#stats breakdown

The tournament consisted of 36 contestants across an equivalent number of matches. This makes it the 3rd largest tournament we've run when you consider main matches only- falling to joint 6th if you include any preliminary matches. The total votes cast also places it as 3rd largest- with or without preliminaries- with 22,413 votes cast. And because the magic number is 3, that puts it at the 3rd highest average votes per match out of all tournaments too- even rising to 2nd when including preliminaries! With these numbers, the average works out to 623 votes per match. So all round, a very strong performance!

You can also compare some of this data in visual form too:

And this tournament also pushes the total matches across all tournaments to 468! With 249,136 votes cast, that makes the whole blog average 532.

Now let's focus on the individuals of the tournament. Which Elite Four members had the best average vote scores? They stack up like this:

Rika- 675 (4,053 votes across 6 matches)

Amarys- 406 (812 votes across 2 matches)

Phoebe- 381 (1,144 votes across 3 matches) & Olivia- 381 (1,905 votes across 5 matches)

Larry- 378 (378 votes in 1 match)

Agatha- 341 (1,363 votes across 4 matches)

Lance- 325 (651 votes across 2 matches)

Poppy- 317 (951 votes across 3 matches)

Crispin- 303 (606 votes across 2 matches)

Drasna- 302 (1,509 votes across 5 matches)

Drayton- 300 (600 votes across 2 matches)

Hala- 296 (296 votes in 1 match)

Acerola- 294 (1,470 votes across 5 matches)

Drake- 285 (570 votes across 2 matches)

Shauntal- 280 (560 votes across 2 matches)

Glacia- 279 (279 votes in 1 match)

Karen- 271 (541 votes across 2 matches)

Grimsley- 253 (253 votes in 1 match)

Koga- 251 (251 votes in 1 match)

Lorelei- 250 (500 votes across 2 matches)

Will- 238 (477 votes across 2 matches)

Caitlin & Siebold- 233 (233 votes in 1 match each)

Bertha- 226 (226 votes in 1 match)

Malva- 220 (661 votes across 3 matches)

Sidney- 219 (438 votes across 2 matches)

Molayne- 208 (208 votes in 1 match)

Hassel- 206 (206 votes in 1 match)

Aaron- 198 (198 votes in 1 match)

Marshal- 184 (184 votes in 1 match)

Lacey- 151 (151 votes in 1 match)

Lucian- 139 (139 votes in 1 match)

Wikstrom- 126 (126 votes in 1 match)

Flint- 103 (103 votes in 1 match)

Bruno- 76 (76 votes in 1 match)

Kahili- 63 (63 votes in 1 match)

Rika, our winner, isn't even close to being beaten by the second best performer here! It's almost absurd how much of a lead she has! Interestingly though, both 2nd place and one of the two tied for 3rd weren't even Semi Finalists! The worst performing of those that were is actually Acerola, who ended up 12th. Overall a respectable performance from all contestants, with 11 people earning an average over 300, and just the bottom 8 failing to hit 200.

What about vote share though? The average vote doesn't tell the whole story! Well, here's how those standings look:

Rika- 75.8%

Olivia- 63.9%

Acerola- 58.7%

Agatha- 57.8%

Karen- 56.1%

Poppy- 55.4%

Drake- 53.9%

Drasna- 52.4%

Amarys- 50.8%

Lance- 49.8%

Phoebe- 49.1%

Crispin- 48.7%

Larry- 48.6%

Molayne- 48.1%

Drayton & Shauntal- 47.7%

Hala- 46.9%

Lorelei- 46.7%

Bertha- 45.3%

Glacia- 45.1%

Caitlin- 45.0%

Will- 44.6%

Koga- 44.1%

Sidney- 43.1%

Malva- 42.3%

Siebold- 38.5%

Marshal- 36.4%

Aaron- 35.9%

Hassel- 31.7%

Lacey- 29.7%

Lucian- 29.3%

Wikstrom- 26.3%

Grimsley- 23.1%

Flint- 18.1%

Bruno- 16.3%

Kahili- 12.3%

In an unusual twist for a stats post, we actually have our top three, all in order! Rika is clearly ahead of everyone else, and Olivia has a smaller lead over Acerola too. Drasna also finds herself in a similar spot in this line up, despite her 4th place finish. With the exception of Grimsley, who did much better in average votes, we can see that the bottom few remain relatively consistent- showing the least popular few when both metrics are considered. Poor Flint, Bruno, and Kahili!

Another way we can organise the contestants is by showing in visual form what proportion of all votes cast went to who. It's more difficult to parse, but one thing is very clear from this graph!

That very large chunk accounting for almost a 5th of the graph alone? Yep, that's Rika. She's had a ridiculous performance this tournament, comparable to only a few other contestants I can think of in the history of this blog- like Guzma or N to name a couple. But we can also see that when we combine the top four highest vote totals, they don't even break 40%- which is unusual for these tournaments! That indicates there were a higher number of high performing contestants than normal- very well done to those who didn't quite make it to the Semi Finals I'd say!

After all that, we can now look at some specific matches.

The most votes in any one match this time? Went to the Finals! Round 6's showdown between Rika and Olivia garnered 1,103 votes! Only three other tournaments managed to have matches with at least that many votes. The second most votes went to another Rika match- Round 1: Match 1- Rika vs Grimsley, with 1,095 votes. We started with a bang! Two other matches also gained over 1,000 votes, very impressive stuff.

On the other end, only 432 people voted on Round 2: Match 7- Sidney vs Molayne. Surprisingly though, only a few more people voted for the Runner-Up match in Round 6! That was the second smallest vote total in the tournament, with 450 votes. Neither were completely terrible results though, so no one should feel bad!

What about who performed the best in any given match? Well, the winner of that title goes to- surprise, surprise- Rika! In her Round 3: Match 1 battle against Lance, Rika alone managed to gain 860 votes. The other side of the story though gives us poor Kahili, who only managed 63 votes in Round 2- Match 11 against Olivia- the smallest amount of votes in any match.

Lastly, there's the margins to look at. Which match was the closest? Well, it was almost the Finals actually- with a margin of only 4%! But slightly closer than that was Round 2: Match 16- Phoebe vs Larry, which came down to a 2.8% margin of just 21 votes.

And the biggest sweep this time? Well, for all her sweeping she did throughout the tournament, this is one title that Rika doesn't earn! It in fact goes to silver medalist Olivia! She can feel proud knowing that her 75.4% margin she won with against Kahili in Round 2: Match 11 wasn't beaten by anyone else! Congratulations Olivia!

25 contestants went head to head over 25 matches, making it joint 6th largest (out of 11) in terms of main bracket size out of all the tournaments run on the blog! Similarly, the total number of votes cast, 12,787, puts it at the 7th highest vote total of all brackets. This makes the average votes per match 511, the 6th highest average. Overall, a very middle of the road performance from the Best Fossil Tournament- nothing spectacular, but not bad at all!

In visual form, we can compare all brackets directly:

And this brings the total number of tournament polls run on the blog 432! With 226,723 votes cast across them all, it makes the whole blog average 525.

Now let's look at the individual contestants! Across the 25 of them, we can rank them by their average vote score like so:

Omanyte- 351 (1,054 votes across 3 matches)

Aurorus- 350 (1,751 across 5 matches)

Archeops- 317 (1,583 votes across 5 matches)

Amaura- 305 (1,221 votes across 4 matches)

Anorith- 297 (297 votes in 1 match)

Archen- 283 (848 votes across 3 matches)

Carracosta- 251 (753 votes across 3 matches)

Kabuto- 249 (249 votes in 1 match)

Rampardos- 243 (486 votes across 2 matches)

Omastar- 240 (1,200 votes across 5 matches)

Lileep- 239 (478 votes across 2 matches)

Tirtouga- 234 (234 votes in 1 match)

Tyrantrum- 225 (449 votes across 2 matches)

Cranidos- 217 (217 votes in 1 match)

Tyrunt- 209 (209 votes in 1 match)

Kabutops- 203 (203 votes in 1 match)

Cradily- 200 (399 votes across 2 matches)

Dracovish- 196 (196 votes in 1 match)

Bastiodon- 185 (185 votes in 1 match)

Armaldo- 178 (178 votes in 1 match)

Aerodactyl- 170 (170 votes in 1 match)

Arctovish- 118 (118 votes in 1 match)

Shieldon- 116 (116 votes in 1 match)

Arctozolt- 106 (106 votes in 1 match)

Dracozolt- 87 (87 votes in 1 match)

Interestingly, the top performer here- by just 1 vote in the averages- was Quarter Finalist, Omanyte! And its 4th placing evolution only barely managed to reach the top ten! A couple more surprises in the top ten, with Anorith and Kabuto having only gotten 1 match before being knocked out, but still placing high in their vote average. A majority of contestants managed an average of over 200, and all but poor Dracozolt managed over 100! Not a bad result!

We can alternatively look at average vote share:

Aurorus- 67.3%

Archeops- 60.0%

Omanyte- 59.5%

Carracosta- 57.6%

Archen- 53.5%

Lileep- 52.1%

Amaura- 51.8%

Rampardos- 51.6%

Omastar- 49.7%

Anorith- 49.3%

Tyrantrum- 46.9%

Kabuto- 46.4%

Cranidos- 45.2%

Cradily- 45.0%

Kabutops- 44.8%

Bastiodon- 44.0%

Tirtouga- 43.5%

Dracovish- 39.3%

Tyrunt- 38.4%

Armaldo- 33.7%

Aerodactyl- 32.3%

Arctovish- 27.0%

Shieldon- 22.7%

Dracozolt- 20.1%

Arctozolt- 19.0%

This time our winner does take the top spot, but silver medalist Amaura falls to 7th! And once again, despite their performances in the tournament, Omanyte comes out ahead of Omastar. Dracozolt and Arcotzolt maintain the bottom two spots, though their placement has switched. All in all, quite telling!

Now let's look at what proportion of the votes went to each contestant in graph form:

As you'd expect, Aurorus has the largest share, but our top four combined carried an impressive 45% of all votes- seeing as they featured in more matches than any other contestants.

And finally, let's take a look at some notable individual matches and contestants!

The record for highest voted on match this time goes to Round 3: Match 2, Tyrunt vs Omanyte, with 739 votes! Second place goes to Round 5's Final Match, Amaura vs Aurorus, with 629 votes.

On the other end, the least voted on match earned just 420 votes- Round 2: Match 1's Bastiodon vs Carracosta. This was only barely beaten by the very next match, Round 2: Match 2, Rampardos vs Omastar.

The contestant who managed to earn the most votes in a single match was none other than our winner Aurorus! It earned 395 votes in its Round 1 match against Shieldon. The less hourable distinction of fewest votes in any one match goes to Dracozolt, who earned just 87 votes against Aurorus in Round 2. At least that was the only match where any contestant got less than 100 votes!

And let's look at margins. First of all, the closest margin in any match is actually a tie! Both Round 2: Match 5, and Round 2: Match 6, ended with just 1.4% between the contestants. With a lower vote total though, the closest match ultimately goes to Match 6, Lileep vs Cradily, whose fittingly close race between evolution and pre-evolution was decided only by 6 votes!

But what about the opposite? Well, this time, the award for the biggest sweep goes to the only Pokémon who earned over 80% in a single match. With a margin of 62%, Archeops wins the biggest sweep award for its Round 1: Match 6 battle against Arctozolt!

For an April Fools tournament, I went with a small and manageable number of contestants- just 8! With 8 matches as well, it was definitely the smallest tournament we've run- less than half the size of the second smallest. We also ran each match for just a day too, so the comparisons to other tournaments won't be particularly fair, so just keep that in mind!

Also worth noting, I won't be counting this tournament in any future averages and stats, just because it would skew the data. For this stats post though, we'll use the other tournaments to put things into perspective!

But let's continue. Across these 8 matches, 3,073 votes were cast, leading to an average of 384 votes per match. Naturally, this means the total votes pales in comparison to every other tournament! But it does sit just slightly above the Best Ball Tournament as the second lowest average. The previously mentioned tournament had an average of 373 votes.

Now let's look at the individual Bidoof! With just 8 to go through, it's a lot simpler than other contestant lineups! Firstly, let's rank them by their average vote score:

Firefighter Bidoof- 265 (794 votes across 3 matches)

Wizard Bidoof- 241 (724 votes across 3 matches)

Chef Bidoof- 229 (229 votes in 1 match)

Party Bidoof- 186 (559 votes across 3 matches)

Business Bidoof- 165 (165 votes in 1 match)

Sailor Bidoof- 145 (436 votes across 3 matches)

Painter Bidoof- 115 (115 votes in 1 match)

Police Bidoof- 51 (51 votes in 1 match)

So our winner, Wizard Bidoof, didn't quite end up on top when we organise them like this! In fact, the order compared to the where the Bidoof ended up in the tournament is quite different! I'd put this down to the significantly higher vote counts in the first Round compared to the rest of the tournament. A good match in Round 1 skews the results more than a good match in any other Round!

But that's not the only way to organise the contestants. Let's look at their average vote share:

Wizard Bidoof- 75.2%

Firefighter Bidoof- 63.8%

Chef Bidoof- 48.4%

Party Bidoof- 47%

Sailor Bidoof- 41.4%

Business Bidoof- 31.8%

Painter Bidoof- 29.2%

Police Bidoof- 8.8%

This time, Wizard did end up in the top spot! In fact, the lineup is fairly similar to the vote averages, with a couple of small differences. We can see here though, that Police Bidoof was the clear loser!

Now let's take a quick look at the overall vote share for each Bidoof out of all votes cast:

The top two, Wizard and Firefighter Bidoof have almost have of the votes between them! And when you add in the next two, Party and Sailor Bidoof, the total reaches just over 80%. This does make sense in a tournament where half the contestants only featured in one match though.

Now, let's look at individual matches and contestants!

The most votes in a match this time went to Round 1: Match 2, Firefighter Bidoof vs Police Bidoof with 578 votes! On the other side though, the least votes went to Round 3: Runner-Up Match, Firefighter Bidoof vs Sailor Bidoof- this match only got 258 votes.

The most and least votes earned by any one Bidoof in a single match happened in the same match this time! And it's the match mentioned above, Round 1: Match 2. Firefighter Bidoof earned 527 votes all in one Round, while Police Bidoof managed only a measly 51!

And finally, let's take a look at the margins in this tournament. The closest match was Round 1: Match 3, Chef Bidoof vs Sailor Bidoof, where the difference was only 3.2%, or 15 votes! Meanwhile, this time, the biggest sweep award goes to- you guessed it- Firefighter Bidoof! The impressive performance against Police Bidoof led to an 82.4% margin, and a difference of 476 votes- more than votes total in most matches in the tournament! Congratulations to the Firefighting hero!

Week #70 (3D Models)

After the first half of this two part submission concluded back in April, we started May with asking which 3D models are the favourite among fans! 274 voters later, and we saw:

Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2- 6.6%, 18 votes

Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness- 17.9%, 49 votes

Pokémon Battle Revolution- 9.5%, 26 votes

Pokémon X and Y, Pokémon Sun and Moon, and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon- 18.2%, 50 votes

Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, and Pokémon Sword and Shield- 15%, 41 votes

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet- 21.5%, 59 votes

See Results- 11.3%, 31 votes

After removing the undecided votes:

Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2- 7.4%

Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness- 20.2%

Pokémon Battle Revolution- 10.7%

Pokémon X and Y, Pokémon Sun and Moon, and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon- 20.6%

Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, and Pokémon Sword and Shield- 16.9%

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet- 24.3%

Or as a graph:

While most people think the models used in the most recent Generations have the best models, there's still love for all of them! Colosseum and XD's getting a good chunk of votes is nice to see especially!

Week #71 (Home Regions)

This was a question that served as a sort of follow up to one from last year. While you'd answered which region was your favourite, I now wanted to know where you'd like to live! 529 votes said this:

Kanto- 4.2%, 22 votes

Johto- 13.4%, 71 votes

Hoenn- 11.7%, 62 votes

Sinnoh- 13%, 69 votes

Unova- 17.4%, 92 votes

Kalos- 10.2%, 54 votes

Alola- 16.6%, 88 votes

Galar- 7.2%, 38 votes

Paldea- 4.5%, 24 votes

See Results- 1.7%, 9 votes

And after adjusting the data for See Results votes:

Kanto- 4.2%

Johto- 13.7%

Hoenn- 11.9%

Sinnoh- 13.3%

Unova- 17.7%

Kalos- 10.4%

Alola- 16.9%

Galar- 7.3%

Paldea- 4.6%

Or as a graph- including last year's votes for comparison. In fact, this poll only got 10 more votes overall than the last one, so the numbers are fairly comparable:

There's a lot of similar voting! Alola especially has similar levels of votes, but both Hoenn and Sinnoh are more popular in game form than as a home region, and our winner in this poll- Unova- wasn't as popular as a region in itself! Very interesting stuff.

Week #72 (Evil Team Membership)

This question had a fairly obvious result, but it doesn't mean the answer isn't interesting! 439 voters answered my question of which Evil Team you would join, and said:

Team Rocket- 8.4%, 37 votes

Team Magma- 5.7%, 25 votes

Team Aqua- 8.4%, 37 votes

Team Galactic- 2.1%, 9 votes

Team Plasma- 5.7%, 25 votes

Team Flare- 1.4%, 6 votes

Team Skull- 43.7%, 192 votes

Team Rainbow Rocket- 3.2%, 14 votes

Team Yell- 5.9%, 26 votes

Team Star- 11.6%, 51 votes

See Results- 3.9%, 17 votes

Adjusted for the indecisive:

Team Rocket- 8.8%

Team Magma- 5.9%

Team Aqua- 8.8%

Team Galactic- 2.1%

Team Plasma- 5.9%

Team Flare- 1.4%

Team Skull- 45.5%

Team Rainbow Rocket- 3.3%

Team Yell- 6.1%

Team Star- 12%

And as a graph:

Well, we all saw this coming. Interestingly, it's still not even half of voters who would join Team Skull, but it is the most popular choice by almost 35%! Galactic and Flare only won single digit votes, and Team Star was the second choice. Also worth noting that Aqua is more popular than Magma! I hope none of you are actually going to become villains though!

Week #73 (Character Design)

Our final poll this month was about character design! Many of the characters in the series have great, iconic designs, but which Generation has your favourite set? 344 votes later:

Generation 1- 0.9%, 3 votes

Generation 2- 1.2%, 4 votes

Generation 3- 4.7%, 16 votes

Generation 4- 10.8%, 37 votes

Generation 5- 18.6%, 64 votes

Generation 6- 7.8%, 27 votes

Generation 7- 16.9%, 58 votes

Generation 8- 11.3%, 39 votes

Generation 9- 23%, 79 votes

See Results- 4.9%, 17 votes

And removing the undecided votes:

Generation 1- 0.9%

Generation 2- 1.2%

Generation 3- 4.9%

Generation 4- 11.3%

Generation 5- 19.6%

Generation 6- 8.3%

Generation 7- 17.7%

Generation 8- 11.9%

Generation 9- 24.2%

Or as a graph:

The most recent Generation wins! There is a loose upward trend in the Generations, with Generation 6 and 8 being outliers, but it's interesting that the first games- the ones you'd expect to garner the most nostalgia- came last!

Final Stats

And those are the numbers! This month, we had a total of 1,586 votes for an average of 397 votes per match. This is down from 2,383 votes last month (an average of 596), and from May last year- which had a total of 2,714 and an average of 543. In fact, it's actually the second lower average of any month in the Little Cup series, only beating August 2025's 386.

This means that the year to date's average falls slightly- to 558. Still higher than last year's overall average though! And the running average for all Little Cups is now at 554- just down from 563 last month (I incorrectly stated it was 553 after April, my apologies for the mistake)!

This month has easily been the weakest in a while, but these happen every so often! Week #70 was the lowest vote total so far this year, in fact only beating Week #30 in terms of vote numbers, and that does drag the average down. But, that being said, it's all just for fun, and next month will be higher I'm sure!

Now, here's the update for the yearly graph:

Still no more absurd highs like Week #60, but who knows what the next few polls will bring!

That's all for now though, thanks for voting, and I'll see you all soon!

With 20 contestants and 20 matches, this bracket was the third smallest we've run on the blog- with only the Organisations bracket of the Villains tournament and the Best Type tournament being shorter.

But despite being ever so slightly longer than those tournaments in terms of matches, this has actually been the tournament with the fewest total votes across the 20 matches. The 7,927 votes is almost 500 less than the second lowest total of 8,419 for the Best Type tournament! And at an average of 396 votes per match, this only barely clears the Best Ball tournament's average, the lowest of all tournaments, of 370 per match (with Preliminaries). It's understandable that a tournament made up primarily of lesser known side game characters wouldn't attract as much attention as the others!

When we compare the bracket in graph form, it's pretty clear:

And overall, our blog's total votes cast across all major tournaments is 213,936, with an average of 526 votes over 407 matches! Thanks everyone for all the support and votes, and let's keep this number growing!

Now for some individual contestant stats. Looking at their average vote score, we can rank them like so:

Giratina- 275 (1,099 votes across 4 matches)

Gengar- 263 (526 votes across 2 matches)

Dusknoir- 249 (994 votes across 4 matches)

Nuzleaf- 243 (728 votes across 3 matches)

Eternatus- 226 (226 votes in 1 match)

Darkrai (Explorers)- 219 (438 votes across 2 matches)

Shadow Lugia- 213 (1,063 votes across 5 matches)

Primal Dialga- 208 (1,042 votes across 5 matches)

Necrozma- 195 (195 votes in 1 match)

Darkrai (PokePark 2)- 182 (365 votes across 2 matches)

Darkrai (SoA)- 152 (305 votes across 2 matches)

Munna- 143 (143 votes in 1 match)

Dark Matter- 127 (127 votes in 1 match)

Mewtwo (Guardian Signs)- 117 (117 votes in 1 match)

Skuntank- 111 (111 votes in 1 match)

Pecharunt- 107 (107 votes in 1 match)

Munkidori- 105 (105 votes in 1 match)

Shadow Mewtwo- 103 (103 votes in 1 match)

Fezandipiti- 91 (91 votes in 1 match)

Okidogi- 42 (42 votes in 1 match)

Funnily enough, while our silver medalist Giratina, managed to end up on top, our winner was pushed to 3rd, and the bronze medalist Primal Dialga landed in 8th! Only the top 8 managed averages over 200, and the bottom two didn't even hit 100. With low vote totals, the averages in the tournament are lower too!

But we can also arrange the group by their average vote share, the percentage they won on average:

Gengar- 68.3%

Giratina- 60.1%

Dusknoir- 59.2%

Primal Dialga- 57.9%

Shadow Lugia- 56.7%

Darkrai (PokePark 2)- 55.2%

Nuzleaf- 54.7%

Darkrai (Explorers)- 51.4%

Darkrai (SoA)- 49.0%

Eternatus- 45.2%

Necrozma- 41.0%

Mewtwo (Guardian Signs)- 38.5%

Munna- 34.6%

Skuntank- 32.4%

Shadow Mewtwo- 29.9%

Pecharunt- 26.8%

Fezandipiti- 26.5%

Dark Matter- 25.5%

Munkidori- 25.2%

Okidogi- 12.4%

This time our top 4 contestants are all in the top 5, but they've all been beaten by Gengar! Some justice for Gengar fans after all? Meanwhile, the Loyal Three land in the bottom 4 in both data sets, and of the Darkrai, the Almia Darkrai is the clear loser. And the top 8 all sit over the 50% mark! Congrats to them.

And we can also take a quick look at what proportion of the overall votes went to which contestant. Of course, the ones that stayed in the longest get the highest proportion, but the Semi Finalists alone manage to take almost 53% of the vote between them!

Now let's look at individual matches!

The most voted on match in the bracket was actually Round 5: Final Match- Giratina vs Dusknoir! It earned 569 votes. Second place goes to the only other match to break 500 (or 500 exactly), being Round 1: Match 1- Nuzleaf vs Eternatus!

On the other end, the lowest vote total for a match was actually a tie! Both Round 2: Match 6- Mewtwo vs Darkrai (SoA) and Round 3: Match 2- Darkrai (Poképark 2) vs Primal Dialga got only 304 votes. No match fell below 300, but they got close!

For individual contestants, the most votes earned in one match by a single contestant was 372 votes earned by Giratina in Round 2: Match 2 against Dark Matter. The dubious honour of least votes goes to Okidogi, with only 42 votes in its Round 2: Match 7 match against Gengar!

Finally, we have some winning margins to go over! First, the closest margin this time round was a 2.2% margin in Round 3: Match 4- Gengar vs Shadow Lugia. Not the closest when it comes to the blog, but only a 10 vote difference is not something to scoff at!

Last, but certainly not least, the biggest sweep. My extra special award given to a contestant that may not have won, but showed their support in a big way all the same. This time? The winner with a 75.2% margin in Round 2: Match 7 is Gengar! He managed to sweep Okidogi away, earning 256 more votes than his opponent. Congratulations Gengar!

Week #61 (Consoles)

The first poll this month had more votes than any other in March! I wanted to know which console was considered to have the best Pokémon games, and 843 of you voted:

Game Boy/Game Boy Colour- 3.7%, 31 votes

Nintendo 64- 1.1%, 9 votes

Game Boy Advance- 9.1%, 77 votes

GameCube- 0.9%, 8 votes

Nintendo DS- 53.5%, 451 votes

Wii- 0.7%, 6 votes

Nintendo 3DS- 22.3%, 188 votes

Wii U- 0.2%, 2 votes

Nintendo Switch- 4.5%, 38 votes

See Results- 3.9%, 33 votes

Or, adjusting for undecided voters:

Game Boy/Game Boy Colour- 3.8%

Nintendo 64- 1.1%

Game Boy Advance- 9.5%

GameCube- 1%

Nintendo DS- 55.7%

Wii- 0.7%

Nintendo 3DS- 23.2%

Wii U- 0.2%

Nintendo Switch- 4.7%

And as a graph:

The results couldn't be clearer! The DS was home to so many fan favourite games that no other console came close. The 3DS managed second, but all the handhelds easily cleared the home consoles! Poor Wii U only got 2 votes!

Week #62 (Unova Continuation)

Next up, we looked at the region with the most possible ways to revisit. Unova has many fans, and there are a few different ways we could end up seeing the region again- but what's people's preferred way? 637 votes gave us the answer:

BW Remake- 10.7%, 68 votes

B2W2 Remake- 4.1%, 26 votes

B3W3- 22.3%, 142 votes

Legends Unova- 56.5%, 360 votes

See Results- 6.4%, 41 votes

And adjusting for those who couldn't choose:

BW Remake- 11.4%

B2W2 Remake- 4.4%

B3W3- 23.8%

Legends Unova- 60.4%

Or as a graph:

People want a Legends Unova! More than all the other options combined, it was the clear winner. And Game Freak? The people don't want a Black 2 White 2 remake! Just a heads up!

Week #63 (Gym Leader Themes)

This one was an interesting one- possibly the first time on this blog we've polled about the music in the Pokémon series! This time it was the Gym Leader themes of each region. 434 votes later, and the results were:

Kanto- 6.2%, 27 votes

Johto- 7.4%, 32 votes

Hoenn- 7.6%, 33 votes

Sinnoh- 6.2%, 27 votes

Unova- 18.7%, 81 votes

Kalos- 5.1%, 22 votes

Galar- 36.2%, 157 votes

Paldea- 6.7%, 29 votes

See Results- 6%, 21 votes

And when removing the See Results votes:

Kanto- 6.5%

Johto- 7.7%

Hoenn- 8%

Sinnoh- 6.5%

Unova- 19.6%

Kalos- 5.3%

Galar- 38%

Paldea- 7%

And as a graph:

I wasn't expecting the results to be so clear! Galar in first and Unova in second, with all the others roughly even. Game Freak struck gold with the Galar Gym Leader theme, and there's no denying it!

Week #64 (Move Removal)

Our final vote for the month was on the removal of moves. We all know how controversial dexit was, but how about the retiring of moves from the series? Do you think it was a good thing? 469 voters had there say:

Yes- 13%, 61 votes

No- 25.2%, 118 votes

It's complicated- 40.9%, 192 votes

No strong feelings- 19.8%, 93 votes

See Results- 1.1%, 5 votes

And taking out the 5 indecisive voters:

Yes- 13.1%

No- 25.4%

It's complicated- 41.4%

No strong feelings- 20%

Or as a graph:

So, while a small amount of people unapologetically agree, lots of people have complicated feelings! Of the people who do have feelings on the matter, over half of them voted that way. There was some very interesting takes on the poll, and I encourage you to take a look! But some of you didn't mind either way too, and that's okay!

Final Stats

Finally, let's take a look at some overall numbers for the whole month! March featured 4 polls, with a total of 2,383 voters- for an average of 596 votes per match. This put the month as the 6th best performing month so far when it comes to averages, which is very respectable!

This is a little down from the peak of last month, which had an average of 754 votes (3,014 total), but is a solid bit stronger than March last year, where the average sat at 571 votes (2,282 total).

For the year, this brings the average down slightly from 638 to 624, which is still higher than last year's final average of 553. Speaking of longer term averages though, the overall Little Cup average now sits at 566- another slight improvement in the figure, up by 2 from last month's 564.

Now, let's look at this year's poll chart:

We can see here that while nothing reached the peak of poll #60, this has been a healthy month! With a notable peak, but no polls falling under the 400 votes mark.

But that's all for now! As always, a big thank you for all your votes and support, and please don't forget to submit your own polls if you have ideas! I'll see you again soon with more numbers and more questions.

Week #74 (2D vs 3D)

For the first week this month, I posed the question to all of you of which style you'd like future Pokémon games to take- 2D or 3D. 446 voters had their say:

2D- 41%, 183 votes

3D- 49.8%, 222 votes

See Results- 9.2%, 41 votes

And adjusting for undecided voters:

2D- 45.2%

3D- 54.8%

Or in graph form:

So as you can see, it's very close! While more people would prefer the series to continue in the 3D direction we currently have in the series, there are still plenty of people who prefer the old days of a top down adventure.

Week #75 (Starter Usage)

This next poll was the most popular of the month. With 27 traditional starter Pokémon, it's hard to get the chance to use them all! So how many have you used? 780 votes tell us this:

0- 1.4%, 11 votes

1-5- 13.3%, 104 votes

6-10- 17.4%, 136 votes

11-15- 19.4%, 151 votes

16-20- 23.2%, 181 votes

21-25- 11.8%, 92 votes

26-27- 10.9%, 85 votes

See Results- 2.6%, 20 votes

With adjusted percentages:

0- 1.4%

1-5- 13.7%

6-10- 17.9%

11-15- 19.9%

16-20- 23.8%

21-25- 12.1%

26-27- 11.2%

And as a graph:

So the plurality of voters have used between 16 and 20! But when we look at combining the categories, almost 50% have used 16 or more in general. The 25% who've used at least 20 have clearly played a lot of Pokémon!

Week #76 (Day-to-Day Soundtrack)

The next poll in the month asked about your relationship with the Pokémon series soundtrack outside of the game. 424 of you voted, and told us this was how much you listened to the music on your own time:

Never- 16%, 68 votes

Rarely- 27.1%, 115 votes

Sometimes- 33.7%, 143 votes

Frequently- 19.6%, 83 votes

Every Day- 3.3%, 14 votes

See Results- 0.2%, 1 votes

And accounting for the single voter who couldn't make up their mind:

Never- 16.1%

Rarely- 27.2%

Sometimes- 33.8%

Frequently- 19.6%

Every Day- 3.3%

And as a graph:

Just shy of 85% listen to the soundtrack at all, with well over 50% choosing 'Sometimes' or more frequently than that. I hope the 14 voters who listen every day aren't sick of it yet!

Week #77 (Winds or Waves)

And our last poll of the month tested who has already made their minds up about Winds and Waves! With very little to go on, I asked which version you are planning on playing. There were 526 votes, and the results were:

Winds- 12.5%, 66 votes

Waves- 16%, 84 votes

Both- 4%, 21 votes

Neither- 22.2%, 117 votes

Undecided- 43.9%, 231 votes

See Results- 1.3%, 7 votes

After adjusting:

Winds- 12.7%

Waves- 16.2%

Both- 4%

Neither- 22.5%

Undecided- 44.5%

And as a graph:

The clear plurality are still undecided! That's a very understandable position. But of those who have decided, more people will be playing the games than not, and of those, Waves is the favourite! I wonder if that will stay true as more information comes out!

I've also included a graph showing just the voters who have decided already, and only those who know which version they'd like to play, in order to get a better look at the direct comparison:

Final Stats

And now we come to the final stats of the month! June saw a total number of votes of 2,176, giving an average of 544 votes per poll. That's definitely up from May, where we saw an average of 397 and a total of 1,586! And in direct comparison to last June, it's a big improvement there too, with June 2025 having 1,621 votes total- for an average of 405.

This puts this month as the 3rd best performing month this year, and the 9th out of 18 overall. Very average- not that that's a bad thing!

When it comes to our running totals, the 2026 average has fallen- but only by 2 votes- to an average of 556. This puts it remarkably close to the overall average, which hasn't shifted from last month, staying at 554. Seeing as last year's final average was 553, I think it's safe to say we've settled roughly into a pattern for these polls.

Now, taking a look at 2026's updated chart:

We can see that Week #75 was the second best performing poll this year- following Week #60, which is very much an outlier. Otherwise, a fairly standard month, with no particularly bad performances.

And that's that! With July's first poll already underway, it won't be long before I'm back here with more stats. But in the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy the main tournament, and I'll see you soon!