Summary
PIrate crewscome in all different shapes and sizes. Sometimes, a crew consists of no more than three or four pirates at a time. Other times, crews are so large that they require numerous ships to accommodate them. While some crews have an indeterminate number of actual members, others are quantified by rough estimates, which give the audience an idea of the overall size of the pirate crew. These metrics confirm that various pirate crews have thousands of members.
One Pieceemphasizes that quality is superior to quantity, but some of thesemassive pirate crewsare also among the most powerful in the series. Going strictly by confirmed size, these arethe largest pirate crews in theOne Pieceseries.
For simplicity’s sake, multi-crew alliances like Straw Hat Grand Fleet will be left out.
7Whitebeard Pirates (Primary Crew)
1,617 Members
TheWhitebeard Pirateswere one of the largest crews in the series, with their captain achieving the distinction of Yonko, a pirate considered one of the four most threatening to the World Government. This is partially due to their sporting 43 subordinate crews. Yet even focusing on the core crew, the Whitebeard Pirates are still fairly big, withOne Piece Yellow: Grand Elementsidentifying the main crew as having a grand total of1,617 men.
To accommodate their massive size, sixteen of Whitebeard’s most trusted men becameDivision Commanders. These pirates were essentially sub-captains, each commanding a portion of Whitebeard’s crew, each featuring around 100 members. It is said that each division has separate responsibilities. For example, the 3rd Division, led by Jozu, is classified as the “Combat Division” inVivre Card - One Piece Visual Dictionary. It is unclear how many ships the main crew had at its disposal, as the exact number of ships a division entails is never made clear. The Whitebeard Pirates' flagship was the Moby Dick, which was destroyed in the Summit War, one of the crew’s final battles as a collective.
6Donquixote Pirates
Around 2,000 Members
The now-defunctDonquixote Pirateshad a fairly small primary crew, which was supplemented byapproximately 2,000 subordinateswithin Dressrosa, the kingdom they occupied for many years. While the vast majority of crew members are treated poorly, those with the rank of Officer and higher generally share a solid rapport with Doflamingo. The Donquixote Pirates had several factions of Officers, each led by an eponymous Elite Officer.
The Pica army, also consisting of Gladius, Buffalo, and Baby 5, was geared towards commando missions. The Diamante Army, also including Lao G, Senor Pink, Machvise, and Dellinger, consists of reigning champions in the Corrida Colosseum said to have a 100% victory rate. The Trebol army included Sugar, Giolla, and Violet, the latter of whom defected. This specific group consisted of special power users, most of whom were less suited to direct combat. Sugar was an essential member, with her Devil Fruit, the Hobi Hobi no Mi, allowing her to turn everyone into toys and keep them as obedient slaves to Doflamingo. Trebol was to guard her at all times. Usopp’s attack on her helped turn the tables on the Donquixote Pirates.
Officers unaligned with an army were also present. Vergo was formerly an Elite Officer, operating under the codename “Corazon,” who served as Doflamingo’s inside man, infiltrating the Marines and rising to the rank of Vice Admiral. Monet, another Officer, was Sugar’s elder sister, and monitored Caesar Clown on Doflamingo’s behalf. Doflamingo attempted unsuccessfully to replace Vergo’s role as Corazon after he became a Marine. He first tried to groom his younger brother, Rosinante, for the role. Ironically, Rosinante was a marine who infiltrated the organization, and ended up being caught by Vergo. Donquixote also offered the position to Trafalgar D. Water Law, but he grew disillusioned with the rest of the crew and struck out on his own. Bellamy, a longtime fan of Doflamingo, attempted to become an Officer, even leaving behind his own crew for the opportunity. However, he was regarded as a weakling and a failure, and was ultimately dismissed for incompetence.
5Baroque Works
Over 2,000 Members
Crocodile led this crime syndicate for the purpose of taking over Alabasta. To make the transition smoother, he presented himself as a loyal protector of the country while keeping his shady dealings behind the scenes. Chapter 107 (corresponding with Episode 64) identifiesBaroque Worksas havingover 2,000 membersat its height. In an effort to mitigate the discovery of their operations, policies were put in place to enforce secrecy. This included codenames and limited interactions between members, with Crocodile himself being represented almost exclusively by his liaison, Nico Robin (Miss All-Sunday), in dealings with subordinates.
Aside from Crocodile and Robin, the highest-ranked members of Baroque Works were the agents. Nine subordinates made up the higher-rankedOfficer Agents. Baroque Works appears to operate as a meritocracy, with each agent assigned according to their ability, and the lower-numbered male agents corresponding to greater power in Crocodile’s vision for Alabasta. Almost all of them had Devil Fruit powers. They were largely separated into male-female teams, with an emphasis on complementary abilities. For example, Gem (Mr. 5), who could create explosions, was partnered with Mikita (Miss Valentine), who could manipulate her weight to be propelled by them. There is evidence that this is more or less how all the group’s members work, as even lower-ranked members are shown with partners. The sole known exception to this dynamic was Mr. 2 Bon Clay, who, representing both genders, acted as his own female partner.
Additionally, twelve lower-ranked agents, known as Frontier Agents, were also involved in the operation. Only a handful of them were seen, with two of them (Miss Wednesday (Nefertari Vivi) and Mr. 8 (Igaram)) being double agents on behalf of Alabasta, and their partners (Mr. 9 and Miss Monday) defecting to protect them. Beyond the Officer Agents and Frontier Agents, corresponding subordinates were also part of the crew and made up the bulk of its numbers. Two hundred subordinates, known as the Billions, acted under the Officer Agents, while 1,800 subordinates, known as the Millions, were underlings of the Frontier Agents.
4Yonta Maria Grand Fleet
4,300 Members
TheYonta Maria Grand Fleetwas affiliated with the Standing Kingdom. It was seemingly focused on expeditions, as its captain, Orlumbus, was described as an “adventurer” for the kingdom. Additionally, a lot of the fleet’s nomenclature and imagery are inspired by those of the infamous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. They are listed as having4,300 membersin Chapter 799 (corresponding with Episode 744).
Orlumbus was among those competing in Corrida Colosseum for the Mera Mera no Mi, before losing and being transformed into a toy-like slave by Sugar. After reverting to a human form, he eventually joined the Straw Hat Pirates in their fight against the Donquixote Pirates. He was one of seven captains offering to put their forces under Luffy’s command. This evolved into the alliance known as the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. Orlumbus subsequently resigned from the Standing Kingdom, taking the entire fleet with him.
The Yonta Maria Grand Fleet makes up the majority of theStraw Hat Grand Fleet, consisting of over 76% of the pirates and 80% of the ships affiliated with it. Ironically, there has only been one other named member of the Yonta Maria Grand Fleet, a girl by the name of Columbus, who appears to be a trusted subordinate. The fleet’s 55 ships, however, have all been identified. The flagship is the eponymous Yonta Maria, a massive ship which Orlumbus commands directly. There is also a fleet of five ships known as the Santa Maria, which are smaller than the flagship. Then there are 49 vessels known as the Nita Maria, which are even smaller than the Santa Maria. There was a 50th Nita Maria vessel, but it was donated to the Ideo Pirates, a four-man crew within the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, who had only recently become pirates.
3Krieg Pirates
5,000 Members
TheKrieg Pirateswere arguably the first identified “pirate fleet” in the series, although they were initially referred to as an “armada” at the time. However, the remainder of the ships that constituted a “fleet” were wiped out before their debut. At their height, the Krieg Pirates consisted of 50 ships, each with around 100 members, making the entire crew total around5,000 members. However, 49 of these ships were wiped out by a boredDracule Mihawk, who later chased the flagship, Dreadnaught Sabre, all the way back into the East Blue.
Despite having significantly more members at its peak than any other crew listed here, the Krieg Pirates are probably the weakest of the bunch. This is due to Krieg’s approach, which focused more on recruiting as many pirates as possible for a “sheer strength in numbers” tactic. For their appearance in the story proper, the crew was whittled down to 100 members, most of whom were not particularly stellar pirates. Ultimately, their massive size serves as a lesson that the individual ability of each pirate is far more important than how many of them there are.
2Beasts Pirates
About 20,000 Members
TheBeasts Pirateswere, as far as pirate crews with identified metrics go, fairly large. They are said to haveroughly 20,000 membersin Chapter 955 (and the corresponding Episode 956). Like other large crews, the organization accommodates their numbers with a tiered system, which includes both administrative ranks based on ability and subdivisions for lower-ranked members. Directly below Kaido are the All-Stars: Arber “King,” Scien “Queen,” and “Jack.” The second tier officers are the Tobiroppo, consisting of Page One, Ulti, Black Maria, Who’s-Who, Sasaki, and X Drake. Page One and Ulti have recently been seen accompanying Yamato, Kaido’s son, who defected from the crew, leaving their status within the Beasts Pirates unclear. More clear, however, is the defection of X Drake, who only joined the crew as a spy for SWORD.
The lower-ranked officers, known as Shinuchi, are far more common, with 20 of them identified thus far. They are also the highest rank to make use of SMILEs, artificial Zoan Devil Fruits manufactured by Caesar Clown and Donquixote Doflamingo, which Kaido wished to use for an all-Zoan pirate crew, a hope dashed by both a 10% success rate and the production of them ceasing. Common grunt ranks are the Gifters, the Pleasures, and the Waiters. Gifters are the 10% of grunts (roughly 500) who are considered both worthy of eating a SMILE and lucky enough to be “gifted” with the intended effect of animal powers. Pleasures are the 90% of grunts (possibly around 4,500) deemed worthy of SMILEs but unfortunately cursed with losing all ability to express negative emotion, which was the basis behind the SMILE’s name. Waiters are the remaining grunts, who have not eaten a SMILE.
Other divisions of note within the crew include the Numbers, ten failed test subjects meant to recreate the Ancients, and the Marys, a surveillance force composed of humans and cyborg animals with special masks that enable them to transmit information to one another and identify hidden trespassers. There were also members of the crew who did not fit neatly into any of the aforementioned categories, such as Scratchmen Apoo, who had the special rank of “informant,” and the Orochi Oniwabanshu, who largely defected to Kaido after he betrayed their previous master, Kurozumi Orochi.
The flagship of the Beasts Pirates remains unseen, but it appears members of the three officer ranks have ships of their own, yet only some of these have appeared in the series. There are also more generic ships, such as those seen within Wano, as well as the fleet of ships with scorpion figureheads that accompanied Jack’s ship, Mammoth, to Zou. The limited exposure of the Beasts Pirates' ships is likely tied to their being only found in Wano, which was their home turf.
1New Fish-Man Pirates
Over 100,000 Members
A spiritual successor to the Arlong Pirates, theNew Fish-Man Pirateswere founded by Hody Jones, a great white shark Fish-Man who Arlong radicalized into hating humans. Despite having little experience with humans before taking on Arlong’s prejudice as his own, Hody believed in the cause strongly enough to conduct a false flag operation. Hody murdered Otohime, the beloved mermaid queen of Ryugu Kingdom, who favored peace between humans and underwater inhabitants, and pinned the blame on a human.
Much like how Arlong overlooked his prejudice to force Nami into his crew, Hody was not beneath using humans to further his goals. He captured tens of thousands for slave labor. Beyond his five officers, Hody also commanded numerous Fish-Men and Mermen as part of his undersea forces. The crew also included a handful of sea beasts and enacted an alliance with the Flying Pirates, led by Vander Decken IX. Chapter 632 (corresponding with Episode 542) identifies the crew as havingover 100,000 members,with 70,000 Fish-Men and 30,000 human slaves. However, the crew itself was not particularly strong. Luffy knocked out most of the Fish-Men with a blast of Conqueror’s Haki. Even the top officers resorted to energy steroids in an effort to maintain their physical strength, but this came with the nasty side effect of rapidly aging them out of combat.
