Meta tier lists

Competitive Pokémon tier lists by format

Browse competitive Pokémon tier lists for every Smogon and VGC format. Each format page carries usage stats, top sets, and monthly trends drawn from ladder replays, so the rankings reflect what people actually play rather than what a council thinks is strong.

How the tiers are built

Tiers come straight from usage share, not from opinion. A Pokémon on 20% or more of teams lands in S, 10% and up in A, 5% and up in B, 2% and up in C, and everything below that sits in D. Because usage moves month to month, a Pokémon can slide between tiers without any balance change: a new set, a popular team on ladder, or a single tournament result is enough.

Reading usage percentages

Usage is the percentage of teams that carried the Pokémon. Every team brings six, so the figures across a singles format add up to roughly 600% rather than 100%. That is why 30% usage is dominance and not a minority pick: it means close to a third of all teams on the ladder ran it.

Centralisation

The band above shows how much of each format's usage the ten most popular Pokémon absorb. A high number means the ladder converges on a small core and you can prepare for it directly. A low number means the format is wide open and team preview matters more than pre-planned matchups.

Open a format to filter by type, search a species, switch the month, and expand any row for its moves, items, EV spreads, Tera types, teammates, and counters.