Given the Pokémon series' various forms of media, it's not uncommon to see at least one form of media rival another.
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Within the franchise
- When the subject of ROM hacks and fangames comes up, heated arguments will flare up over whether the official games or fanmade games are better. Fans of the official games believe most fanmade games are bad (especially in the case of fangames with "edgier" storylines) and the official titles the benefit of being able to play online, whereas fangame players cite more ambitious stories and believe that the fans know what they want more than Game Freak does.
- The first few weeks of Pokémon Horizons: The Series's run was plagued by Ash fans vs Liko fans, particularly on Twitter where the anime's hashtag would trend each week. The Ash fans would accuse Liko fans of "betraying their childhood hero", try to find ways to insert Ash into the plot and claim that the "anime will flop without Ash", while the Liko fans would complain that the Ash fans "refuse to move on with the times" and put Liko (and by extension Roy) on a 26-year-long pedestal expecting her to do everything Ash did, with some of the nastier ones accusing Ash of still being a bland main character despite the events of later series (particularly the last 3). That being said, there are fans of both who like the fact that the anime has been taking the time to craft Liko's personality that's unique from Ash and believe that should Ash encounter Liko and Roy, he would want to be friends with them instead.
Cross-media
- The infamous Pokémon vs. Digimon wars. Yu-Gi-Oh! often gets thrown in to make it a Mêlée à Trois, with Beyblade and Monster Rancher occasionally showing up as well. However, the big fight was always between these two, as both fandoms claimed that one was a rip-off of the other because they came out around the same time and had superficially similar elements. The fighting got to the point that a lot of people decided that anyone who was a fan of both wasn't really a fan on their side. However, with the passage of time and the kids that once fought on the playground over the matter having since become adults who realize that liking both actually is an option, the two have since become Friendly Fandoms. Some now believe that Digimon should get a Guest Fighter in Super Smash Bros. (usually Series Mascot Agumon), in acknowledgement of the past rivalry, similar to Mario vs. Sonic.note
- The rivalry with Yo-kai Watch counts as this, especially once it was released internationally. It was probably the worst rivalry since Digimon in the 90s, as Pokémon fans insisted it would be a short fad at best, while Yo-Kai Watch fans declared that it would be "the Pokémon killer" and be as big a phenomenon as it was in Japan. The rivalry died out in the mid-to-late 2010s, when it became clear that Yo-Kai Watch wasn't seeing too much sales success outside of its native Japan, but it continues to exist.
The games
- Ingress vs. Pokémon GO, both GPS-based Augmented Reality games developed by Niantic where players play by traveling to in-game points of interest by visiting their corresponding locations in real life. Ingress players are not terribly fond of Go players due to having a much bigger and louder fanbase unlike Ingress which is more of a Cult Classic rather than a Killer App and has a generally quieter fanbase; the large numbers of GO players at Ingress hotspots (due to Go piggybacking on a lot of Ingress infrastructure) doesn't help. This has led to concerns that various properties will ban the use of all location-based games, even for the Silent Majority. The rivalry is mostly one-way, as most Go players don't even know what Ingress is.
- Pokémon vs Monster Rancher was once a hot spot, with the latter seen as the PlayStation counterpart. It was mainly due to the anime as the gameplay is very different and despite it technically being multi-plat (main games on PS consoles, spinoffs on Nintendo handhelds). Monster Rancher died out by the DS while Pokémon only got bigger.
- In general, any game that releases around the same time that a mainline Pokémon title does is on a collision course with the fandom, especially when it's another monster collecting game.
- Fans of Pokémon vs. fans of Spectrobes for DS Role Playing Games. Both Spectrobes and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl came out around the same time, inciting massive arguments about which one has better gameplay, graphics, and story.
- Temtem went into early access in January 2020, over a month after the release of Sword and Shield. Players dissatisfied with Sword and Shield pointed to Temtem as what the games "should" have been as a full-region MMO with fewer luck based elements. Defenders of Sword and Shield find Temtem to lack several traits inherent to MMO games, rip into the game's creature design as lackluster, and consider Temtem's lack of luck-based elements to lead to less interesting, more predictable gameplay.
- In a similar vein, Nexomon and its sequel have a rivalry with fans of the later generations. Nexomon fans love it for being just like the classic Pokémon games (complete with graphics reminiscent of Gens 3 and 4), being more challenging, and for being more story-driven, especially after Sword and Shield's story proved controversial even among its fans. Meanwhile, fans of the later Pokémon games dislike it for the same reasons.
- Shin Megami Tensei V vs Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl developed in late 2021 due to releasing within a week of each other, and those disappointed with modern Pokémon latching on to SMTV as "what a high-budget Mons JRPG on Switch should look like."
- Pokémon GO vs the Japanese-only Yo-kai Watch World, as a result of the rivalry between the two series. The former is far more popular. Not helping is that a proposed localization of the latter app was cancelled.
- Despite Pokémon's fanbase frequently butting heads with other monster-collection franchises, it generally gets along with the fanbases of other Nintendo franchises and even other non-Nintendo franchises. However, overall Nintendo fans and general gamers tend to be far less charitable, saying its highly similar, low-budget entries are unbecoming of such a high profile series, a claim that Pokémon fans are unlikely to take standing down. Although this has been an issue for years, it really became contentious during the Switch era, when their tighter deadlines and budgets started showing their limits on more demanding hardware, coming to a head with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Several unsavory comparisons were made to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and (ironically) Xenoblade Chronicles 3 with regards to how the Nintendo Switch is capable of impressive graphics in an open-world setting, along with the ports of NieR: Automata and Persona 5 Royal that were released only one month prior to Scarlet and Violet can have clean, bug free experiences even on similar budgets. The criticism grew more intense with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder the year after, as both were high profile first party games with higher budgets that were developed at their own pace. Expectedly, many Pokémon fans (and fans of those other franchises) do not like these comparisons and routinely consider them unfair, as the developers have to make do with the time and resources they've been given (i.e. not a lot) and even have a system specifically dedicated to allowing some employees to not have to work on Pokémon (something hardly any other studio has). While both sides of the argument agree that these restrictions are oppressive and need to go, there's much contention between whether that same care should come from the players before or after that happens.
- Some fans of Cyberpunk 2077 were incredibly vocal over their anger and said the game was bashed for poor performance and visual issues at launch. Yet, they believe Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were arguably worse in both categories. Their anger is mainly directed at how reviews scored Cyberpunk or complained incessantly, and feel Pokémon deserved just as much flak but received barely half of it.
- Palworld achieved this in record time. The game was initially dismissed as yet another Pokémon clone, with the only thing making it stand out being the large amounts of Black Comedy present. But once it entered early access in January 2024, players found it to be a surprisingly good game in its own right and ended up becoming highly popularnote . Ever since, the two fandoms have been embroiled in a nasty conflict. Pokémon fans denounce Palworld for being nothing more than a Darker and Edgier knockoff that blatantly copies various game mechanics and designs from their franchise, to the point of a (false) rumor spreading that Palworld was created using AI image generators. Palworld fans rip into Pokémon for being an overrated mess whose latest entries have been very poor quality (especially with the ninth generation games being infamously buggy) while boasting that their game is an innovative, well-put-together product that can easily stand toe-to-toe with Pokémon or even be a Franchise Killer for it. Sections of both fanbases have cooled off over time however, as many slowly became fans of both games and the growing playerbases begin to recognize that the parody aspect of Palworld is as affectionate as it is deconstructive.
The anime
- Since its run, the anime has gone face-to-face with a whole horde of similar competitors, most of them being kodomomuke series. Beckett Magazine often played up these rivalries in their covers.
- As stated in the cross-media folder, Digimon Adventure was the series' biggest competitor. Digimon would eventually step down after Yu-Gi-Oh! came in, seeing as some kids stopped watching it after 02 ended. In some places it was Pokémon vs. Digimon vs. Dragon Ball Z.
- Pokémon vs Beyblade is common because the two are similarly kodomomuke anime about fighting with monsters.
- Pokémon vs. Bakugan isn't uncommon. The tension between fans of both series, young and old, is so thick you can cut it with a knife.
- Yo-kai Watch's anime would become its most recent major competitor. There are some who prefer the Pokémon anime while others think the Yo-Kai Watch is of higher quality, especially due to the dubbing quality, Nate being perceived as a better protagonist than the Memetic Loser Ash and the more risque jokes. The plans to Retool the series for Pokémon Sun and Moon into a school-based series with more focus on comedy and a redesigned art style has further fueled tensions on both sides; with fans of Yo-Kai Watch accusing Pokémon of ripping them off and Pokémon fans blaming Yo-Kai Watch for the rebranding to compete. The tension got worse after the Yo-Kai Watch fad died in Japan, and the series didn't take off well internationally, leading many Pokémon fans to call Yo-Kai Watch a bomb.
- In Japan, the anime began a one-sided rivalry with Chibi Maruko-chan and Sazae-san caused by the former being moved to a Sunday kid's block. Pokémon fans feared that the latter programs would get higher ratings.
- Fans of Pokémon vs. fans of Inazuma Eleven. Inazuma Eleven fans label Pokémon as having no progress despite its Long Runner status, Pokémon fans label Inazuma Eleven a shallow and contrived series that is hated for stealing ratings in Japan. It's even more intense when fans outside Japan were factored. Inazuma Eleven is much more popular in Britain due to the footing soccer has there, while Pokémon is one of the Gateway Series to American anime fans, and the US as a whole couldn't care less about soccer.
- Fans of Kids' WB!'s in-house series, specifically the Steven Spielberg-produced cartoons like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain still don't take too kindly to the anime due to its popularity eclipsing those series and the fact that the older shows became lower in priority for the block, as evidenced by The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show. During the anime's run, it became such a massive powerhouse that it became mostly responsible for the overall shift in focus from comedy to action on both the block and the larger Saturday morning landscape. The fact that it was cheaper to produce than WB's own cartoons partially led to this shift.
- The anime has also gotten scorn from the rest of the anime fandom alongside Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon due to feelings that mainstream American audiences got a wrong impression of the medium as a whole from these shows (especially with their earlier dubs) or that they didn't realize there was other (and, in their view, better) series out there.
