Pokemon world record for the most shinies caught in 24 hours by a group has been smashed, as 92 hunters almost triple a previous record to capture 1,708 sparkly finds

A shiny, red Gyarados seen in the Pokemon anime.
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

A group of Pokemon content creators have smashed a world record to catch the most shiny Pokemon as a team in 24 hours, with an enormous collective hunt ending in 1,708 sparkly finds. 

Shiny Pokemon are, without a doubt, the most highly sought-after finds in pretty much every Pokemon game. To find one of these sparkly, alternate color-palette version Pokemon, you might be looking at odds as low as 1/8,192, but that's what makes them such a thrill to find. Needless to say, the idea of topping a world record set in 2022, which saw 588 of the rarities caught in 24 hours by a group of players, was always going to be a tall order. However, YouTube creator PM7 – real name John – was up for the challenge, and assembled his own dream team of 92 fellow shiny hunters (including himself) to take on the task over the weekend. 

The rules were simple – participants had to not just find but catch as many shinies as they could within the 24-hour limit. That means that not only did everyone have to overcome the odds to actually find the rare variations in the first place, but their efforts would be for nothing if they accidentally knocked their targets out, ran away from them, or lost them in any other upsetting way. 

It's also worth noting that the hunters could use different methods to boost their shiny odds – PM7 was searching for his targets in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, where he made use of the special 'shiny sandwich' recipes to increase his chances of finding them. These sandwiches can be stacked with the Shiny Charm item and the Mass Outbreak method (which involves knocking out or catching 60 Pokemon in a Mass Outbreak) for odds as high as 1/512.44 – a far sight better than the base 1/8,192 odds you'd be faced with in the older games.

All in all, to say that the group smashed the previous record would be an understatement. Collectively, the group almost tripled the old number, having found an average of 18.6 shinies each. Obviously, you can't find 0.6 of a shiny, so the number of finds did vary from person to person – PM7 himself finished the event with 55 of them according to the event's shiny Pokemon log

It's an enormous feat, and there's no doubt that it'd be a monstrous task to try and beat the record again unless even more hunters were brought on board. For the time being, though, we're probably not going to see this number change again any time soon – GG to everyone who made it happen.

Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow are full of invisible, ultra-rare shinies, and this RPG mod will make sure you never miss one again.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of 12DOVE's news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.