About

1 Billion Lions vs. 1 of Every Pokémon, also known as 1 Billion Lions vs. All the Pokémon, is an internet argument about which side would win a hypothetical fight between 1 billion lions and one of each Pokémon from all generations, including legendaries. Those who support the Pokémon point to Pokédex entries (such as Marcargo, who is said to have a body temperature greater than that of the sun) as well as the lore power of Legendary Pokémon (such as Arceus or Kyogre). Those who support the lions have much simpler answers, citing the fact that "1 billion is a lot" as well as possible humorous tactics lions could take, the most notable being "lion ladders."

Origin

The earliest known mention of the argument on the Internet was a vlog from October 2011.

The argument would be mentioned two years later in a 4chan post from 2013 (shown below).

However, the first mention of the question to gain major traction was a tweet by Twitter user @MaxKetchum_, posted on November 3rd, 2015.^[1] Any connection between the 4chan post and the tweet is unknown. The poll in the tweets gained 2,922 votes, with the Pokémon winning with 80.5% of the vote. He also posted the question on the hypothetical battle subreddit r/whowouldwin two days later. This post gained 102 comments and 124 points.

Precursor

Battle hypotheticals involving lions existed most notably in the 1 trillion lions vs. the sun scenario. It similarly used joking arguments in favor of the lions, such as "What if they went at night?"

Spread

On November 4th, 2015, Jason Zimmerman, also known as Mew2King, posted the question on his own Twitter account.^[2] The debate continued to gain traction, as other Twitter users began answering the questions in their own, separate tweets. Twitter users continued to argue the questions on their own tweets. On November 19th, 2015, YouTuber Arson Bjork released a video titled "7 Reasons Why All 721 Pokemon Will Lose to 1 Billion Lions." It eventually gained 1 million views and would be linked in the replies of the tweets during the debate (shown below).

As the arguments developed, the characteristics of each side became more fleshed out. Those supporting the Pokémon (also known as "lion deniers") typically referred to the powers of legendary Pokémon, like Arceus and Mewtwo. Those who supported the lions typically used more comical responses involving comedic strategies lions could use. For example, when countering arguments about some Pokémon being able to live in space, a lion supporter would respond with "they could hold their breath." The commonly cited "lion ladders" or other derivates, like "lion rafts" began developing in the reply sections of the tweets (example shown below).

Lion supporters also joked about the Pokémon side being too serious about their arguments or having too complex of an argument in a similar manner to Godzilla vs. Kong debates. The debate continued to be referenced occasionally after the peak of the meme, but the topic remained largely dormant over the next five years.

Late 2020 Revival

The meme then experienced a revival beginning in late 2020. This was a gradual revival with a few infrequent posts each month generating more and more traction. On September 19th, 2020, YouTuber MBM Productions uploaded an objection.lol video titled "one of every pokemon vs one billion lions". This gained 400,000 views over the course of 8 months (shown below).

Renewed interest was slowly built up, with subsequent tweets involving the lions gaining more likes. Eventually, on April 17th, 2021, user @icekiller305^[3] posted a tweet on the side of the Pokémon that gained 36.3K likes. This triggered an influx of posts regarding the debate, restarting it (shown below).

Search Interest

External References