Why is Goku's power level listed as 8,000 even though it is clearly stated to be over 8,000?

[TheUltimateNinja]

It's common knowledge that Vegeta says that Kakarotto's power level is over 8,000, it's even a meme, so it makes no sense that his BP is listed as 8,000.

[ekrolo2]

Because 8,000 is cooler than 8,100 or 8,500 or 8,001.

[TheUltimateNinja]

Because 8,000 is cooler than 8,100 or 8,500 or 8,001.

8,500 is way more badass than 8,000.

[Kaboom]

When no exact number is given, it's fine just to round it off. Same with other readings like Bardock being "nearly 10,000," or Vegeta against the Ginyu Force being "almost 30,000," and what have you.

If it was a significant amount above 8,000, then Vegeta probably would have said "almost 8,500" or something instead. At the level of power we're talking about here, there's no practical difference between exactly 8,000 or something like 8,163 anyway.

[DanielSSJ]

Rounding is par for the course when it comes to Battle Powers.

[Supaman]

Daizenshuu (and other SEG) are official, ok. But they aren't canon (as Toriyama).

I think Goku was at 8400.
So,
Goku base 8400 (over 8000)
Goku kaioken (x1) : 12600 (+50%)
Goku kaioken (x2) : 16800 (+100%)
Goku kaioken (x3) : 21000 (+150%)

[Darkprince410]

We have no frame of reference for just how far above 8,000 it was, outside of that it was reasonably far from 9,000 because he was using 8,000 as the reference point and not 9,000. As such, rounding it to 8,000, especially when that extra couple hundred or so didn't matter when it came to fighting Vegeta, is perfectly reasonable.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

Rounding is just the cool thing to do. And actually I'd wager every character after early Saiyan saga is rounded. I doubt Ginyu could be exactly 120,000 and Goku exactly 180,000. Given earlier numbers, everything has gotta be rounded either up or down.

[TheUltimateNinja]

We have no frame of reference for just how far above 8,000 it was, outside of that it was reasonably far from 9,000 because he was using 8,000 as the reference point and not 9,000. As such, rounding it to 8,000, especially when that extra couple hundred or so didn't matter when it came to fighting Vegeta, is perfectly reasonable.

The extra couple hundred did matter when fighting with Vegeta as he was able to land some hits and dodge a few attacks with Kaioken x2, whereas if he was at a mere 16,000 Vegeta could very easily overwhelm him with his own 18,000. The gap between Dodoria and Vegeta was much smaller yet Dodoria got insta-killed, you could argue that Dodoria is far less skilled than Goku but Zarbon was nearly equal to Vegeta in power and was also a decent fighter himself yet he too was dominated easily.

Rounding is just the cool thing to do. And actually I'd wager every character after early Saiyan saga is rounded. I doubt Ginyu could be exactly 120,000 and Goku exactly 180,000. Given earlier numbers, everything has gotta be rounded either up or down.

At that point an extra few hundred wouldn't matter much at all, but back in the Saiyan Saga a few hundred was a big deal, such an addition would boost Goku's power by up to 5-10%.

[apex_pretador]

One of the reasons why I don't prefer using non-manga "official" numbers (except freeza's 120 million)