Pokémon ROM Hacks by the Numbers: 22% of Drive Links Are Dead
Pokepatched catalogs 1,363 Pokémon ROM hacks. We counted what is in it, and then checked whether the download links still work. This is what the catalog shows, with the method and the limits spelled out at the end.
The short version: about four in five hacks are GBA games, just over half are marked completed, and roughly 6% of the download links we could check are dead. On Google Drive that rises to 22.5%.
Which console do hacks target?
| Platform | Hacks | Share |
|---|---|---|
| GBA | 1,070 | 78.5% |
| RPG Maker XP fan games | 108 | 7.9% |
| Nintendo DS | 98 | 7.2% |
| Game Boy Color | 86 | 6.3% |
| Unity | 1 | 0.1% |
The GBA dominates because FireRed, Emerald and Ruby are the most editable Pokémon games. Browse them in the GBA hacks hub or the Emerald hacks category. Of the hacks tagged with a base game, FireRed has 155 and Emerald has 131. Ruby has 11. That tagging is partial, so read it as a ranking, not an exact count.
How many are finished?
716 hacks, or 52.5%, are marked completed. The other 647 are betas, demos, in-progress builds or unlabelled. If you want a game that has an ending, start with our list of the best completed Pokémon ROM hacks.
What do hacks advertise?
We counted how many hack descriptions, feature lists or tags mention each feature. This counts mentions, not verified features, so treat it as a rough guide.
| Mentions | Hacks | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mega Evolution | 245 | 18.0% |
| Difficulty or hard mode | 228 | 16.7% |
| All or national dex Pokémon | 184 | 13.5% |
| Fakemon (new original Pokémon) | 95 | 7.0% |
| Nuzlocke | 46 | 3.4% |
Mega Evolution is the single most advertised feature. If you want a harder game, see the hardest Pokémon ROM hacks.
Where do the downloads live?
Our catalog holds 2,969 download links. Most of them sit on one host.
| Host | Links | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mediafire | 1,915 | 64.5% |
| Mega | 824 | 27.8% |
| Google Drive | 223 | 7.5% |
| Dropbox | 7 | 0.2% |
How many links are dead?
On 11 October 2026 we requested every Mediafire, Google Drive and Dropbox link and recorded the result. We could not check Mega links, because Mega’s API would not give a reliable answer, so they are left out.
| Host | Checked | Dead | Dead share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mediafire | 1,907 | 74 | 3.9% |
| Google Drive | 222 | 50 | 22.5% |
| Dropbox | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| All three | 2,136 | 124 | 5.8% |
24 hacks had no working link on any host we could check. Nearly all of them (22 of 24) had only one link to begin with. We now hide dead links on the hack pages, and where nothing is left we point you to the creator’s own release thread instead.
The takeaway is that file hosts do not last, and a hack with a single mirror is one deleted account away from vanishing. If you are a creator, publish on more than one host. If you are a player and you find a hack you like, keep a copy of the patch.
How we counted
- Source: Pokepatched’s own catalog of 1,363 hacks. It is a large sample, but not every Pokémon ROM hack ever made.
- Feature counts: keyword mentions in titles, descriptions, feature lists and tags. A hack that does something but never says so is not counted.
- Base game: taken from category tags, which are incomplete.
- Link check: an automated request to each link, 11 October 2026. A link was counted dead only when the host returned a removed-file or not-found page. Links that were blocked or unclear were not counted as dead. Mega links were not checked.
- What we did not use: release dates. The dates in our data come from when each hack was added to the source listing, not from when it was made, so we have not drawn any year-by-year trends.
Use this data
You are welcome to quote any figure here with a link back to this page. If you want a count cut a different way, such as by platform or by completion status, get in touch through the contact page.