Research Question

In the Pokemon games, each Pokemon has six base stats (HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed) and a total stats that summarizes its overall strength. Over nine generations of Pokemon, players often talk about power creep. Power creep is the idea that newer Pokemon are designed to be stronger than older ones either by having higher stats or more specialized roles in battle.

In this project we ask:

Have Pokemon gotten stronger over each generation? In particular, do total stats show upward trends across generations.

Do certain archetypes of Pokemon such as Glass Cannons, Tanks, physicals sweepers become more common over time, and is there evidence of a power creep in the Pokemon universe.

Data & Methods

Data sources:

Base stats and Pokédex information from PokémonDB

Additional metadata (types, generation, etc.) from the TidyTuesday Pokémon dataset

Cleaning:

Joined the two sources by Pokédex ID

For each stat, used TidyTuesday values when available, otherwise fell back to PokémonDB

Assigned generations using Pokédex ID ranges (Gen 1–9)

Archetypes (based on base stat patterns):

Glass Cannons: very high Attack or Special Attack, high Speed, low bulk

Tanks: very high combined HP + Defense + Special Defense, lower Speed

Physical Sweepers: high Attack and high Speed

Bulky Attackers: strong Attack and solid bulk, moderate Speed

Balanced: all six stats in a mid-range (no extreme strengths/weaknesses)

All others are labeled “Other”.

The rest of the dashboard explores how total stats and archetype roles change across generations to evaluate power creep.

Summary of Results

The box plot and the line plot of total base stats by generation show that average total stats increase from generation 1 to generation 9, with generation 9 having the highest average total. This suggests evidence of overall power creep.

The archetype frequency plot shows that Tanks become more common in later generations, while Glass Cannons and Balanced Pokemon become relatively less common. This indicates that newer designs emphasize offense and defense more than earlier generations.

The average total base stats by archetype across generations plot shows that Physical Sweepers have one of the largest increases in total stats across generations.

Overall, these patterns support the idea of power creep in Pokémon: newer generations tend to feature stronger and more specialized Pokemon.

Example Pokémon

Koraidon
Gen 9 Power Creep

Garganacl
Tank Archetype

Dragapult
Fast Sweeper

Alakazam
Glass Cannon

Strongest Pokemon by total base stats within each archetype

Pokémon Generation Type1 Type2 Total HP Attack Defense SpAtk SpDef Speed
Balanced
CharizardMega Charizard X 1 fire flying 634 78 84 78 109 85 100
CharizardMega Charizard Y 1 fire flying 634 78 84 78 109 85 100
BlazikenMega Blaziken 3 fire fighting 630 80 120 70 110 70 80
LucarioMega Lucario 4 fighting steel 625 70 110 70 115 70 90
HawluchaMega Hawlucha 6 fighting flying 600 78 92 75 74 63 118
Bulky Attacker
RayquazaMega Rayquaza 3 dragon flying 780 105 150 90 150 90 95
KyogrePrimal Kyogre 3 water NA 770 100 100 90 150 140 90
GroudonPrimal Groudon 3 ground NA 770 100 150 140 100 90 90
ZygardeComplete Forme 6 dragon ground 708 108 100 121 81 95 95
KyuremWhite Kyurem 5 dragon ice 700 125 130 90 130 90 95
Glass Cannon
GreninjaAsh-Greninja 6 water dark 640 72 95 67 103 71 122
SceptileMega Sceptile 3 grass NA 630 70 85 65 105 85 120
AerodactylMega Aerodactyl 1 rock flying 615 80 105 65 60 75 130
AlakazamMega Alakazam 1 psychic NA 600 55 50 45 135 95 120
GengarMega Gengar 1 ghost poison 600 60 65 60 130 75 110
Physical Sweeper
EternatusEternamax 8 NA NA 1125 255 115 250 125 250 130
MewtwoMega Mewtwo X 1 psychic NA 780 106 110 90 154 90 130
MewtwoMega Mewtwo Y 1 psychic NA 780 106 110 90 154 90 130
Arceus 4 normal NA 720 120 120 120 120 120 120
SalamenceMega Salamence 3 dragon flying 700 95 135 80 110 80 100
Tank
NecrozmaUltra Necrozma 7 psychic NA 754 97 107 101 127 89 79
DragoniteMega Dragonite 1 dragon flying 700 91 134 95 100 100 80
TyranitarMega Tyranitar 2 rock dark 700 100 134 110 95 100 61
MetagrossMega Metagross 3 steel psychic 700 80 135 130 95 90 70
DiancieMega Diancie 6 rock fairy 700 50 100 150 100 150 50

Average stats for each archetype

Average Stats by Archetype
Avg Total Avg HP Avg Attack Avg Defense Avg SpAtk Avg SpDef Avg Speed
Physical Sweeper 600.6883 92.40260 119.42857 92.93506 92.03896 87.97403 110.71429
Bulky Attacker 549.9583 92.62500 110.98958 92.45833 84.40625 84.87500 74.45833
Tank 531.7230 93.08920 90.81690 106.46479 80.77465 95.76526 56.67136
Glass Cannon 508.6711 67.22368 91.34211 57.97368 95.73684 71.46053 116.90789
Balanced 485.6727 75.00000 85.17273 72.60909 82.88182 76.16364 84.20909