You hear a lot these days about how BW is the "fighting generation" and how important it is to have a Dragon resist in the form of the ubiquitous Steel type. This got me wondering; how popular are these types, really? In addition to that, how does the actual data compare to people's expectations? Well, before looking at the usage stats whatsoever, I first thought about what I found the most widespread in the current metagame. What came to mind, of course, was that Fightings, Steels, and Water types would be the most common, and that Ice and Normal would be the least. Well, looking at the OU tier, here are how many Pokemon there are for each type:
Number of Pokemon in OU per Type
The three types I expected hit the top of the list, but I didn't realize that Psychic was so popular. It makes sense, considering the apparent ubiquity of Fighting types in the tier, and the fact that there are 9 Fightings in OU. However, Psychic is a terrible offensive type, resisted by Steel, another top contender. The rest of the list makes sense, except for Rock being at the bottom. I realized at this point that it would take a bit more to actually rank the defensive types in the metagame. Thus, I delved into the usage statistics.
Here are the percentages that any given Pokemon encountered in OU is of a specific type. This list is a bit different from before.
Actual Frequency of Pokemon Types in OU
This tells me a far different story than the one I was getting before. First of all, Steel is, by a significant margin, the most common type in BW OU. This is probably due to its ability to take Psychic (#4) and more importantly, Dragon (#5) attacks. Speaking of Dragon, despite it only being #5, the type is so devastatingly powerful that it shape the metagame (looking at you, Outrages and Draco Meteors). In addition to a resistance to those moves, Steels tend to have great movepools, versatility, and secondary typing. Also, as expected, Ice and Normal are almost nonexistent these days, as Snorlax and Blissey can no longer handle the power creep while Ice is a wholly terrible defensive type. Water remains, of course, an incredibly common type to look out for, hanging in at the #3 spot.
Now, what is surprising? Its definitely strange to see Flying so extremely high up on the list, due to its weakness to Stealth Rocks and the common absence of good STAB moves. However, the type has a useful resistance (Fighting) and immunity (Ground), two common offensive types. It did, however, seem out of place for it to be above Water or Fighting. Speaking of Fighting, you may notice that the type had a fall from grace, being at only #6. This calls into question the notion that BW is the "fighting generation", doesn't it? Now, the massive power of Terrakion alone allows one to argue that, but the data certainly opens room for discussion here.
Other unexpected things I noticed were the very low frequency of Ghosts at #15 (which probably has to do with Rotom-A losing its Ghost type) and Grass being more than decent at #7. After I saw these results, I was still wondering; of common Pokemon in OU, how good is each type on average? Here are my findings on the matter:
Average Frequency of Each Type in OU
Let's briefly go over the major things we can learn from this, ultimately. First of all, Psychic and Fighting are only ever high up in OU due to the sheer number of "usable" Pokemon in each type (exceptions is Terrakion, maybe Jirachi and Latios). In addition, Rock is probably the most exclusive, only containing the metagame juggernauts of Tyranitar and Terrakion, two massive forces in the tier. This makes it far and away the "best" typing on OU by this standard. The Bug team (#2) is basically held by Scizor, while Steel remains a powerful overall type, but drops for the first time from the top. Its also worth noting that there are few Electric types, but Rotom-W is important enough to boost it up to #5. Finally, once again, Flying proves itself a common type despite the fact that it can be a liability at times.
Alright guys, I'm going to let you go now. Go ahead and let everyone know what you think of each type, and how that view may have been influenced by all of the actual data. If I'm not lazy, and especially if people show interest, I'll calculate how good each offensive type is according to the above. Lastly, if you give me your own statistical analyses, I'll add it to the main post!
Number of Pokemon in OU per Type
Code:
1. Steel (9)
1. Water (9)
1. Psychic (9)
1. Fighting (9)
4. Flying (7)
5. Dragon (6)
5. Ground (6)
7. Grass (5)
8. Fire (4)
8. Poison (4)
10. Bug (3)
10. Electric (3)
10. Dark (3)
14. Rock (2)
14. Ghost (2)
14. Ice (2)
14. Normal (2)
Here are the percentages that any given Pokemon encountered in OU is of a specific type. This list is a bit different from before.
Actual Frequency of Pokemon Types in OU
Code:
1. 13.84% - Steel
2. 10.42% - Flying
3. 10.21% - Water
4. 8.74% - Psychic
5. 8.00% - Dragon
6. 7.07% - Fighting
7. 6.01% - Ground
7. 6.01% - Grass
9. 5.24% - Bug
10. 5.23% - Fire
11. 4.48% - Rock
12. 4.19% - Electric
13. 3.55% - Dark
14. 3.45% - Poison
15. 2.03% - Ghost
16. 1.32% - Ice
17. 1.13% - Normal
Now, what is surprising? Its definitely strange to see Flying so extremely high up on the list, due to its weakness to Stealth Rocks and the common absence of good STAB moves. However, the type has a useful resistance (Fighting) and immunity (Ground), two common offensive types. It did, however, seem out of place for it to be above Water or Fighting. Speaking of Fighting, you may notice that the type had a fall from grace, being at only #6. This calls into question the notion that BW is the "fighting generation", doesn't it? Now, the massive power of Terrakion alone allows one to argue that, but the data certainly opens room for discussion here.
Other unexpected things I noticed were the very low frequency of Ghosts at #15 (which probably has to do with Rotom-A losing its Ghost type) and Grass being more than decent at #7. After I saw these results, I was still wondering; of common Pokemon in OU, how good is each type on average? Here are my findings on the matter:
Average Frequency of Each Type in OU
Code:
1. 18.13% - Rock
2. 14.13% - Bug
3. 12.44% - Steel
4. 12.03% - Flying
5. 11.30% - Electric
6. 10.78% - Dragon
7. 10.57% - Fire
8. 9.58% - Dark
9. 9.17% - Water
10. 8.23% - Grass
11. 8.19% - Ghost
12. 8.10% - Ground
13. 7.86% - Psychic
14. 7.07% - Fighting
15. 6.97% - Poison
16. 5.35% - Ice
17. 4.57% - Normal
Alright guys, I'm going to let you go now. Go ahead and let everyone know what you think of each type, and how that view may have been influenced by all of the actual data. If I'm not lazy, and especially if people show interest, I'll calculate how good each offensive type is according to the above. Lastly, if you give me your own statistical analyses, I'll add it to the main post!