These are the strongest Pokemon in the entire franchise

The Pokemon franchise spans across many video games, comics, cartoons, movies, and more. With 25 years as a cross-media juggernaut, it’s difficult to keep track of who the strongest Pokemon are meant to be.

In reality, the answer varies between each piece of Pokemon content. The games, anime, manga, and movies present different Pokemon in unique ways. On top of this are other factors, like favorites in competitive Pokemon and the pure math behind them. But as difficult as it is to separate the very strongest Pokemon from the rest, we’re going to do our best. These are the strongest Pokemon in the entire franchise’s history.

The five strongest Pokemon in history

Pokemon has over 25 years of history with eight generations of games, a variety of spin-offs, a manga, an anime, and multiple anime series. This has made for convoluted lore. On top of that is VGC history, which has seen many unexpected Pokemon utterly dominate the competition.

This list touches on basically everything listed above. From pure numbers to tournament dominance to anime and game lore, these are the strongest Pokemon in history, so far.

Mewtwo

Mewtwo has always been presented as strong but has unfortunately wound up as something of a catch-all for the Pokemon franchise. Depending on the medium, Mewtwo has been a hero, villain, deus ex machina, and a MacGuffin. Either way, it’s consistently presented as extremely powerful.

Most fans were introduced to Mewtwo in Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, where it was untouchably powerful. It fell off after the first generation with the introduction of steel and dark types, which were possibly added specifically to counter it.

It’s one of the most prominently featured legendaries in the Pokemon anime and has rarely been shown to struggle. Perhaps its weakest showing is in Detective Pikachu, but even then its signature psychic powers remain.

Eternatus

From a statistical perspective, Gigantamax Eternatus is the most powerful Pokemon in the games by a considerable margin. This is due to its overwhelming base stat total.

Base stats are the numbers that lay a foundation for how powerful a Pokemon is and what it’s good at. It’s also what makes legendary Pokemon stronger than non-legendaries. For the sake of comparison, a Venusaur has 525 total base stats, Dragonite has 600, and Mewtwo has 680. Starters, pseudo-legendaries, and legendaries all have base stats that are comparable to those totals

Then there’s Gigantamax Eternatus, which has 1,125 combined base stats. This is radically higher than any other Pokemon, with second place being 780 for Mega Rayquaza and both Mega Mewtwo forms. Unfortunately, this Pokemon is only seen in the game as a boss and cannot be used by the player. In both the anime and the games, Eternatus is defeated after facing Zacian, Zamazenta, Leon, and multiple trainers.

Amoongus

Amoongus may raise an eyebrow among a number of legendary and mythical Pokemon, but make no mistake. The gen-five mushroom is arguably the most terrifying force in the history of competitive Pokemon.

With proper breeding and stat distribution, Amoongus is bulky and has access to the Spore move, the best attack for inducing the sleep status effect. The Regenerator ability also allowed players to effortlessly heal it with a switch. This made it the best support Pokemon in doubles formats for years. 

It was so powerful that multiple methods of nerfing it were implemented. Grass-type Pokemon were made immune to powder moves and Safety Goggles were added to counter Spore. Not many Pokemon have prompted two gameplay changes on their own, but Amoongus was that powerful.

Necrozma

Necrozma was basically ignored in most Pokemon media, but it’s essentially the closest the franchise gets to a true eldritch horror. The gen-seven legendary exists in an alternate dimension and is essentially capable of appearing out of nowhere and destroying entire planets by absorbing all light.

Ultra Megalopolis can be visited by the player in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, with the planet having been attacked by Necrozma. It’s forced to survive on artificial light and sends out interdimensional scouts to track Necrozma’s movements.

Necrozma can also absorb Lunala and Solgaleo, gaining access to a number of unique moves. The kicker is that after merging it can turn into Ultra Necrozma, which is basically the Pokemon equivalent of a star.

Arceus

Depending on the medium, Arceus’ power ranges from extremely strong to legitimately godly. Either way, Arceus easily qualifies as one of the most powerful Pokemon in the franchise.

In the anime, Arceus is essentially capable of ignoring time and space. Millenia ago, it destroyed a meteor that was headed to Earth which broke its plates. This threatened its life, but it was saved by a human. Though Arceus was later nearly killed once again, it was also shown to be powerful enough to defeat Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina in a three-on-one battle. These legendary Pokemon are presented as extremely powerful in the anime, making this a huge feat.

In the games, Arceus’ power is described inconsistently, but the floor is still higher than almost any other Pokemon. Depending on the story, Arceus created either the Sinnoh region, the world, or even the entire universe. It was at the center of the Pokemon Legends: Arceus game, where it isn’t really ever caught by the trainer. Instead, it essentially agrees to spend time with the trainer as a reward for the trainer doing its bidding.