Pokemon fans have been voting for their favorites in Pokemon Legends: Z-A to close out 2025, and much like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at The Game Awards, it’s a sweep for your old favorite, Charizard.
GameWith conducted a survey in Japan and, after tallying up more than 18,000 votes, the results are in. Pokemon fans were asked which Pokemon from Legends: Z-A is their favorite, with a separate category for the game’s Mega Evolutions. That opened the door for Charizard to win both awards, as Mega Charizard X form topped the Mega charts.
Charizard Cleans Up In Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s End Of Year Awards
The unofficial award that was unavailable to Charizard, however, was the one for best new Mega Evolution. While Legends games don’t tend to introduce entirely new Pokemon to the series, the reintroduction of the Mega Evolution mechanic via Legends: Z-A brought with it an array of new Mega Evolved Pokemon, and I shouldn’t need to tell you which one of the new additions received the most votes.
Spoiler: It wasn’t Dragonite.
The most popular new Mega Evolution introduced via Pokemon Legends: Z-A was, of course, Mega Starmie. Mega Starmie’s leaked designs cast doubt over whether the rest of Z-A’s leaked details were accurate because surely it wasn’t just going to be a regular Starmie with longer legs, right?
The Strangest Looking Mega Evolutions In Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Why does Mega Victreebel look, you know… like that?
Turns out the leaks were right, and that’s exactly what Mega Starmie is. However, despite the simplicity of its design, the Mega Evolved member of the original 151 has gone down a storm with Pokemon fans. Mega Starmie quickly became a meme, KFC turned into a piece of virtual fried chicken, and now it has been deemed the best new Mega Evolution introduced via Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
Starmie Has Been Given A New Lease On Life By Legends: Z-A
Mega Starmie’s popularity even helped boost the regular version of the Pokemon’s placement in the standard rankings. Starmie was the 12th most popular Pokemon in Legends: Z-A, ranking higher than the likes of Gengar, Rayquaza, and Umbreon, all of whom usually finish near the top of favorite Pokemon charts, regardless of the parameters. It didn’t quite have the push it needed to outrank Gardevoir, though, who remains a firm favorite with a lot of Pokemon fans for, well, reasons.
On the Mega side of things, after Charizard and Starmie at one and two, there was a lot of love for Mega Zeraora. Almost as impressive as Starmie’s lofty rank as Zeraora’s Mega Evolution wasn’t added to the game until its Mega Dimension DLC was released earlier this month. Surprisingly, Mega Dragonite is not at the bottom of the pile despite the visceral reaction to its reveal. The winged-Dragon-type wound up outranking Mega Lucario Z and Mega Absol, among others.
- Released
-
October 16, 2025
- ESRB
-
Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, In-Game Purchases
- Publisher(s)
-
Nintendo, The Pokemon Company
