PokéVotes Rankings

How are rankings calculated?

How it works

Each day, a poll pits several Pokémon against each other. Your vote generates comparisons between all pairs present — like popularity matches. 1v1 duels add extra direct comparisons unique to each player.

Consistency

The most reliable ranking. We calculate how often each Pokémon wins its matches, then apply a 95% confidence interval: "this Pokémon wins at least X% of the time — we're sure of it". More matches means a higher lower bound. One good result is not enough.

Bradley-Terry Score

A mathematical model (identical to Elo in chess) that accounts for the quality of opponents beaten. Beating a very popular Pokémon is worth more than beating a weak one. A Pokémon with few matches but excellent results can rank highly here.

Raw popularity

The total votes received since the beginning. Simple, but mechanically favors Pokémon that have appeared in more polls — not a pure popularity indicator.

Comparison

Aggregate ranking by generation or type, based on the average win rate of all Pokémon that have appeared in at least one poll.

2020 data

The 2020 worldwide Pokémon vote serves as a starting point: each pair of Pokémon from the same generation receives 0.1 virtual matches weighted by their 2020 result. This 0.1 weight was calibrated so that a single real direct comparison already weighs 10× more — the prior becomes negligible after about 5 appearances. Strong enough for a consistent start, weak enough to fade quickly.

Rankings are recalculated every night from all polls, votes and duels from the community.