Best Pokémon companion groups

Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie win 66% of their duels and top the Pokémon ranking of Ash's friend groups, ahead of Brock and Misty.

The XY companions claim the top spot with 1307 ELO points, edging out the original duo by a narrow margin of 33 points. Brock and Misty hold second place at 1274 ELO, while Dawn and Brock secure third with 1269 points. The most striking division appears between ranks 3 and 4: a gap of 111 ELO points separates Dawn and Brock from Iris and Cilan, marking the clearest divide in the ranking and suggesting a sharp difference in how the community views the Sinnoh and Unova eras. The middle positions remain tightly contested, with Iris and Cilan at 1158 ELO and Lana, Kiawe, Mallow, Sophocles, and Lillie just behind at 1156 points. May, Max, and Brock sit in sixth place with 1140 ELO. At the bottom, Goh stands alone in seventh with 1096 ELO and a 33% win rate across 89 duels, indicating a less enthusiastic reception for Ash's Journeys companion compared to the group dynamics that defined earlier seasons.

This ranking draws on 2126 duels submitted by 161 players, comparing all 7 groups of Ash's traveling companions across the anime's regions. The data was updated on 10 October 2026. Head to VAINKEURZ to cast your own votes and shift the standings: each duel you complete helps define which ensemble of friends resonates most with the Pokémon community.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →