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What is the best Pokémon game of all time? The world's verdict

6 November 2026 · Games

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Ask a room of Pokémon fans which game is the best and the answer usually depends on how old they were when they first played. For some it is the Game Boy original, for some the jump to colour, for others a phone in a park in the summer of 2016. GOATvs does not ask a critic. Every game is picked or passed over one face-off at a time, by everyone, and the box above shows where the Pokémon games stand today in the world's list of the greatest video games of all time.

The world's pick is where it all started. Pokémon Red and Blue was made by Game Freak, the studio founded by Satoshi Tajiri, who based the idea on his childhood hobby of collecting insects. It came out in Japan in 1996 as Red and Green and reached North America and Europe in 1998 and 1999 as Red and Blue. One hundred and fifty-one creatures, a link cable to trade them with a friend, and a simple promise, gotta catch 'em all, turned a Game Boy game into one of the biggest entertainment series in the world. On GOATvs it is the highest-placed Pokémon game of them all.

Its closest challenger is the sequel many fans still call the best. Pokémon Gold and Silver arrived in Japan in 1999 and in the West in 2000, and it added a hundred new Pokémon, a clock that turned day into night, breeding and held items. Its most famous surprise came after the credits: the whole region of the first game was waiting to be explored again, with its eight gyms and a final battle against Red, the hero of the original. The face-off between the two is one of the oldest arguments in gaming, and the world's vote is not a landslide.

Pokémon Yellow, the 1998 version built around the anime, is close behind. It is the one in which Pikachu refuses to stay in its ball and follows the player around the map. Then come the Game Boy Advance games, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire of 2002, which brought abilities, natures and double battles, and the world's vote between them and Gold and Silver is close. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl took the series to the Nintendo DS in 2006 and added online trading, and Pokémon Black and White of 2010 started over with only new Pokémon until the end of the story.

The game that broke the pattern is Pokémon Go. Niantic released it for phones in July 2016, and within weeks people were walking through cities and parks looking for Pokémon on their screens. For many people who never owned a Nintendo console, it is the only Pokémon game they have played, and on GOATvs it sits high among the series. Against Red and Blue, though, the world picks the original.

The newest arrival is Pokémon Legends: Z-A, released in October 2025 and set entirely in Lumiose City, with battles that happen in real time. It is still finding its place on the list, along with the spin-offs Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Colosseum and the battle arena game Pokémon Unite. Whether a new game can ever pass the 1990s originals is up to the people who vote. Every Pokémon game on GOATvs, in the world's order, is on our list of the best Pokémon games.

Vote: Pokémon Red and Blue vs Pokémon Gold and Silver

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