Pokémon Winds & Waves rumor of 300 new Pokémon has fans divided

The next generation of Pokémon was unveiled earlier this year as part of Pokémon's 30th anniversary celebration. Pokémon Winds and Waves will be the first mainline games to debut exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2 when they launch sometime next year. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have both been quiet about the games since their announcement, leaving longtime Pokémon fans hungry for more information.

That hunger naturally leads to a fixation on minute details (like a cloud) and a diet of rumors and purported "massive leaks." One such rumor comes from CentroLeaks on X, who surfaced a claim that Winds and Waves will have "the highest amount of new Pokémon ever in a Pokémon game." Allegedly, some 300 new Pokémon and forms (a key detail here) are on the way.

How likely is this claim? Not very, as many "leakers" are very unreliable. Despite being able to "independently verify with other sources and they have heard similar information," CentroLeaks said to "take it with a grain of salt" and to "treat it as a RUMOR for now." (Big "my uncle works at Nintendo" energy here.) Still, the idea of such a massive wave of new Pokémon has gotten fans talking.

Pokémon fans react to Winds and Waves' rumored Pokédex buff

"Dude that honestly sounds like too much lmao," an X user replied. "I hope the quantity matches the quality [if] that is the case. But regardless I do think the majority will be new forms." Another X user loves the idea: "300 new pokemon woulda sold me without any gimmick introduced."

With weather likely being a central idea in Winds and Waves (more on that in a second), the idea of weather-specific forms has led to excitement for more variations of Castform, the Generation 3 Pokémon who changes forms based on the weather. "For the love of god if they don't buff Castform and give it new forms," one X user replied.

"The real question is will Eevee finally get new evolutions or not," one X user wondered, and we couldn't agree more. Frankly, it's astonishing the little fox hasn't gotten a Dragon-type evolution yet.

On the PokeLeaks subreddit, it's alleged that Winds and Waves' Pokédex will have about 530 Pokémon with 300 of them being new. Both those numbers are quite high, leading many to speculate that regional and weather-based forms would be the reason there'd be so many new Pocket Monsters. "Can’t seriously be more genuine new pokemon than Gen 1 and 2 combined," one Redditor said.

"Calling it now that its 307 spaces for unique models to display in the Pokedex," another Redditor posited. "Perhaps every new Pokemon has a gender difference."

Pokémon Winds and Waves' rumored weather-based forms

The idea of regional and weather-based forms stems from a leak Game Freak suffered in 2024. One part of Winds and Waves that leaked, but hasn't been officially confirmed yet, is a focus on weather and potential "seed" Pokémon. It's not a stretch to think that weather in Winds and Waves could affect how a new Pokémon evolves, like how a day-and-night cycle can affect an Eevee's evolution. When the first trailer for Pokémon Winds and Waves dropped, parts of that 2024 leak were proven true, like a description of the starter trio's appearances.

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If weather-based Pokémon forms are indeed a Winds and Waves gimmick, then you can see how the idea of 300 new Pokémon seems plausible if a large chunk of those new Pokémon are actually just multiple forms of existing and new Pokémon. Most generations top out at 150 brand-spanking-new Pokémon, so 300 would be quite something.

For now, we know very little about what new Pokémon will be Winds and Waves. You got your trio of cutie patootie starters, two new Pikachus, and... yep, that's it. Based on the announcement trailer, a few dozen returning Pokémon from previous games have been confirmed for Winds and Waves.

Pokémon Winds and Waves aren't out until 2027, so expect plenty more rumors and speculation to come throughout the year.