Methodology

Source and frequency

Every 10 minutes we check new replays for each active format and download them one by one, at most one per second. The log is stored as is and we extract what can be seen in the battle.

Sample bias

We only see battles someone saves publicly. It is a sample, not a census, and may lean towards players who upload their games. It is not the official Nintendo Switch game either.

What we count

The unit is the team: each side of a battle. In a best-of-three set, each player’s team counts once even if they play three games. Megas count as their base species and purely cosmetic forms (Vivillon, Alcremie...) are grouped.

Metrics

• Usage: share of teams that have the Pokémon in team preview.
• Brought: of the teams that have it, how many actually send it out (bring 6, pick 4).
• Lead: how many of those teams send it out on turn one.
• Moves: share of teams where the move is seen, over the teams where the Pokémon was sent out.
• Items and abilities: over the teams where one was revealed. We always show how many games it was revealed in.
• Teammates: share of its teams that also have the other Pokémon.
• Win rate: per game, with a 95% Wilson confidence interval.
• Most used teams: teams with exactly the same 6 Pokémon at team preview, regardless of sets or order. They are ranked by distinct players, not games, so someone playing hundreds of games with one team cannot push it to the top alone. Teams used by at least 5 players are shown. The "Winning most" tab (the default) only lists those with 50 or more games, sorted by the lower bound of their confidence interval.
• Counters: a Pokémon’s win rate in games where it faces another one, both on the field on opposite sides, over the last 30 days. Only opponents with at least 50 games and 3 or more points away from 50% (49% is a draw), sorted by the confidence interval. It is a correlation (the rest of the team and the player matter), not a damage calculation.
• Weekly reports: every Monday, the previous week (Monday to Sunday, UTC) with the same calculation as the ranking, compared with the week before. They are only generated if ingestion covers the whole week, and a published report does not change: any correction comes with a visible erratum.
• Items and moves: each has its own page with the Pokémon that carry it over the last 7 days, with the same calculation as the Pokémon page. Only those carried by at least 2 species with 30 or more appearances get a page.

Usage weighted by rating

By default, each game counts according to the rating of who plays it: high-rated games weigh more. That way the meta you see looks more like that of strong players, without leaving anyone out. The teams, appearances and battles we show are always the real ones, and minimum thresholds apply to them. Win rate and most used teams are not weighted. You can see unweighted usage with "All" in the ranking.

Minimum sample

A Pokémon shows up in the ranking with at least 20 teams in the window. Move and item percentages need at least 30 appearances, and win rate needs at least 50 games. Below that, we show “not enough data”.

Windows

There are three windows: 24 hours, 7 days (default) and 30 days. The change (▲▼) compares with the previous window of the same length, in percentage points.

Official tournaments

Official tournaments (Regionals, Internationals and Worlds) come from the Play! Pokémon team sheets published by pokedata.ovh, Masters division only. They are imported automatically once a day after the event ends and re-checked for 7 days in case of corrections. Usage is the % of teams that brought each Pokémon; for items and moves, the % of Pokémon that carry them. Win rate covers the Swiss rounds of the players who brought it, without top cut or byes. Since October 2026 pokedata no longer publishes rounds or abilities: for those events Swiss is the overall record minus the top cut (byes count as wins) and teams come without abilities. The Showdown comparison uses weighted usage over the 7 days before the event. The two sources are never added together.

What we do not know

Replays do not show Stat Points or nature. The spreads on Pokémon pages and in the calculator come from Smogon monthly stats, published a month late; until a new regulation has its own, we show the previous regulation’s and say so. Some battles have open team sheets; that data is stored apart and never mixed with what was revealed.