History Main / QualityOverQuantity

-->--'''Warlord Okeer,''' ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect2]]''

** Dona DOES eventually make it to Zanarkand, but Yuna and Co have already killed Yunalesca by the time she gets there. Add to the fact the party got waylaid a number of times, even if you take into account that Dona was waylaid in Home as well, it just shows how much faster Yuna and Co were able to get the job done.

* Invoked in universe by Donna in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. She berates Yuna for choosing a large number of Guardians (AKA the rest of the cast) over one quality one. She even says "Quantity over Quality, what were you thinking?" (She herself only has her Lover Bartello). And in the end it's averted because Yuna ends not only Beating Donna to Zanarkand, she end up saving the world for good. Donna even referred to Yuna's father High Summoner Braska, pointing out that he succeeded with only two Guardians. She's undercut when Bartello realizes that one of Yuna's Guardians is Auron, one of Braska's former Guardians. Yuna has quantity ''and'' quality on her side.

* Invoked in universe by Donna in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. She berates Yuna for choosing a large number of Guardians (AKA the rest of the cast) over one quality one. She even says "Quantity over Quality, what were you thinking?" (She herself only has her Lover Bartello). And in the end it's averted because Yuna ends not only Beating Donna to Zanarkand, she end up saving the world for good.

** The ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series in general is about a small team of people cranking out games on a per-minute rate. Each game is about 4 to 8 seconds long, and hundreds of them pour out at a time. Wario has seen much success with this model, both in the stories for the games and in real life sales of the video games in this series. (So basically, this game is an aversion where quantity wins out.)

* The good guys in ''Franchise/StarWars'' tend to subscribe to this philosophy: a highly trained and well-equipped clone army in the prequels, and better-armed and -defended fighters in the original trilogy and EU. The bad guys, meanwhile? Stick millions of Stormtroopers in a HighlyConspicuousUniform and set the passing score to 5% at the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

** The Manticoran Alliance faces a similar problem when war breaks out with the Solarian League. The Solarians have more superdreadnoughts than Manticore have cruisers, but their technology and doctrine are several centuries out of date because [[PaperTiger no one has dared fight them]] until now and [[WeHaveGrownComplacent they grew overly confident in their presumed superiority]]. The primary concern held by the Manticorans is that they may run out of ammo [[WeHaveReserves before the Solarians run out of ships]].

* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': In the war between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League the Solarians have more superdreadnoughts than Manticore has cruisers, but their technology is several centuries out of date because no one has dared fight them until now while the Empire has been dealing with pirates and [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Haven]] for a long time so they've got a healthy R&D program. Manticore's tacticians are more concerned about running out of ammo than ships.

ZergRush is a specific inversion of this trope.

* This trope was Nintendo's whole argument during their dominance [[EightBitEra in the 80s]] [[SixteenBitEra and early 90s]] before they changed their policies after being accused of monopolistic practices with their licensing agreements. The original agreement was that licensees could only make up to five games a year; the reasoning behind the decision was that it was better for the developers to focus on creating a few smash hits than to flood the market by churning out mediocre games, as was the case with Atari before the crash.

* Subverted in World War 2, when superior number of M4 Shermans and T-34s overrun individually superior Tiger and Panther tanks. Played straight in modern warfare though, where technologically superior M1 Abrams steamrolled greater numbers of export T-72s in Desert Storm. The increased quality and cost of training competent tank crews, as well as the importance of combined arms, mean that tanks and their crews can no longer be considered expendable.

* A dilemma that Section 9 has to deal with in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. The BigBad of the second season points out that no matter how good the members of Section 9 are, they would still lose if they were out-numbered. Batou later has to decide whether he should decrease the difficulty for new recruits to join S9, knowing that doing so would reduce the overall quality and potential each member has. Ultimately, in ''Solid State Society'', Section 9 has expanded it's ranks.

* The good guys in ''Franchise/StarWars'' tend to subscribe to this philosophy: a highly trained and well-equipped clone army in the prequels, and better-armed and -defended fighters in the original trilogy and EU. The bad guys? Stick millions of Stormtroopers in a HighlyConspicuousUniform and set the grading curve to 5% at the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

* The good guys in ''Franchise/StarWars'' tend to subscribe to this philosophy: a highly trained and well-equipped clone army in the prequels, and better-armed and -defended fighters in the original trilogy and EU. The bad guys? Stick millions of Stormtroopers in a HighlyVisibleUniform and set the grading curve to 5% at the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

* The good guys in ''Franchise/StarWars'' tend to subscribe to this philosophy: a highly trained and well-equipped clone army in the prequels, and better-armed and -defended fighters in the original trilogy and EU.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Mass Effect|1}}'' Saren tries to cure the Krogan Genophage so he'll have a Krogan horde at his back. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' Krogan warlord Okeer derides the idea of sheer numbers, calling it the mistake of an outsider. He himself has created Grunt, whom he considers a perfect Krogan warrior.

-->Cyber Leader: Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.
-->Dalek Sec: This is not war - this is pest control!
-->Cyber Leader: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?
-->Dalek Sec: Four.
-->Cyber Leader: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
-->Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You superior in only one respect.
-->Cyber Leader: What is that?
-->Dalek Sec: You are better at dying.

!!Examples:
[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

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[[AC:Meta]]
* ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' once had a debate on which was the better series, ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' or ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''. ''Zelda'' essentially won with the rebuttal of quality over quantity, arguing one ''Link To the Past'' was worth far more than multiple ''Mario Party''s, despite the long time between ''Zelda'' games.
* This trope was Nintendo's whole argument during their dominance [[EightBitEra in the 80s]] [[SixteenBitEra and early 90s]] before they changed their policies after being accused of monopolistic practices with their licensing agreements. The original agreement was that licensees could only make up to five games a year; the reasoning behind the decision was that it was better for the developers to focus on creating a few smash hits than to flood the market by churning out mediocre games, as was the case with Atari before the crash.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* In-universe with Warhammer40K: the ImperialGuard fields literally billions of men, whereas (most) [[SpaceMarines Adeptus Astartes chapters]] are limited to a thousand soldiers. However, your average Guardsman is equipped with a lasgun and flak armor (aka, flashlight and a t-shirt) while a Space Marine has a rapid-fire micromissile launcher, PowerArmor, and is genetically engineered to be seven feet tall, spit acid, have SuperSenses and a HealingFactor.

[[AC:Video Game]]

* In ''MassEffect1'' Saren tries to cure the Krogan Genophage so he'll have a Krogan horde at his back. In ''MassEffect2'' Krogan warlord Okeer derides the idea of sheer numbers, calling it the mistake of an outsider. He himself has created Grunt, a perfect Krogan warrior.

* WarcraftIII: both Necromancers and Dark Rangers have spells that allow them to raise skeletal minions from corpses. The Necromancers create two weak skeletons from any corpse, while the Dark Ranger creates a stronger skeleton from an affected enemy.

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* Seen in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' when Sweet Apple Acres gets into a cider making contest against some slick salesponies and their [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E15TheSuperSpeedyCiderSqueezy6000 Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000]]. This trope is Double Subverted because the machine is shown to make good cider, but when the Apple family, along with the Mane Six, start pulling ahead the sales ponies [[TimTaylorTechnology turn up the power]] and turn off the quality control, which lets them churn out far more barrels of cider but it's the kind no one wants to drink.