Pokémon types are much more important than you think they are. They indicate a Pokémon’s strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness in fighting against an opponent. If a Pokémon is weaker but has the type advantage over his opponent, there’s a bright chance that the weaker Pokémon will still beat its opponent due to the type advantage.
It’s simple; nothing more than “fire beats leaf” or “water beats fire” logic.
If you’ve been a long-time Pokémon fan, you might be aware of the total number of Pokémon introduced in the series throughout multiple generations and several movies. But what about the types of Pokémon? Have you wondered exactly how many Pokémon types there are in the Pokéverse?
That’s what this article is all about! We’re going to cover the total number of Pokémon types and go deep into each type to understand them better.
How Many Pokémon Types Are There?
Currently, there are 18 official Pokémon types in the Pokémon universe. They are as follows:
| Normal | Fire | Water |
| Grass | Electric | Ice |
| Fighting | Poison | Ground |
| Flying | Psychic | Bug |
| Rock | Ghost | Dark |
| Dragon | Steel | Fairy |
All 18 types of Pokémon have various moves that they can learn. Some types are superior to each other, while some types are inferior to each other.
If you put a fire-type Pokémon against a grass-type Pokémon, chances are high that the fire-type will win due to his type advantage. Similarly, a water-type is more effective against a fire-type, and a grass-type is more effective against a water-type.
It’s not a sure victory if your Pokémon has a type advantage over its opponents, but having it sure helps a lot in battles.
Now, let’s briefly discuss all these different types to understand them better and find out what types of Pokémon are classified as what type!
Normal Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 132
- Most Popular Pokémon: Meowth, Eevee, Snorlax
As the name suggests, normal-type Pokémon mostly use physical attacks. But after the 4th generation of Pokémon, we saw a surge of special-attacking normal moves, which changed the game overall. Some Pokémon learn normal-type moves naturally, while others have to learn them via the HMs or TMs.
Scratch or Tackle is the most “normal” example of normal-type attacks. Most Pokémon would learn it naturally since it is like punching in the world of Pokémon.
The total number of normal-type Pokémon is 132 as of Generation 9, with around 200 different normal-type moves. In games and the series, you will see that most normal types are paired with flying types to make the birds look natural. This combination is the most common dual-type you’re going to see.
Another quick fact about the normal type is that it is the second most common type of Pokémon after the water type.
Fire Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 85
- Most Popular Pokémon: Charizard, Cyndaquil, Blaziken, Infernape
Fire-type Pokémon are one of the most fan-favorite types of Pokémon out there because they are almost always badass-looking and quite challenging in battles.
In Pokémon games, fire starters are a common choice, and they pair up well with grass and water types. The most common fire-type attacks are ember, overheat, and flamethrower. They are also immune to “burn,” a weakness of most grass-type Pokémon. You’ll also see fire types lesser than all other starters due to the rarity of their nature.
Ash has always been a fire-type lover, thanks to his relationship with Chimchar and Charizard. And fire types are effective against bug, grass, ice, and steel types, making them quite strong. However, if we talk about weakness, fire-type Pokémon are weak against dragon, rock, and water types.
Water Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 157
- Most Popular Pokémon: Squirtle, Lapras, Totodile, Greninja
One of the most popular and common types of Pokémon, the water type, is quite commonly found in the large seas of the Pokémon world. Most water types like to live in the water, and most of their attacks involve water-oriented moves like a water gun, bubble beam, surf, and water pulse.
Water-type Pokémon are effective against fire, ground, and rock types. However, they’re weaker against the dragon, electric, and grass-type Pokémon.
One of the most famous trainers from the Pokémon world is Misty, whose every Pokémon is water-type.
Due to their diversity, there are around 157 water-type Pokémon as of Generation 9, making it one of the most commonly found Pokémon types.
Grass Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 124
- Most Popular Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Sceptile
The first Pokémon ever recorded in the Pokédex was Bulbasaur, a grass-type, which shows us that grass types are pretty popular as well. Moreover, since the world of Pokémon includes a lot of bushes, trainers can find them and catch them. In addition, most grass types are based on plants and fungi, which makes sense due to their unique and plant-inspired design.
Many grass-type Pokémon are paired with poison-type, which becomes bad news for water-type Pokemon. This type of Pokémon is effective against the ground, water, and rock; however, they’re weak against fire and flying types.
A unique aspect of grass-type is that they can inflict status damage like “poison,” “sleep,” or “paralysis,” and this is a common occurrence that is found among various grass-type Pokémon.
Electric Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 72
- Most Popular Pokémon: Pikachu, Jolteon, Magnemite, Zapdos
As the name suggests, electric-type Pokémon can use electricity for offensive purposes. They can easily manipulate electricity and send it to their opponents to zap them. Some Pokémon can even store electricity, and most can even produce it, making them an excellent choice for trainers.
Primarily found in forests and power plants, these Pokémon are fast and ferocious. By using their electric moves, they can paralyze most opponents easily. A fun fact about electric Pokémon is that some of their designs are based on some sort of object. For example, Magnemite is like 3 magnets attached, and then there’s Voltorb which looks just like a Pokéball.
Electric-type Pokémon are super effective against water and flying types. However, their moves are ineffective against the ground type. Moreover, they can damage grass and dragon types, but the damage won’t be much.
Ice Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 58
- Most Popular Pokémon: Glaceon, Articuno, Lapras, Cloyster
Ice-type Pokémon have always been in a unique setting, and they’re pretty rare to find. This is because most of them tend to live in places with extremely low temperatures. They can adapt to the freezing weather and easily manipulate ice at their will. In the Pokémon world, we can find them in frozen hills, caverns, caves, and even at poles.
They are very effective against flying, grass, ground, and dragon type due to the uniqueness of their attacks. However, ice types are weaker against steel, water, and fire. In the games, we’ve seen that ice types are usually paired up with electric types for their mega-evolutions. And this type was only officially introduced in Generation 3, making them unique overall.
Fighting Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 81
- Most Popular Pokémon: Machamp, Hitmonchan, Hariyama, Lucario
This type of Pokémon are masters in melee combat. They can kick, punch, and have insane physical attacking abilities. Fighting types are the opposite of psychics since psychic Pokémon primarily depend on their special attacks.
A lot of fighting-type Pokémon have similar bodies to that of humans because they fight like humans. So, you can expect a lot of martial arts and attacks like low kicks, high kicks, and a lot more involved. A fun fact about each generation of Pokémon is that you’ll see a fighting type in every generation.
Fighting-type Pokémon are stronger against the dark, normal, rock, steel, and ice types but weaker against bug, fairy, flying, poison, and psychic types. Moreover, fighting-type cannot even attack ghost types, making them ineffective in such a battle.
Poison Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 83
- Most Popular Pokémon: Arbok, Muk, Weezing, Eternatus
Poison types are highly toxic and are based on real-life species like snakes, venoms, and even pollution. A lot of them are found in caves and jungles. Many poison types are strong and tricky to fight because they can easily poison their opponent, which keeps draining the Pokémon’s health.
Many grass-type Pokémon possess poison-type attacks, which makes them dual types. Poison-type Pokémon is pretty effective against the grass and fairy types. However, they’re not very effective against ghosts, poison, rock, and ground types. Moreover, none of the poison attacks will work on steel types due to the toughness of steel.
But an interesting fact about poison attacks is that they can be proven useful if you’re specifically there to win a battle.
Ground Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 77
- Most Popular Pokémon: Diglett, Sandslash, Marowak, Onix
Ground-type Pokémon are often underestimated due to being a bit boring looking design-wise. However, their powers consist of manipulating ground and Earth, forming attacks like earthquakes or digging.
These Pokémon are often found in rocky areas and caves, and many of them will be dual types. One of the biggest cons of using ground-type is that they’re often weaker on anything but the Earth’s surface since their main advantage is taken away. So, you cannot expect them to fight on water surfaces.
Giovanni from the Kanto region is the most popular ground-type Pokémon expert. On the other hand, one of the strongest ground-type is Groudon, the legendary Pokémon from Generation 3.
When ground types are underground, they’re very unpredictable as well. So if you have a Diglett underground, you can use powerful moves like an earthquake to inflict significant damage to your opponent.
Ground-type Pokémon are very effective against electric, poison, rock, steel, and fire types. However, they’re weaker against grass, flying, and bug types.
Flying Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 112
- Most Popular Pokémon: Tornadus, Pidgeot, Fearow, Talonflame
Flying types are one of the most common Pokémon types you will see in the series. They are quite beloved due to their coolness and abilities, and these Pokémon usually live pretty up high, and many are birds and insects.
For example, Pidgey is a literal bird, while Scyther is a bug and flying type Pokémon. Hence, being dual is very common for the flying type Pokémon. What’s surprising about the flying type is that quite a few don’t even have wings that give us mixed signals, only to find out that they can fly. Some common examples would be Gyarados or Rayquaza.
Flying-type Pokémon are super-effective against fighting, bug, and grass type. However, if you pair them against electric, steel, or rock type, they’re bound to suffer in a battle.
Psychic Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokemon: 105
- Most Popular Pokemon: Alakazam, Drowzee, Espeon, Mewtwo
This type is one of the strongest Pokémon types because many legendary Pokémon are mostly psychic, and they are some of the most powerful beings.
Psychic-type Pokémon are not only intelligent but also have several overpowered moves that are pretty effective on most of the Pokemon types.
Most psychic Pokémon don’t rely on brute strength. They like to work with their brain and have unique attacks to let them get ahead of their opponents in battles. This type of Pokémon is super effective against poison and fighting types. But they’re weaker against steel and ineffective against dark-type Pokémon.
Bug Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 92
- Most Popular Pokémon: Butterfree, Beedrill, Scyther, Dustox
Bug-type Pokémon is one of the fastest-growing Pokémon types in the franchise. It seems like every bush contains a bug Pokémon.
They are very adaptable and easily evolve due to their environment. Their design is based on spiders, butterflies, moths, and other real-life insects.
These Pokémon are effective against dark, psychic, and grass-type Pokémon. However, they are weaker against fire, fairy, fighting, flying, poison, steel, and ghost types. Also, bug-type Pokémon is probably the weakest if we talk about their overall advantage over other Pokémon. Plus, there hasn’t been any legendary bug-type Pokémon introduced in the franchise so far, but there is Genesect, which is a mythical Pokémon!
Rock Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 76
- Most Popular Pokémon: Onix, Golem, Regirock, Sudowoodo
Rock-type Pokémon are known for their excellent defense and extraordinary attacking abilities. However, as powerful as they look, they’re prone to have a lot of weaknesses as well. This type of Pokémon is usually very slow, and their moves aren’t as accurate as someone like a fighting type.
Most rock types are made from armor that is made of minerals. However, many of them look like rocks. Even though many rock types are confused with ground-type, they’re not much similar. They’re effective against fire, flying, ice, and bug types. However, having the most weaknesses, they are not very effective against fighting, steel, and ground-type Pokémon.
Ghost Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 70
- Most Popular Pokémon: Gengar, Giratina, Chandelure, Mismagius
Ghost-type Pokémon resemble ghosts and are completely immune to fighting and normal types. This means that physical attacks don’t work on ghost types, and you should always avoid them. Moreover, ghost types are a manifestation of fear, darkness, and the afterlife, which is why they’re found in caves and dark places.
Like the human impression of ghosts, ghost types are naughty and prank any human until they are completely in fear. Moreover, some Pokémon like Jellicent have been accused of murderous behaviors.
Dark Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokémon: 82
- Most Popular Pokémon: Umbreon, Darkrai, Absol, Tyranitar
Dark-type Pokémon were added as a counter to the psychic-type Pokémon. Hence, they’re completely immune to the latter, making them quite strong.
Dark Pokémon are usually the hardest to tame because they are quite negative. Not only are they cruel, intelligent, and crafty, but they’re also quite aggressive in certain situations. One of the biggest examples of that is Absol.
This type of Pokémon is very effective against ghosts and psychic types; however, they’re not effective against fairy and fighting types, which makes them vulnerable to only 3 Pokemon types.
Dragon Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokemon: 69
- Most Popular Pokemon: Dragonite, Goodra, Garchomp, Rayquaza
Most legendary Pokémon are dragon-type due to their ancient history, which is why they’re tough to catch and train because they sometimes act as deities in the game. They also evolve later and are extremely rare in the world of Pokémon.
And this type is undoubtedly one of the strongest Pokémon types because of just how powerful the Pokémon are! Moreover, they’re also one of the most exciting types due to the dual nature that is often found in them. So from Garchomp to Dragonite, things are bound to get more interesting.
Dragon-type Pokémon are effective against a dragon type and not against a steel type. Overall, these Pokémon are very versatile when it comes to battling.
Steel Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokemon: 75
- Most Popular Pokemon: Registeel, Steelix, Aggron, Metagross
Steel-type Pokémon might be one of the most popular due to their rare but badass appearance throughout the world of Pokémon. The first steel Pokémon was revealed in Generation 2, and the primary purpose was to have enhanced defense. They have a total of 11 resistances, making them a pretty powerful match against most Pokémon.
Due to their heavy design, they’re known to be better in offense but slower when it comes to speed. They’re not very effective against electric, fire, steel, and water types. However, they’re super effective against ice, rock, and fairy-type Pokémon.
Fairy Type Pokémon
- Number of Pokemon: 68
- Most Popular Pokemon: Clefairy, Togepi, Granbull, Sylveon
This type is a relatively new type of Pokémon as the fairy type was introduced to the world in the 6th Generation to balance out both dark and dragon-type Pokémon. They’re usually cute looking and have a feminine touch to them.
Fairy-type Pokémon are super effective against dragons, fighting, and dark. However, they’re weaker against fire, steel, and poison types. Fairy types don’t even have gender differences which makes them quite interesting.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pokémon Types:
Are There Pokémon With Dual Types?
Many Pokémon in the Pokémon world are dual-type and have two types that are far from each other. Some Pokémon will have water/electric types, while others will have grass/water types. You can expect to find dual-type odd pairings throughout the Pokémon universe.
What Are The 4 Main Pokémon Types?
The four main types of Pokémon are Fire, Water, Grass, and Normal.
What’s The Rarest Pokémon Type?
Ice types are the rarest ones because there are only 58 of them in the entire Pokémon universe as of Generation 9.
What is the Least Popular Pokémon Type?
It depends on personal preference. Different people are attracted to different types of Pokémon. However, bugs or normal types are not exactly as popular as some other types for no particular reason.
What Pokémon Type Has The Least Weaknesses?
Electric and Normal types have the least number of weaknesses. Normal types are only weaker than fighting types, and electric types are only more vulnerable to ground types.
What is the Most Popular Pokémon Type?
The coolest and most popular Pokémon type has to be the Dragon type because they’re mostly legendary Pokémon, extremely powerful, and so rare to find.
Is There a Pokémon With No Weaknesses?
Eelektross is a Pokémon that has no weaknesses. It is not even legendary or mythical; however, after evolving from Eelektrik, it becomes quite a powerful foe.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the article, and I hope I was able to answer your question about how many Pokémon types are there!
If you liked the article, share it with your friends who are fans of Pokémon so they can also read it and get all the information necessary about all the different Pokémon types introduced in the franchise!
Further Reading: Pokémon Type Chart – Strengths, Weaknesses, & Effectiveness Explained
