Goku vs Saitama: Who Would Actually Win?

It’s the most divisive debate in anime history. In one corner, we have Son Goku—the Saiyan warrior who has trained his entire life, broken through every limit, and achieved godhood multiple times over. In the other corner, Caped Baldy himself—Saitama, the hero who ended his training in three years and can defeat any opponent with a single punch.

Fans have argued about this matchup for over a decade, and the debate always reaches the same impasse: measurable power versus narrative purpose. Today, we’re going to actually analyze this properly, address every argument, and deliver a definitive verdict.

Goku: Powers and Abilities

Key Abilities

Ki Manipulation: Goku’s fundamental power source. He can fly, sense energy across dimensions, create barriers, and launch devastating energy attacks
Instant Transmission: Teleportation to any energy signature he can sense, across galaxies and even dimensions
Saiyan Transformations: Super Saiyan (50x base), Super Saiyan 2 (100x), Super Saiyan 3 (400x), Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan Blue, and beyond
Ultra Instinct: The ultimate technique that separates consciousness from movement, allowing Goku’s body to react and fight autonomously at incomprehensible speeds
Hakai (Destruction Energy): Learned from Beerus, capable of erasing matter from existence
Mastered Ultra Instinct: Goku’s current peak form, combining the defensive perfection of Ultra Instinct with his full offensive capabilities

Best Feats

Universe-shaking punches: In his first fight against Beerus as Super Saiyan God, their punches threatened to destroy Universe 7. Goku has grown exponentially stronger since then
Fighting beyond time: Battled Hit who could freeze time, and later transcended time entirely
Defeating Jiren: Overcame a warrior stated to be stronger than Gods of Destruction
Keeping pace with Granolah and Gas: Both wished to be the strongest in the universe, yet Goku competed with them
Surviving universal-level attacks: Has tanked hits from Beerus, Jiren, Broly, and Moro-Earth
Moving at immeasurable speed: Ultra Instinct allows reaction and movement faster than thought itself, with multiple characters unable to perceive his movements

Goku’s power scaling is explicit. He went from planet-level in the Saiyan Saga to universal-level as a Super Saiyan God, and has multiplied that power hundreds if not thousands of times over through subsequent transformations and training.

Saitama: Powers and Abilities

Key Abilities

Immeasurable Strength: Saitama’s defining trait—he has never encountered a physical challenge he couldn’t overcome with a single punch (when serious)
Infinite Growth: During his fight with Cosmic Garou, Saitama demonstrated the ability to grow stronger mid-battle at an exponential rate
Zero Punch: A technique where Saitama punches the future, negating attacks before they happen
Time Travel via Punching: Literally punched so hard he traveled backward through time
Complete Invulnerability: Has never taken meaningful damage from any attack in the series
Hypersonic Movement: Can jump from the Moon to Earth in seconds, run faster than sound casually

Best Feats

Destroying a meteor: Shattered a city-destroying meteor with minimal effort
Defeating Boros: Overcame a being who claimed to be a universal threat with his Serious Punch
Sneezing away Jupiter’s atmosphere: A sneeze from Saitama blew a hole through Jupiter
Cosmic Garou fight: Matched and exceeded someone who had obtained the knowledge of the universe and could copy any technique
Serious Punch Squared: When his punch collided with Garou’s copied version, it generated enough energy to threaten the solar system
Growing infinitely stronger: His graph against Garou showed unlimited exponential growth with no ceiling

Saitama’s feats are astronomical, but they exist within a different framework. His power isn’t measured numerically—it’s defined by narrative concept. He is written to be “always stronger than his opponent.”

Battle Analysis

Speed

Edge: Goku

Here’s where we need to be precise. Saitama is fast—incredibly fast. He casually moves at hypersonic speeds and crossed from the Moon to Earth in seconds. His combat speed against Cosmic Garou showed he could react to faster-than-light attacks.

However, Goku operates on an entirely different speed tier. Ultra Instinct isn’t just “being fast”—it’s the body moving independently of thought at speeds that transcend conventional measurement. Goku has blitzed characters who can freeze time. He can move so fast that characters with precognition can’t predict him.

Instant Transmission also gives Goku a massive advantage. He doesn’t need to travel through space—he simply appears where he wants to be instantaneously. This isn’t speed in the traditional sense; it’s teleportation.

In raw travel and combat speed, both are absurdly fast. But Goku’s Ultra Instinct autonomous movement and Instant Transmission give him definitive advantages that Saitama hasn’t demonstrated counters for.

Strength/Attack Power

Edge: Contested (with caveats)

This is where the debate gets philosophical.

Goku’s attack power is universal-level and scaling upward. Super Saiyan God Goku’s punches threatened Universe 7, and he’s exponentially stronger now. His Kamehameha could theoretically destroy multiple universes.

Saitama’s Serious Punch Squared nearly destroyed the solar system. That’s… significantly below universal. However, Saitama was explicitly shown to be growing stronger throughout that fight, with no ceiling on his growth.

If we’re taking feats at face value, Goku’s demonstrated output is higher. But Saitama’s narrative function is to always be strong enough. ONE, the creator, has stated that Saitama is designed to win every fight.

For the purposes of this analysis, we have to work with shown feats. And based on feats alone, Goku’s destructive capacity exceeds Saitama’s demonstrated maximum.

Durability

Edge: Saitama

Saitama has literally never been hurt. Not scratched, not bruised, not winded. He took a kick that sent him to the Moon and was mildly annoyed. He survived in space without any protection. He tanked the radiation of a dying star.

Goku is incredibly durable, capable of surviving planet-busting attacks and fighting for extended periods against god-level threats. But he can be hurt. He’s been wounded, knocked out, and nearly killed multiple times throughout the series.

In terms of pure “can you damage this character,” Saitama wins by default. We have no evidence that anything can hurt him.

Special Abilities/Hax

Edge: Goku

This is Goku’s decisive advantage.

Saitama’s abilities are almost entirely physical. Punch harder, move faster, be tougher. He doesn’t have techniques, special powers, or hax beyond his physical stats.

Goku, meanwhile, has a vast arsenal:

Instant Transmission: Can teleport out of any dangerous situation or appear behind Saitama at will
Ultra Instinct: His body reacts faster than Saitama can attack
Hakai: Destruction energy that erases targets from existence—this isn’t physical damage, it’s conceptual erasure
Ki Sensing: Can read Saitama’s energy and predict attacks
Energy Attacks: Can fire attacks from range, from any angle, in massive volleys

Saitama’s Zero Punch (punching the future) is impressive hax, but it requires him to know an attack is coming. Ultra Instinct operates faster than conscious thought, potentially negating this advantage.

The “Gag Character” Argument

Here’s where we address the elephant in the room.

Many fans argue that Saitama can’t lose because he’s a “gag character” or “parody character” whose entire point is that he wins every fight. This is true within the context of One Punch Man. Saitama is written to be unbeatable by design.

But here’s the thing: when comparing characters across different series, you can only use feats and abilities. Narrative functions don’t transfer. Otherwise, every joke character would beat everyone—Arale would beat Zeno, King from OPM would beat Saitama (because his “luck” always saves him), and Squirrel Girl would beat Thanos (wait, that happened in comics, bad example).

In a cross-series comparison, we have to use the characters as they’re presented in their respective works. Saitama’s feats, while incredible, don’t match Goku’s universal-level scaling. His abilities are purely physical, while Goku has dimensional techniques and existence-erasure abilities.

Now, if ONE wrote the crossover, Saitama would probably win. If Toriyama wrote it, Goku would probably win. In death battle analysis, we have to be neutral, and neutral analysis favors the character with more quantifiable, higher-scaling feats.

The Verdict: Who Wins?

Winner: Goku

Let me be clear: this isn’t a stomp. This is an extremely close fight that Goku wins based on measurable advantages.

Scenario 1: In-Character Fight

Winner: Goku

Both characters would start by testing each other. Saitama would throw normal punches, Goku would start in base form. They’d escalate together. Goku would recognize Saitama’s strength and go Super Saiyan, then Blue, then Ultra Instinct.

The fight would be incredible—probably the greatest fight either has ever had. But Goku’s Ultra Instinct would eventually give him the edge. His body would adapt to Saitama’s patterns faster than Saitama could escalate, and Instant Transmission would let him control the pace of battle.

The deciding factor would be Goku’s Hakai. Once he recognizes that physical attacks aren’t decisive, he’d shift to destruction energy—a conceptual attack that ignores durability. Saitama has no demonstrated resistance to existence erasure.

Scenario 2: Bloodlusted, No Holding Back

Winner: Goku (faster)

A bloodlusted Goku opens with Mastered Ultra Instinct and immediately uses Hakai. The fight potentially ends in the first exchange if Hakai works as it should—erasing Saitama from existence.

If Saitama can somehow resist Hakai (which is speculative but possible given his extreme nature), the fight becomes an endurance battle. Goku’s stamina in Ultra Instinct is limited. If Saitama can survive long enough, Goku drops out of the form.

However, Goku without Ultra Instinct is still universal-level in Blue. The fight continues until one of them falls, and given Saitama’s infinite growth potential, extended fights favor him.

But bloodlusted means the fight doesn’t go long. Goku ends it fast.

Scenario 3: If ONE’s Narrative Rules Apply

Winner: Saitama

If we accept that Saitama is literally unbeatable as a narrative concept, he wins by default. His power is “always enough.” This is the version most OPM fans subscribe to.

But this isn’t really a versus battle analysis—it’s accepting that one character has author-mandated plot armor. We don’t typically analyze fights that way.

Final Thoughts

This fight will never have a universally accepted answer because it’s fundamentally comparing two different types of characters: a rigorously scaled battle shonen protagonist versus a satirical deconstruction of that very concept.

If you believe in quantified power scaling, Goku wins. His feats are explicitly universal, his abilities counter Saitama’s physical-only approach, and he has techniques like Hakai that bypass durability entirely.

If you believe Saitama’s narrative purpose transcends his feats, he wins. He’s designed to win, and applying power scaling to him misses the point of his character.

Both interpretations are valid. But in a structured analysis using demonstrated feats and abilities, Goku has the edge. His speed, versatility, and hax-level techniques give him the tools to overcome even Saitama’s incredible power.

Maybe ONE and Toriyama will write a crossover someday and settle this. Until then, we’ll keep debating—and honestly, that’s part of the fun.