1000 Pokémon Species?

I play a variety of games besides Pokémon, so it's no surprise that I keep up with information about them too. And recently, one of those games just reached 1000 "features", or "facets" if you will. The game has consistently had a large number of these "facets", and for a good long while, the number has outpaced that of the number of Pokémon species. That leads me to consider if the number of Pokémon species will ever reach this lofty milestone of a number.

First, there are always some considerations. Currently, there are just over 800 species of Pokémon. On average, every generation comes out with about 100 new species, not including new forms. In the two most recent generations, the number has strayed just below this average. If this trend is taken to continue, then it's only reasonable to expect that the milestone will be reached by the tenth generation, presupposing that the calculation works out this way. Otherwise, given the circumstances, it may be reached as soon as the ninth generation. The milestone, then, seems to be at hand in any case.

The problem is that it may seem that there are things that keep the milestone from being reached. One of those is certainly the current number of Pokémon species as above. Even now, that's a lot of species to keep track and feature, for players and creators alike. That leads to the reasoning that the current below-average addition trend is to keep the species total from reaching 1000, at least too quickly. The technological limitations of the 3DS may also be an additional contributing factor that keeps the total species lower in recent times; time will tell if the Switch can provide greater leverage and make this feasible, even if it means more species to deal with.

Admittedly, 1000 is a nice, neat round number. Once there are hundreds, thousands naturally follow, and this is the first of those. Given how far things have progressed, it's not that hard to think that there will be this many Pokémon species soon, though not soon enough due to certain obstacles. Even so, with Pokémon still going strong, those obstacles are surely able to be surmounted, and 1000 species will surely be achievable, just like how my other game achieved its 1000 "feature" count.

One year ago: That Way You've Got