The Growing Pokémon Universe: How Many Are There In 2025?

If you’ve been out of the Pokémon loop for a while, it can be overwhelming to find out just how many ‘mons there are these days. It can be tough to move on from staunchly believing there are only 151 Pokmemon, but doing so will allow you to enjoy one of the best things about the series: the monsters themselves.

Whether you ventured from Kanto to Kitakami, or just remember those hazy summer days in Pallet town, do you know just how many Pokémon there really are in 2025?

The Total Number Of Pokémon In 2025

Let’s cut right to the chase. As of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and its two DLC the Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk, there are a staggering 1025 Pokémon. If you were curious about lucky number 1000, it is none other than Gholdengo.

This is only counting discrete entries in the national Pokedex, but not alternate forms like mega evolutions or dynamaxing. It’s also not including forms baked in to Pokémon, like Deoxys or Castform. If we did that, Spinda alone would outnumber every other Pokémon combined.

Every generation has added somewhere between 75 and 151 new Pokémon. The biggest was the original batch of 151 that debuted in the first generation games, Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. The smallest, on the other hand, was the sixth generation of Pokémon X and Y, which only introduced 72 new ‘mons to the roster.

Most generations tend to add more Pokémon partway through their life. Scarlet & Violet, for example, introduced Pokémon like Ogerpon, Pecharunt, Gougiing Fire, and Terapogos through its two DLCs.

Regional Variations And Unique Pokémon Forms

As mentioned, that count of 1025 doesn’t include variations of the same Pokémon, like mega evolutions and dynamaxing. Introduced in generations six and eight respectively, though these give Pokémon exciting new looks and huge boosts in power, they’re only temporary changes and aren’t considered full, individual Pokémon.

Unfortunately, this count also doesn’t include one of the coolest things introduced in recent Pokémon games: regional variants.

Starting with Pokémon Sun and Moon, each new region has featured a number of Pokémon reimagined to fit the environment. These regional variants include Pokémon like Alolan Vulpix, which turns from a fire-type into a gorgeous Ice-type, or Galarian Wheezing, giving him a stovepipe hat and curly moustache like a Victorian industrialist.

Although regional forms aren’t included in the count, some can evolve into exclusive new Pokémon that absolutely do. Take Meowth – in Kanto, it can only evolve into Persian. In Galar, where it is a Steel-type, it can evolve into Perrserker.

If you want to include every mega-evolution, regional form, and dynamax Pokémon, the total number skyrockets to an eye-watering 1,164 Pokémon.

New Pokémon Introduced in Recent Games

The last few generations have each introduced a number of Pokémon that have become iconic to the series as a whole. While they might not exactly dethrone Pikachu any time soon, they’re all standout parts of the Pokémon world.

Let’s first go back three generations, to Sun and Moon. Set in the sunny archipelago of Alola, this generation gave us one of the most popular Pokémon ever introduced in Incineroar. The final stage of the fire-type starter line, Incineroar is an arrogant wrestler, bursting with personality who has become a popular part of spinoff games like Pokémon Unite.

Alola also gave us Mimikyu, perhaps the Pokémon closest to ever being more popular than the likes of Pikachu and Eevee. Mimikyu is a Ghost-type who, fed up with people being scared of it, decided to badly diguise itself as a beloved Pikachu. Sinister but adorable, it’s hard to imagine a time before Mimikyu.

Sword & Shield’s Galar was full of excellent Pokémon, including the biggest ever in dynamaxed Eternatus. That being said, you can’t mention Galar without mentioning the Applin family. These Grass/Dragon types are utterly adorable, especially Appletun, an apple pie dinosaur Pokémon who is so endearingly chill.

So far, Paldea’s big star seems to be the grass-type like of Sprigatito, Floragato, and Meowscarada. In the TCG, Meowscarada ex has been the recipient of both a tin and a deluxe battle deck, cementing its popularity. My personal favourites from this generation, though, are Maushold – an adorable family of mice – Clodsire, a new evolution to the Paldean regional variant to Wooper, and Mabostiff, a Dark-type dog ingeniously inspired by mafiosos.

Implications for Pokémon TCG Players

The Pokémon TCG does a great job at keeping up with all the new Pokémon introduced each generation, with all of them getting at least one card while they’re the latest cohort. Right now we’re in the Scarlet & Violet era, and so our various jaunts across Paldea, Kitakami, and the Indigo Disk have brought us top cards like Teal Mask Ogerpon ex in Prismatic Evolutions, and Ceruledge’s illustration rare in Surging Sparks.

If you’re only buying recent TCG releases, the bigger difficulty is finding older Pokémon. Any can pop up at any time, but some often go many years between printings. For instance, Chingling managed to go 16 years between TCG releases before its reintroduction to the game in the upcoming Glory of Team Rocket Japanese expansion.

For collectors, the constant introduction of new Pokémon might feel like a lot, especially if you’re undergoing a Pokedex challenge and trying to get one card of each Pokémon. But that’s all part of the appeal of Pokémon, and every single Pokémon is at least one person’s favourite. After all, it’s not “you’ve gotta catch some”, you’ve gotta catch ‘em all!

Where to Collect Pokémon TCG Products

If this crash course through the recent generations of Pokémon you might have missed is giving you the itch to get cracking packs, be sure to check Magic Madhouse. You’ll be able to find booster packs for incredible recent expansions, like Prismatic Evolutions and Journey Together, as well as special releases like the 151 Poster Collection, the Terapagos ex Ultra Premium Collection, or the Paldean Fates Iron Treads tin.

Or why not go back and explore some of the older releases in stock? You can go right back to Sun and Moon with the Incineroar theme deck, or back even further with the Tyranitar Chaos Control deck from HS Unleashed.

Whichever generation is your favourite (mine is Hoenn in the third generation), the great thing about Pokémon is there’s always something new to discover. So build a deck, find a new secret rate, or fall in love with a new Pokémon you’ve never heard of today!