the constantly growing number of Pokemon, many of the main series games feat ure all of them, with later games making some Pokemon unavailable until after the credits roll and others excluding some Pokemon totally.
The number of Pokemon keeps going up. But which games have the most Pocket Monsters you can get?
Red, Blue, And Yellow
| Kanto Pokedex Size | 151 |
|---|
The original trilogy and the Japan-only Green Version each had 150 Pokemon. The 151st Pokemon, Mew, could only be obtained at events or by hacking. These were the first few Pokemon games, so the number of monsters you could catch isn’t as high as it is in later games, but at the time they came out, having that many was pretty cool.
Of course, these were also the first games to have a Pokemon that could only be found in that version and that supported trading with other players. While these don’t have a lot of Pokemon, it’s important to remember how important they were as the first games in the series.
FireRed And LeafGreen
| Kanto Pokedex Size | 151 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 386 |
With Mew still only available through event distribution or hacking, the third generation remakes of the first generation games, FireRed Version and LeafGreen Version, feat ured the original 150 Pokemon and added the abilities and attacks first presented in Ruby Version and Sapphire Version.
The post-game includes an exclusive new locale known as the Sevii Islands, which should not be mistaken with the anime-exclusive Orange Islands, which contain several second-generation Pokemon that were not available to capture in Ruby and Sapphire. Evolutions for first-generation Pokemon that were added in second and third-generation games could not be done until the end of the game.
Diamond And Pearl
| Sinnoh Pokedex Size | 151 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 493 |
The first games in the series to come out on Nintendo DS were Diamond Version and Pearl Version. The Sinnoh Pokedex now has 151 Pokemon, the same number as the original Kanto Pokedex. They added 107 new Pokemon. The number of Pokemon in the National Pokedex now stands at 493, featuring seven new Pokemon that were not in the Sinnoh Pokedex.
Because the Nintendo DS has a spot for the Game Boy Advance, Pokemon from the third generation games could be moved to it through the Pal Park. In this place after the game, which looked like Safari Zone, players could get back their transferred Pokemon, which let them get back Pokemon from games on an older console.
Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl
| Sinnoh Pokedex Size | 151 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 493 |
Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are exact remakes of Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo Switch, so they don’t have many of the new features that were added in Pokemon Sword and Shield. With 151 Pokemon, the Sinnoh Pokedex has the same amount of Pokemon as the first two fourth-generation games.
The Sinnoh Pokedex only has information on 493 Pokemon from the first four generations. Before the player can get the National Pokedex, they must first get the information on all 493 Pokemon in the Sinnoh Pokedex. From Pokemon Home, you can’t move any Pokemon from the fifth generation on to Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl.
Let’s Go Pikachu And Let’s Go Eevee
| Kanto Pokedex Size | 153 |
|---|
The Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee games, which are only available on the Nintendo Switch, are remakes of the Yellow Version. They borrow some features from Pokémon Go instead of adding new ones, and they can also connect with the popular mobile game.
As remakes of Pokemon Yellow Version, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee have the original 151 Pokemon, plus the Mythical Pokemon Meltan and its evolved form Melmetal from Pokemon Go, bringing the total number of Pokemon to 153, with no other new Pokemon other than the Mega Evolutions feat ured in the post-game.
Black And White
| Unova Pokedex Size | 156 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 649 |
The Black Version and White Version are like a “soft reboot” of the series. Each region’s Pokedex only has the 156 new Pokemon, and three of them can only be obtained through events or hacks. Older Pokemon were still in the game, but you could only get them in the post-game or by transferring them. This brought the total amount of Pokemon to 649.
These two games were also the first to have the Poke Transfer feature, which let Pokemon from the fourth-generation games be moved to them. To get them back, players had to capture them in a Poke Ball shooting mini-game, which was a bit different from the Pal Park feature that had been added earlier.
Ruby, Sapphire And Emerald
| Hoenn Pokedex Size | 202 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 386 |
Ruby Version and Sapphire Version were the first games in the series to come out for the Game Boy Advance. They added 135 new Pokemon to the series, and you could catch 200 of them in-game. You could also get two mythical Pokemon, Jirachi and Deoxys, through events or by hacking.
Even though these games added 386 new Pokemon, many of them couldn’t be traded to other games until FireRed and LeafGreen came out. This was because the Game Boy Advance and its predecessors didn’t have the same connectivity features, but FireRed and LeafGreen fixed this problem. This changed when the third game, Emerald, came out. It became a little easier to finish the Pokedex.
Platinum
| Sinnoh Pokedex Size | 210 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 493 |
The Sinnoh Pokedex now has 210 Pokemon, up from 151 in the third version of Diamond and Pearl that was changed to Platinum Version. At that time, all 493 Pokemon were still in the National Pokedex. Like its predecessor, it had some Pokemon that you had to trade or move to get others. It also had 14 Pokemon that were missing.
Platinum Version was also famous for adding new forms to Rotom, Shaymin, and Giratina, three fourth-generation Pokemon that had already been released. Shaymin and Giratina each got one new form, while Rotom got five.
Omega Ruby And Alpha Sapphire
| Hoenn Pokedex Size | 211 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 721 |
Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the only remakes for the Nintendo 3DS, once again feat ured 202 Pokemon in the Hoenn Pokedex, but some older Pokemon were dropped to make room for third-generation Pokemon that evolved and were born after Ruby and Sapphire Version.
Like Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire feat ured a total of 721 Pokemon and added several new Mega Evolutions for existing Pokemon as well as Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, new forms for Legendary Pokemon that are similar to Mega Evolution but can only be obtained through a process called Primal Reversion.
Legends Arceus
| Hisui Pokedex Size | 242 |
|---|
Pokemon Legends Arceus, a more experimental Pokemon game based on Diamond Version and Pearl Version, feat. There are also seven brand-new Pokemon added, along with some new regional forms for Pokemon from previous generations. This brings the total amount of featured Pokemon in the Hisui Pokedex to 242.
Some Mythical Pokemon that were only available at events are now available in Pokemon Legends Arceus. These include Darkrai, Manaphy, and Shaymin. You can get them in the game through side quests that NPCs give you. You can only get Arceus after defeating all the other Pokemon in the Hisui Pokedex.
Gold, Silver, And Crystal
| Johto/Kanto Pokedex Size | 251 |
|---|
The second generation of Pokemon games, Gold, Silver, and Crystal Versions, added 100 new Pokemon and feat ured two regions, Johto and Kanto. However, the Pokedexes from these two regions were combined into the first National Pokedex. There are 251 Pokemon in total, if you count the Time Capsule, which can be used to connect to older games.
But the legendary Pokemon Celebi could only be obtained through a special event in Japan, unless the games were hacked. Luckily, the event was added to the launch of the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. It was meant to be in the first version, but it was taken out before launch.
HeartGold And SoulSilver
| Johto/Kanto Pokedex Size | 256 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 493 |
The number of Pokemon in the new Pokedex went from 251 to 256 with the release of Pokemon HeartGold Version and Pokemon SoulSilver Version, which are remakes of the second games in the fourth generation. The five new Pokemon are fourth-generation evolutions of Pokemon that were in the second-generation games and learn a new move. At that time, all 493 Pokemon were in the National Pokedex.
FlameRed Version and LeafGreen Version, like their predecessors, used Pokedex data from the first generation of Pokemon found in Green Version, Red Version, and Blue Version. HeartGold Version and SoulSilver Version used Pokemon from Gold Version and Silver Version for both first- and second-generation Pokemon.
Black 2 And White 2
| Unova Pokedex Size | 300 |
|---|---|
| National Pokedex Size | 649 |
The direct follow-up to Black Version and White Version, the first two sequels to a game from the same generation and the last games for the Nintendo DS, feat ured 300 Pokemon in the Unova Pokedex, adding 144 of the older Pokemon to the regional Pokedex, while still having 649 Pokemon in the National Pokedex.
Doodle Baseball was the only games with different difficulty levels. Normal was the default mode, Easy was only available in Pokemon White Version 2, and Challenge Mode was only available in Pokemon Black Version 2. You could unlock each mode in the other version using the Unova Link feature.
Sun And Moon
| Alola Pokedex Size | 301 |
|---|
The seventh version of Pokemon games, Pokemon Sun and Moon, added 80 new Pokemon and the idea of regional variants, which are older species of Pokemon that have changed how they look and how they fight because they have adapted to a new climate. Although all 802 Pokemon at the time could be moved to the games, the Alola Pokedex only has 302 Pokemon overall and does not feat a National Pokedex.
Pokemon Bank came out a long time before Pokemon Sun and Moon, so the latter don’t have the Pal Park on Poke Transfer tools that were in previous games. Once a Pokemon from Pokemon Bank has been transferred, it shows up on the player’s PC.
Scarlet And Violet
| Paldea Pokedex Size | 400 |
|---|---|
| Kitakami Pokedex Size | 200 |
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the fourth game for the Nintendo Switch and the ninth version of Pokemon, added 103 new Pokemon to the Paldea Pokedex, bringing the total to 476. Scarlet and Violet also came up with the ideas of Paradox Pokemon, which are species of previously existing Pokemon that have been moved through time, and convergent Pokemon, which look like species that already existed but are not related.
The Teal Mask was the first wave of DLC. It brought back 94 Pokemon from earlier games, bringing the total number of Pokemon you can catch in Scarlet and Violet to 578. Kitakami, the area you can explore in the Teal Mask DLC, has a 200 Pokedex.
Sword And Shield
| Galar Pokedex Size | 400 |
|---|---|
| Isle of Armor Pokedex Size | 211 |
| Crown Tundra Pokedex Size | 210 |
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, from the eighth generation, were the first new Pokemon games for Nintendo Switch. The base game had 81 new Pokemon. The Isle of Armor DLC added three, and the Crown Tundra DLC added five. There were also a few regional variations of older Pokemon.
Sword and Shield feat ure 664 Pokemon total, which may not be all of them; however, it is still a sizable number despite the lack of a full National Pokedex. This number includes DLC expansions and Pokemon that can be transferred from Pokemon Bank.
Ultra Sun And Ultra Moon
| Alola Pokedex Size | 403 |
|---|
The updated versions of Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, take place in a different timeline than Sun and Moon and are not direct sequels. They added five new Pokemon, with 403 Pokemon feat ured in the Alola Pokedex spread across four islands, and 807 Pokemon available overall, which at the time was every Pokemon in existence.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were also the first games in the series to add brand-new Pokemon in the middle of a generation. Games like Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee and Pokemon Legends Arceus followed this trend.
X And Y
| Kalos Central Pokedex Size | 153 |
|---|---|
| Kalos Coastal Pokedex Size | 153 |
| Kalos Mountain Pokedex Size | 151 |
| National Pokedex Size | 721 |
There are 457 Pokemon in the regional Pokedex of the sixth generation Pokemon games and the first two Pokemon games that were only available on Nintendo 3DS. Of these, 72 are new, and three are event-only. With 457 Pokemon, the Kalos Pokedex is the biggest Pokedex in the region. The 72 new Pokemon bring the overall number of Pokemon to 721.
The Pokedex for X and Y is interesting because it is split into three groups: Central Kalos, Coastal Kalos, and Mountain Kalos. X and Y also had the Poke Transporter and Pokemon Bank apps, which let players move Pokemon from fifth-generation games to X and Y without having to worry about any Pokemon they had already caught getting stuck.