History Main / QualityOverQuantity

* Played with in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' as regards the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel. Veronica, a journeyman scribe and potential companion states that while an individual Brotherhood Paladin in PoweredArmor and wielding FrickinLaserBeams is individually superior to any raider, Legionnaire or NCR trooper, there are just too few of them. She muses that while the Brotherhood has enough quality to win over the Legion’s quantity, there isn’t enough manpower to defeat the NCR. She hopes to rectify this by making the Brotherhood the kind of organization that people will want to join - with futile results at best.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Straw Hat Pirates are one of the smallest pirate crews in the series, but nevertheless are one of the most powerful due to its members each being a OneManArmy. This trope was summed up quite brilliantly when they went up against the New Fishman Pirates with ten members against their army of 100,000. The Straw Hats won easily. Outside of combat, each member is an absolute genius in their field of expertise (e.g.: Nami's sea navigation, Sanji's culinary skills, and Chopper's medical knowledge). It's to the point that a ''whole team of people'' in any given field covered by one of the Straw Hats likely can't compare to that one member's skill level.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Straw Hat Pirates are one of the smallest pirate crews in the series, but nevertheless are one of the most powerful due to its members each being a OneManArmy. This trope was summed up quite brilliantly when they went up against the New Fishman Pirates with ten members against their army of 100,000. The Straw Hats won easily.

** The League of Villains makes its debut in a brazen attack on UA school grounds with a large number of thugs. However, most of them are just that, thugs are bested by students who had just barely started their training. Only three of them were particularly dangerous. Starting with the Training Camp arc, however, the League changes gears, using a smaller number of exceptionally powerful villains. They see a lot more success once they make this change.

** Curiously, it was not like this in the books. While the forces of evil are clearly more and outnumber the heroes to the point of hopelessness, the big battles show the uses of strategy and cunning by Sauron's servants. While they still fall into [[WeHaveReserves]] mentality, it is still not so blatant as in the movies. Also, the orcs are a pretty crafty and capable people, when they are not killing each other over any reason (a lot of Sauron's will is used to keep the orcs in line and obedient. And even then, rhey still find ways to make disasters like Cirith-Ungol)

Most commonly the protagonists in a given work are a small elite group pitted against a large group of weak mooks. Possibly because [[WeHaveReserves throwing away the lives of people on your own side is seen as unethical]].

* The 1991 UsefulNotes/GulfWar produced one of the most extreme examples favorable to quality. On one side you had Saddam Hussein and his more than 1 million strong Iraqi military, the fourth largest in the world at that time. On the other, you had the U.S.-led Coalition which fielded about half that number, some 500,000 troops. One would think Saddam had a big advantage with a 2-1 numerical superiority. But as anyone familiar with history knows, Saddam was on the receiving end of one of the most epic CurbStompBattle defeats in recent history as the Iraqis took 25,000 casualties while the Coalition only suffered about ''230''. Saddam's army may have been big but they were pitifully incompetent, to the point that some armored units wouldn't even react to fire they took from their flanks. Even their supposedly "elite" forces like the Republican Guard were obliterated rather easily. In contrast, the Coalition forces (especially the Americans) were far better trained and had access to the latest weapons, vehicles, etc. with the latest technologies such as GPS (great at navigating through the desert) and precision guided bombs dropped from stealth aircraft (great at taking out enemy command structures and power plants without carpet-bombing whole sections of a city). Thus illustrating an important but often forgotten lesson: [[MillionMookMarch You can raise a giant army]], but it won't do any good if they don't know what their doing.

** One of the horrifying realizations for the Japanese Airforce during [=WW2=] was this; the Kamikaze attacks they conducted were having diminished success later into the war because while the Japanese have been effectively tossing their airmen at the enemy by the bucket loads, the Allies were fending them off and learning new strategies on how to counter them. Near the end of it, the majority of Kamikaze pilots were young men barely out of basic training piloting what were essentially slapdashed planes made from spare parts, while the Allied airforce against them were veterans of the entire war armed with the most advanced interceptors of their time. They also realized that, at this point, very soon they wouldn't even have the numerical advantage.

* The 1991 UsefulNotes/GulfWar produced one of the most extreme examples favorable to quality. On one side you had Saddam Hussein and his more than 1 million strong Iraqi military, the fourth largest in the world at that time. On the other, you had the U.S.-led Coalition which fielded about half that number, some 500,000 troops. One would think Saddam had a big advantage with a 2-1 numerical superiority. But as anyone familiar with history knows, Saddam was on the receiving end of one of the most epic CurbStompBattle defeats in recent history as the Iraqis took 25,000 casualties while the Coalition only suffered about ''230''. Saddam's army may have been big but they were pitifully incompetent, to the point that some armored units wouldn't even react to fire they took from their flanks. Even their supposedly "elite" forces like the Republican Guard were obliterated rather easily. In contrast, the Coalition forces (especially the Americans) were far better trained and had access to the latest weapons, vehicles, etc. Thus illustrating an important but often forgotten lesson: you can raise a giant army, but it won't do any good if they don't know what their doing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', King Neptune challenges [=SpongeBob=] to a frycooking competition where whoever cooks the most Krabby Patties wins, but he concedes to [=SpongeBob=] when he finds out that his mass-produced Patties are terrible while [=SpongeBob=]'s singular Patty made with love is superior. Slow and steady wins the race, indeed.

** 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.

* Most zombie movies play with this trope. The human symbolizes quality in terms of intelligence especially through his/her ability to utilize weapons and technology and half the time, being fast, while the zombie symbolizes quantity.

* 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.

-->'''Cyberleader:''' [[AC:Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.]]\\
'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC:This is not war... this is pest control!]]\\
'''Cyberleader:''' [[AC:We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?]]\\

'''Cyberleader:''' [[AC:You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?]]\\
'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC:We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect.]]\\
'''Cyberleader:''' [[AC:What is that?]]\\
'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC:You are better at dying!]]

* In ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', Mantrid's replicating drone swarm seems virtually unstoppable until the crew plugs 790's head into one of the drone arms. 790's vastly superior processor allows him to fight off numerous normal drones, and the crew quickly exploits this to turn Mantrid's own strategy against him by converting the drones they destroy into 790 drones. Mantrid ultimately counters this by attacking the crew head on with his main force of drones, which so outnumbers the meager 790 force that Mantrid can have them surround and crush the 790 drones through sheer weight of numbers.

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[[quoteright:251:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_qual_vs_quan.jpg]]

* In the ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series, this is the contrast between Mona Pizza and Pizza Dinosaur. While in their shared theme song, Mona Pizza boasts about how great their pizzas are, Pizza Dinosaur only boasts about how they're everywhere, while acknowledging that their pizzas are terrible. In ''[=WarioWare=]: Twisted'', Pizza Dinosaur has its business being taken away by Mona Pizza, driving them to use more aggressive measures of competition. The 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 [[InvertedTrope inversion]] where quantity wins out.)

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', this becomes the official position regarding the training and induction of new heroes following All Might's retirement, as demonstrated by their changes to the first Provisional Licensing Exam to follow it. Prior exams are stated to have a 50% pass/fail rate, the first post-All Might exam ''starts'' by passing only the first one hundred students out of over 1,500, meaning less than ''10%'' make it to the second stage of the test. However, those who failed the second half, just over a dozen, are given the opportunity to take special supplementary lessons and take a second test later to get their license then. The logic behind that decision is that the hundred who passed the first phase all have great potential that they want to see reached. So while the pass rate is drastically reduced, the effort to make sure everyone who has proven they have the quality are nurtured to excellence.

* The local militaries on planets where ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' are hired usually have more personnel, but they also have at least two of the following: undisciplined men, incompetent officers, and/or low technology. The Slammers are disciplined, competent, and equipped with the best {{Hover Tank}}s and {{Plasma Cannon}}s money can buy. Whoever can afford their rates tends to win.

* The 1991 GulfWar produced one of the most extreme examples favorable to quality. On one side you had Saddam Hussein and his more than 1 million strong Iraqi military, the fourth largest in the world at that time. On the other, you had the U.S.-led Coalition which fielded about half that number, some 500,000 troops. One would think Saddam had a big advantage with a 2-1 numerical superiority. But as anyone familiar with history knows, Saddam was on the receiving end of one of the most epic CurbStompBattle defeats in recent history as the Iraqis took 25,000 casualties while the Coalition only suffered about ''230''. Saddam's army may have been big but they were pitifully incompetent, to the point that some armored units wouldn't even react to fire they took from their flanks. Even their supposedly "elite" forces like the Republican Guard were obliterated rather easily. In contrast, the Coalition forces (especially the Americans) were far better trained and had access to the latest weapons, vehicles, etc. Thus illustrating an important but often forgotten lesson: you can raise a giant army, but it won't do any good if they don't know what their doing.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* 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 its ranks.

[[folder:Film]]
* 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? Millions of flimsy, rock-stupid battle droids for the Trade Federation, while the Empire sticks millions of Stormtroopers in a HighlyConspicuousUniform and sets the passing score to 5% at the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy. Which is inexplicable really, since it means the Empire completely reversed it's doctrines between trilogies.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]].

** Taken up a notch when the Daleks notice the Doctor in the background.
-->'''Rose:''' ''Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor, '''now''' you're scared.''

[[folder: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 ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast Link to the Past]]'' was worth far more than multiple ''VideoGame/{{Mario Party}}s'', despite the long time between ''Zelda'' games.
* This trope was Nintendo's whole argument during their dominance [[UsefulNotes/The8bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames in the 80s]] [[UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 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 (some companies with a good track record for quality would make up bogus development houses to go above the five-per-year limit, like Konami did when they made up the Ultra Games label).

[[folder:Video Game]]

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', King Neptune challenges [=SpongeBob=] to a frycooking competition where whoever cooks the most Krabby Patties wins, but he concedes to [=SpongeBob=] when he finds out that his mass-produced Patties are terrible while [=SpongeBob=]'s singular Patty made with love is superior. Slow and steady wins the race, indeed.
* 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.

* Creator/BruceLee on dangerous martial arts opponents: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10000 times."