Pokémon fans work out how many 'Mon Ash Ketchum actually caught, and he sucks

It’s hardly a secret that Ash Ketchum set out to be the very best, like no one ever was.

And he certainly achieved that, to a point.

At the end of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys, Ash and Pikachu stepped down as the franchise’s protagonists after the character finally became a Pokémon champion.

And while it’s an accolade that Ash deserved and worked hard for, I can’t say that the character is technically ‘the very best’ on paper.

You see, us dedicated Pokémon fans are used to completely filling out our Pokédexes every time a new release rolls around.

Ash though … He hasn’t actually caught as many ‘Mon as you might imagine.

Pokémon Legends Z-A is set to launch next year, supposedly on both the Nintendo Switch and its successor. Take a look at the game’s reveal trailer below.

Reddit user dustofoblivion123 took to the /todayilearned subreddit to share a very interesting fact.

“Ash Ketchum only caught 57 unique individual Pokémon over the course of the series, roughly 7% of the Pokémon available to him,” the user said.

Rookie numbers.

To give Ash the benefit of the doubt though, evolutions are classed as different Pokémon within a Pokédex, so his total is likely closer to 98 - which equates to around 12%.

It’s still a lot less than we’d expect from the champion though.

“Yeah but he is tight with MewTwo so that counts for something,” Scarlet_Breeze said.

“He makes up for it with the sheer number of Tauros,” joked orlybird2345.

“Cut him some slack,” wrote Vendidurt. “He’s 10.”

And? If bro wants to be the very best, he better lock in.

Admittedly, Ash was dead set on becoming a Pokémon Master which isn’t a task that precisely required catching them all.

That being said, that could be the character’s next goal.

I’d be down to watch a spin-off following Ash on his next adventure as he does indeed try to catch them all - and I don’t think I’d be alone.