Main picks of top 100 Pokémon UNITE players | March 29 meta update

While Duraludon released in the strongest position of any Pokémon in the history of any Pokémon UNITE meta, developers quickly reacted by providing a nerf in patch 1.4.1.10. But after such large swings in meta last week over patch 1.4.1.7, is there a significant settling of the meta among the top 100 players?

S Tier:

• Duraludon – 22.5 (-1)

A Tier:

• Lucario – 14 (-1)
• Hoopa – 10.5 (+1)

B Tier:

• Wigglytuff – 7.5 (+2)
• Slowbro – 6 (-1.5)
• Talonflame – 6 (+2)
• Ninetails – 6 (+3.5)

C Tier:

• Greedent – 5 (-1.5)
• Pikachu – 3.5 (+0.5)
• Blastoise – 3.5 (+3.5)
• Blissey – 3 (+/-)
• Decidueye – 3 (+0.5)

D Tier:

• Machamp – 2 (-1)
• Absol – 2 (+/-)
• Venusaur – 1.5 (-1)
• Cramorant – 1.5 (+1.5)
• Mr. Mime – 1 (-0.5)
• Tsareena – 1 (-0.5)

Cinderace (-1), Eldegoss, Dragonite (-2), Snorlax (-1), Crustle (-1), Greninja, Gardevoir, Garchomp, Mamoswine, Sylveon (-0.5), Zeraora (-1), Gengar, Aegislash, Charizard, and Trevenant all saw negligible play among the top 100 players.

Below are the monthly averages of the 10 most used Pokémon:

A quickly stagnating meta

Patch 1.4.1.7 saw the second largest net change in Pokémon usage among the top 100 players, with 35 of them changing their main Pokémon for that week. The average number of players to swap Pokémon from week-to-week is 21 and the average for the week of a patch is 29.

The variation in change between Pokémon, measured in the standard deviation, was the sixth largest in the game. The patch saw wide swings in play, mostly centered on the new powerhouse Duraludon.

Patch 1.4.1.7 has had some time to settle down and face a handful of tweaks now, as we have already moved onto 1.4.1.10. While most of the patches addressed bug fixes, there has also been a pretty sizable reduction in Duraludon’s attack stat and range. Aspects of Duraludon’s kit deal damage based on the opponents HP instead of Duraludon’s attack stat, though, so this likely won’t be a full shut-down of the giant soap dispenser.

The second week of the latest large update has been underwhelming. While the initial week of the patch saw some of the largest swings in the meta, this week has been not produced the same results. 14 players changed Pokémon this week, much less than the average of 21 (or even the much lower second-patch-week-update average of 17). The variation in the sizes of the changes is also very small, indicating that the movement between the Pokémon that are seeing changing numbers is insignificant.

New trends

While changes overall were small, it should be noted that Ninetails is continuing to gain traction against Pikachu and Venusaur. Wigglytuff is also continuing its rebound, supplanting Slowbro for the first time in a while as the most used defender in the game.

Blastoise is also on an upward trend thanks to a large increase in damage from Rapid Spin. Snorlax has gone unused for the first time ever, leaving Lucario as the only Pokémon to see play in every update since its introduction among the original roster.

Methodology: This data is collected using both the rankings tab in Pokémon UNITE and the Pokémon UNITE API. A Pokémon is considered a “main” of a player if is it the most played Pokémon in their most recent 15 ranked matches. In the event of a tie or near tie the data will reflect that. If more than two Pokémon are tied, the 25 most recent matches will be considered instead.