All Pokemon games in chronological order

The Pokemon timeline is much more confusing than many fans may initially expect. While the overarching lore of the narrative in the world typically takes a backseat to each title's gameplay, many recent titles have been daring enough to dive into a much deeper form of story-telling, with the titles developing a bit of an official unofficial timeline.

Most infamously, there is a tweet from Toshinobu Matsumiya, an official writer for the franchise since Pokemon Yellow, displaying a timeline for the main series before it was suddenly taken down. Using this timeline, as well as context clues from other games and understanding the multiverse of the franchise, we can pin down a comprehendible timeline.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinion.

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The Pokemon Timeline: All mainline games in chronological order

Complications with Scarlet and Violet

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are very complicated games to put in the timeline (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Scarlet and Violet threw massive wrenches in both the multiverse and the timeline for the franchise. Since these games' plots heavily involve time traveling and the history of the Paldea region, one could argue that the most recent games take place towards the beginning of the franchise. While this may be true for the overarching narrative of these games, the game itself most likely takes place towards the end of the timeline.

This hypothesis is supported by Unova's Nature Preserve, which was above ground in Black and White 2 since the player had to take a plane to get there. However, in Scarlet and Violet's Blueberry Academy DLC, this area is shown to be deep below water in the school's man-made terrarium.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus

While there is another technicality in the timeline split that puts X and Y's history before this game, the game itself takes place much later, making Legends the first main game in the timeline. This title created a Grandfather paradox by taking a person from around the same period as Diamond and Pearl and dropping them in the ancient Sinnoh region.

While it is first on the timeline, it is unclear where it stands in the multiverse, as it has two distinct splits, one with Mega Evolutions and one without them. Since Legends would take place before the discovery of Key Stones and the like, it is unclear what universe it takes place in.

The Kanto and Hoenn titles

The bundle of third and first-generation games comes next in the timeline (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Before it was deleted, the timeline posted on Twitter indicated that this set of games would take place next in the timeline. However, one thing to note is that FireRed and LeafGreen appear to rewrite the canon of the first games, with Red from these titles appearing in other games in the franchise, meaning these remakes replace their originals in the timeline. HeartGold and SoulSilver are in the same boat as well.

Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, and potentially Let's GO: Pikachu and Eevee appear to take place around the same point in the timeline, but in the alternate universe where Mega Evolutions were made after the King of Kalos fired his world-ending weapon. Zinnia confirms this in the Delta Episode for the Hoenn remakes.

The Johto and Sinnoh titles

The Johto and Sinnoh games are the next entries in the timeline (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The Sinnoh and Johto games and their respective remakes are the following entries in the list. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl surprised many fans as they are the only modern remakes in the original timeline rather than the alternate Mega Evolution timeline.

Also, whether these games are canon anymore after the story expansion from Platinum was not present in the remakes. This could make the originals and their remakes both non-canon in the timeline, with Platinum taking over the spot for the official Sinnoh timeline instead. HeartGold and Soulsilver are much cleaner cuts, thankfully. These titles replaced their originals, and Crystal was the official Johto timeline spot representative.

The Unova and Kalos games

The first set of Unova games takes place two years before the second set and X and Y (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The Unova games are definitively two years apart from each other. The first Black and White games took place two years before the events of Black and White 2; this is stated several times throughout the second game's story. What is lesser-known is that the second games take place at the same time as X and Y.

Since X and Y were the first games to acknowledge a second timeline, it would be safe to assume that since Megas are not in Black and White 2, they take place simultaneously but in different timelines. Perhaps these upcoming Gen 5 remakes could show us the events of these beloved titles from the perspective of the Mega timeline.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

While each of the Alola games is somewhat canon, the Ultra games are seen as the definitive canons for the Alola slot on the timeline (Image via The Pokemon Company)

This is where the timeline starts to get bizarre, thanks to the multiple dimensions across which this set of games takes place. Since the game has the most definitive version of the story and follows the flow of time normally like every other generation, it would be much easier to consider Ultra Sun to be the title looked at as "most canon."

Additionally, the female player character from these sets of games is eluded to being the sister of Dawn, the player character from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, in the manga, but it is unclear if this is kept consistent for the games. It would make sense, considering both games open with the player moving to Alola from another region. Since Meowth can be found in the Sinnoh region, this may be where the player's family originates, unlike Kanto, as many would suspect.

Sword and Shield

Ever since Game Freak has transitioned into making games for consoles rather than handhelds, the narratives in the games have been less complicated. These games take place on the first non-Mega timeline and sometime before the gameplay of Scarlet and Violet.

While these games did not do anything spectacular with the universe story-telling like the generation prior, things did get a bit more complicated with the Crown Tundra revealing that Calyrex is one of the oldest Pokemon ever known, and it saved groups of pre-historic creatures from mass extinction.

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Edited by Ashmita Bhatt