“I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was,” is a lyric we’re all very familiar with.
It’s something that the beloved Ash Ketchum set out to do and while he may have achieved his dream of being a Pokémon champion, he certainly did not “catch em’ all”.
You see, it turns out that Ash actually caught very few Pokémon throughout the years.
He might’ve been an incredible trainer and fierce in battle, but a Pokédex completionist he was not.
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It’s rookie behaviour, really. I don’t know about you but I’ve completed several Pokédexes.
Come on Ash, keep up.
So exactly how many ‘Mon has Ash caught? Well, that’s a debated figure but it’s lower than you might imagine.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is the next entry in the franchise to launch.
Reddit user JumblyPloppers claims that Ash registered 102 entries in his Pokédex.
However, dustofoblivion123 argues that the number is instead 57, equating to 7% of the Pokémon available to him.
To give Ash the benefit of the doubt, this seemingly doesn’t take evolutions into account which do count as different Pokémon within a Pokédex.
This would bring the number closer to around 98, so around 12%, which is more in line with JumblyPloppers’ original estimate.
It seems most likely that Ash’s tally is hanging around the 100 mark then.
That’s just about one generation's worth, depending on which generation you’re talking about.
Admittedly yes, Ash was always more focused on battling than catching but even still, it’s kind of funny to consume this observation.
Of course, Ash is no longer Pokémon’s protagonist so the fella could be catchin ‘em all during his retirement now that he’s finally a champion.
Your next opportunity to fill a Pokèdex will arrive with Pokémon Legends Z-A which is due to launch this year.
It’s expected that the game will launch on both the OG Nintendo Switch and its successor, so hopefully we’ll learn more about the game during the 2 April Nintendo Direct.
Topics: Pokemon, Nintendo, TV And Film