Then there is the slogan problem

The franchise's unofficial catchphrase, "Gotta catch 'em all," has run since the late 1990s. For two decades it was literally true — every mainline game shipped with the National Pokédex, every older Pokémon could be transferred forward, and a determined player really could catch them all.

That ended in June 2019. At E3, in a Nintendo Treehouse segment, Game Freak director Junichi Masuda announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield would not include the National Pokédex: Pokémon from older games could not be transferred forward unless they were in Galar's regional dex. The community coined "Dexit" within hours — borrowed structurally from Brexit — and #BringBackNationalDex trended for days.

Game Freak's stated reason was animation quality and balance: the sheer number of species (807 at the time) made it impractical to maintain high-quality models for every one on Switch hardware while shipping on schedule. Cut Pokémon could return in later games, and many did via the Expansion Pass — but the philosophical shift was permanent. Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl, Legends: Arceus and Scarlet / Violet all followed the same pattern: regional dex only, no guarantee any individual Pokémon makes the next game.

The release cadence tells its own story

Game Freak ships between 72 and 156 new species per mainline generation, and the variance is the story. Generation V (Black and White, 2010) added 156 — the largest single expansion ever, and the only generation built around an all-new regional ecosystem with no returning Pokémon in the base game.

Generation VI (X and Y, 2013) went the other way with just 72 new species, the smallest expansion on record — the same generation that introduced Mega Evolution and the Fairy type. The reading among long-time fans is that Game Freak traded new-species count for systemic complexity, and has stayed in that mode since: fewer new species, more new mechanics (Mega, Z-Moves, Dynamax, Terastallization, regional forms). For each era's flavour, see our Pokémon generations page.

What is next — Gen 10 and the Mega revival

Pokémon Legends: Z-A launched in October 2025 with a surprise: 48 new Mega Evolutions across the base game and the Mega Dimension DLC (released December 2025), roughly doubling the franchise total. These add forms, not species — but they matter to collectors and competitive players. Generation 10 is confirmed for the Winds and Waves games in 2027; its three starters have already been revealed, which is exactly why some 2026 counts quote 1,028 rather than the official 1,025.

A trading-card footnote

The Pokémon Trading Card Game tracks its own catalogue, unrelated to the video-game species count. A single English booster pack holds 10 cards (a number that has changed three times since 1999), and the count of English TCG sets ever released (currently 126 mainline) does not map cleanly onto the species total at all.

1,025 if you mean species. 1,028 with the Gen 10 starters. About 1,164 if you count the variants. Every number is fine — the franchise has spent the last decade making "all of them" a question rather than an answer.