The Pokémon Company is already considering a future in which the total number of available pocket monsters reaches “maybe 10,000” in the future.
At the time of writing this, the franchise It has 1,025 speciesincluding the three new starters already revealed for next year’s 2027 Nintendo Switch 2 games, Wind and Waves. That’s a lot, although that total increases even more if you include the different forms of each species, regional variants, Gigantamaxes, and Mega Evolutions.
Keeping track of all these differences and balancing them appropriately has proven to be an almost impossible challenge, which is why modern mainstream video games only include a subset of the entire saga in each delivery.
In Pokémon Champions, the new PVP battle platform of the franchise that will be used in all competitive tournaments In the future, developers They will handle this situation differently: offering a rotating selection of creatures available for all players, with new species replacing others in the listing over time. This way, the meta will also fluctuate.
“Our plan right now is that that type of change happens over time, so that the meta or Pokémon available to use at any given time they can be different as time goes on,” says producer Masaaki Hoshino in a group interview with GamesRadar+. “We plan to keep Pokémon Champions running for a long time, basically forever, as long as the series continues.
“And who knows, in the distant future we could have 2,000, 3,000, maybe 10,000 species,” adds Hoshino. “If all of those were available to play, I think It would be too complicated a situation. So the idea we have right now is that only a limited selection availablebut that changes over time.” It is also worth mentioning that the title will only include the final evolutions, at least for now ahead of launch.
We usually have an average of 100 new Pokémon in each new generation
Every generation adds approximately 100 new speciesmeaning the series’ collection will likely grow to over 1,100 unique creatures by 2027, when the video games launch Wind and Waves for Nintendo Switch 2. How long will it take to reach 2,000—or 10,000—species? If it took 26 years for Pokémon to surpass the 1,000 species milestone, players should expect 2,000 species to be reached around 2048 if the pace continues the same, and 10,000 species by the mid-22nd century.
Just like the old Stadium games, Pokémon Champions is a turn-based battle game that allows you to import Pokémon that you have captured in other video games and command them in combat. It will launch on April 8, 2026 for Switch consoles, with a smartphone version still planned for later this year. At launch, there will be a payment package that will allow store more Pokémon (50 additional) y receive a series of additional extras.
