No official source publishes a total number of Warrior Cats. Here are the counts that are confirmed: 9 book cats in the game, 4 Clans, 9 arcs and 52 novels.
How Many Cats Are There in Warrior Cats?
How many cats are there in Warrior Cats is a question with no official answer. Neither the publisher nor the franchise site has ever published a total headcount, and the new game does not ship with a roster number either. What can be counted is a set of smaller, confirmed figures: nine book cats in Clans of the Forest, four Clans, nine book arcs and 52 novels.
- No total exists: Trailmark Games and the franchise site publish no overall character count
- In the game: 9 cats from the books, 4 of them named, plus the cat you create yourself
- In the books: 9 arcs, 52 main novels, 19 Super Editions as of October 2026
- Per Clan: ranks are documented, headcounts are not - no Clan size has ever been published
Official source: the Steam store page lists nine book-series cats as a feature, and the publisher's game page describes the four-Clan campaign structure. Neither page gives a total number of cats in the franchise.
Does any official source publish a total?
No. This is the part most listicles skip. The franchise site keeps a books index and an article archive, not a character database, and the article under its characters heading is a world-building essay by Vicky Holmes called "How the Clans began" rather than a roster. It explains how the Clans were invented and how names are built, and it never states how many cats exist.
The naming system was one of the first things settled: cats carry composite names that change with their stage of life, which is exactly why a straight headcount is harder than it looks. warriorcats.com
The game is the same story. Its store page advertises the number of book cats that appear, which is a roster of visitors from the novels, not a count of every cat in the setting. The four campaigns add named Clan cats of their own, and the player character adds one more, but nobody at Trailmark has published a total.
How many cats are in Clans of the Forest?
Nine cats from the book series appear in the game, and your own created warrior sits alongside them. Four of the nine have been named by official sources: Brightheart, Tawnypelt, Tallstar and Ivypool. The other five have never been identified in publisher material.
| What is counted | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Book-series cats in the game | 9 | Steam feature list |
| Named book cats | 4 | Franchise site announcement art |
| Player-created cats | 1 per save | Character creator |
| Clans you can join | 4 | Publisher game page |
| Full campaigns | 4 | Publisher game page |
The nine is a firm figure because it is printed on the store page as a selling point. Everything behind it is soft: which Clan each cat belongs to, which campaign they appear in and how large their role is have not been published. That gap is covered in more detail on the characters and book cats page, which tracks the four confirmed names.
Your own cat is the one number that changes per save file. The creator lets you build and name a warrior before the campaign starts, so a single playthrough contains ten book-and-player cats at minimum, and four playthroughs - one per Clan - contain four different player cats.
How many cats live in one Clan?
No Clan size has ever been published, in the books or in the game. What is documented is the rank structure that fills a Clan, and that structure is fixed: a leader, a deputy, a medicine cat and their apprentice, warriors, apprentices, queens with kits, and elders.
That list tells you the shape of a Clan without telling you its size, and the books vary deliberately. A Clan recovering from a bad season reads thin; a Clan preparing for battle reads crowded. The game follows the same logic, with the four Clans - ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan and WindClan - drawn from the same structure. The Clan ranks and roles guide breaks down what each rank does, and the four Clans page covers their territories.
If you need a working number for a fan project, the honest approach is to count on-screen cats in a specific scene rather than claim a canonical total, because no such total exists to cite.
How many cats are in the books?
The books are the only place where a large, countable cast exists, and even there the publisher counts installments rather than cats. As of October 2026 the series runs to nine arcs, 52 main novels and 19 Super Editions, with the newest arc, Changing Skies, four books in.
| Unit | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arcs | 9 | From The Prophecies Begin to Changing Skies |
| Main novels | 52 | Six books per completed arc, four so far in Changing Skies |
| Super Editions | 19 | Standalone novels centred on one cat |
| Field guides | Several | Reference books, not narrative installments |
Every arc has a featured cast, and those casts overlap heavily - Firestar, Graystripe, Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight recur across multiple arcs while new POV cats are added. That overlap is the second reason a total is elusive: counting appearances and counting distinct cats give very different answers. The books in order guide lists every arc and novel with the featured cats the publisher names for each one.
Why the number keeps changing
Three things make any count unstable. Names change at each life stage, so the same cat appears under two or three different names across a series. Cats die and join StarClan, which removes them from a living count but not from a reader's memory of the cast. And each new arc adds a generation while retiring another.
The naming rule is the one with an official explanation. The franchise site's own history of the Clans describes the suffix system as a design decision made at the very beginning, with names shifting by stage of life. A single character can therefore be counted three times by a careless search, once as a kit, once as an apprentice and once as a warrior or leader.
For website purposes, the practical rule is to publish only counts that come with a source attached - nine book cats from the Steam page, 52 novels from the books index - and to write "not published" everywhere else. That is less satisfying than a big number, but it is the only version that survives a fact check.
Counting rule for fan projects: count cats per scene, not per franchise. A Clan gathering, a patrol or a battle has a countable cast you can verify on the page, while the setting as a whole does not.
What about the films and other adaptations?
No animated adaptation has been released, and no cast list exists to compare against the books. The game is the only interactive adaptation, and it is deliberately narrow: four campaigns, nine visiting book cats, one player cat. Anyone quoting a larger in-game roster is usually quoting the book cast rather than the game's.
The safest framing for the game is the one the publisher uses, which is a set of four Clan stories with a fixed group of book characters appearing inside them. The game overview covers the rest of the package, including how the campaigns differ.
FAQ
How many Warrior Cats books are there?
Nine arcs, 52 main novels and 19 Super Editions as of October 2026, plus several field guides. The count of novels is published on the franchise site's books index.
How many cats appear in Clans of the Forest?
Nine from the book series, four of them named, plus the warrior you create. The nine comes from the Steam feature list; the four names come from the franchise site's announcement art.
How many cats are in ThunderClan?
Unpublished. No Clan size has ever been stated for ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan or WindClan, in the books or in the game.
Does the game include every cat from the books?
No. Nine book cats appear, which is a small fraction of the cast across 52 novels. The store page presents them as featured characters rather than as a complete roster.
Related Guides
- Clans of the Forest characters and book cats - the four confirmed names and what is still unknown
- The four Clans and their territories - the structure the nine visiting cats move through
- Warrior Cats books in order - every arc and novel, which is where the cast actually lives
- Clan ranks and roles - how a Clan is organised when no size is published
More Warrior Cats: Clans of the Forest Guides
There are no cat breeds or classes in Warrior Cats. The types that matter are Clan, rank and stance, and here is how each one changes the game.
An A–Z of the Warrior Cats characters who matter across the arcs, with Clan, role and first appearance, plus the game's confirmed roster.
The common Warrior Cats: Clans of the Forest mistakes: ignoring Stances, hoarding StarClan moves, skipping herbs and expecting an action RPG.
Clan choice decides which campaign you play in Clans of the Forest. What each of the four Clans offers, why there is no stat tier list, and who each suits.
There is no published list of Clans of the Forest endings. What the four campaigns conclude, why procedural generation changes the answer, and how to see each.
A practical Warrior Cats Clans of the Forest walkthrough: campaign order, early quests, combat, den crafting, ranks and the three modes.
Every paid add-on for Warrior Cats: Clans of the Forest so far: the $14.99 Prophecy Pack, the pre-order Purrfect Look Pack, and what each one actually contains.
Firestar began as Rusty the kittypet, became Firepaw, Fireheart and then ThunderClan's leader. His full arc, family and game status, explained.