Drake and Josh vs Zack and Cody is one-sided

 

So for the longest time, I've seen people float this matchup and discuss it as a sort of rivalry matchup between two sitcom brothers from roughly the same time period. That said whenever people discussed the matchup they never actually brought up the characters'... you know... feats, instead focusing just on preconceptions on how strong or smart they thought they were, often bringing up the characters' ages as a relevant point despite them both probably being 18 as of "Merry Christmas Drake and Josh" and the end of "The Suite Life on Deck" Season 3. 

Because the matchup is of more comedic characters from sitcoms, it's like people just assumed the characters don't have feats, or only anti-feats. And yeah while the characters' feats aren't the most impressive in the world, they do still HAVE feats. I decided in case anyone was curious as to who'd win in a more traditional powerscaling sense to actually just go through their series and find their feats. Going through it however, I'm sorry to say that one's sides' best feats are significantly better than the other's. So let me go over what both sides have done:

Powerscaling:

Before I get into Drake and Josh's capabilities I wanna establish there definitely is a level of physical parity between the two and you can scale physical stats between them, at least for the first three seasons. Drake and Josh fight or grapple a lot. In the first three seasons, they do so in Season 2 Episode 1, Season 2 Episode 9, Season 3 Episode 7, and Season 3, Episode 13 in all of which they are depicted as physically even.  An enraged Josh easily overpowered Drake in Season 2 Episode 9, and Season 3, Episode 9 though Drake was able to hold back an enraged Josh in Season 3, Episode 11. In Season 3, Episode 17 the clipshow episode the two again fight evenly with Dr. Phyllis asking in shock if they solve their problems with physical violence and the pair admitting on rare occasions. The five clip montages in this show are Drake's Faults, Josh's Faults, their good times, Megan messing with them, and the two physically fighting suggesting that this is one of the most prominent things to happen on the show. 

However, by the final season, it's slightly different. Josh is first seen exercising in Season 3, Episode 8, and he does noticeably better against Drake in Season 4 than he did prior. It was a theme in Season 4, Episode 5 that Josh is not the same nerdy kid that moved in with Drake three years ago. In the same episode the two get into a fight with flying tackles with Josh having a notable advantage. In the prior ep Drake slaps Josh's face and knocks his head back each time. Josh then slaps Drake once and it completely knocks him to the ground. Similarly in Drake and Josh Go Hollywood Josh accidentally punches Drake to the ground. The only exception is Season 4, Episode 13 where the two fight surprisingly even again. 

As such it's fair to scale between Drake and Josh physically at least for the first three seasons, and to a lesser extent probably season 4 as well. Josh is stronger than Drake in Season 4 but not so much that he can just tank Drake's strikes. Of course this is kind of what you'd expect for human characters like them but still. 

Power:

In terms of power, Drake and Josh do have a few comical antifeats most notably Josh easily getting swarmed by nine kids Megan's Age in Season 2 Episode 10, Eric the physically weak nerd at Drake and Josh's school accidentally knocking Drake out in Season 4, Episode 12, and most embarrassingly Josh being physically unable to rip up a parking ticket in Season 2 Episode 10, prompting Drake to comment "Dude, you GOTTA start lifting weights or something." However, these antifeats are actually kinda rare and most often the two have fairly impressive physical feats.

Starting more tamely, Drake was apparently able to give Josh a piggyback ride at a diva's request in Season 2, Episode 6 and was able to hold Josh up to talk to Mindy on the second floor of her house in Season 3, Episode 4. In Season 4, Episode 2 he was also able to jump off and grab the ceiling fan in Mrs. Hayfer's house, knocked over Walter just running around in Season 2, Episode 2, and accidentally twisted the head off a wind-up bear toy for babies in Season 1 Episode 4. For Josh, it took several people to hold him back from hurting Drake in Season 2 Episode 3, isn't seriously injured by Drake hitting him with a golf club in Season 3 Episode 11 or by Paulo hitting him with a nine iron in the eye in Season 2 Episode 10 and survives electrocution in Season 4 Episode 1. Also, he falls from high up a lot. In Season 1 Episode 4 he fell from hanging onto the roof onto Walter's boss and was fine and was fine when he fell from the ceiling to the floor in Season 4 Episode 13. In Merry Christmas, Drake and Josh is pushed off the top of the Premier into the back of a truck while handcuffed and later climbs halfway up a tree before falling down smashing himself on all the branches on the way down. he also falls down the stairs and is stated to regularly fall down the stairs in both Season 4 Episode 5 and Season 4 Episode 9. Drake himself escapes going to prison by jumping out a window in a hospital not on the first floor, only breaking his arm and in Season 4 Episode 13 Megan causes the ground to collapse under Drake and Josh's room causing them to fall to the Garage Floor. The two also accidentally knock over the couch backwards while sitting on it in Season 3 Episode 15.

However, they have some even more impressive feats in my opinion. In Season 3 Episode 10 Drake fights his then-girlfriend Lucy evenly, Lucy being able to wreck an ice sculpture with an indirect kick, throwing a football player bigger than Drake into a table knocking it over, and and tackling Drake through a wooden door. Lucy is arguably presented as winning but they're clearly relative and arm wrestle evenly earlier in the ep. Josh accidentally knocks over part of a wooden fence running away from an alien in Season 3 Episode 16, takes a slingshot pellet from Drake in the eye that knocks him over in Season 4 Episode 4, and breaks a bottle on his head in Season 4 Episode 6 being pained but not noticeably injured. In Merry Christmas Drake and Josh, Josh's cellmate Bludge pushes an unconscious Josh through a stone prison wall and in Season 2 Episode 4 Josh plays center in football against Lincoln. Lincoln is the toughest team in the state, they once tackled a guy so hard he had to go back to the fourth grade, and Zack an ex pro football player gets a concussion against them. Josh wins the game against them when one of the Lincoln Players tackles him so hard it knocks him 20 yards away into the endzone. Josh is uninjured by an explosion in Season 3 Episode 12 and neither Drake nor Josh are particularly injured by an explosion in Season 3 Episode 12, though in fairness these explosions didn't seem to cause much damage to their surroundings. Drake and Josh are able to knock down a treehouse from the inside in Season 4 Episode 10 and in Drake and Josh Go Hollywood the pair fight actual criminals and actually beat them. The leader of these criminals are one of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted, and are so tough that earlier in the film Drake and Josh smash wood and plastic on the back of their heads which they completely tank. Despite this, Drake and Josh knock these criminals down with their strikes, Drake grapples with several of them which Josh knocks all down by jumping on them, and one of the two brothers knocks one of these criminals across the large room they're in. Possibly their best feat though, in Merry Christmas Drake and Josh, the brothers survive ice shards coming from Steve's Woodchipper Sally that was wrecking the neighborhood. 

Enhanced Endurance and Stamina:

Some of the feats prior double as endurance feats but I also wanted to note that in Season Episode 2 Drake is injured in a dune buggy accident, bruised and sprained and limping. Despite this he manages to carry Megan and even after being taken down by wrestling moves from Walter can still push Josh a little. Also In Season 4 Episode 18 the brothers jump out of a helicopter "7,000 feet" up (~2.1 kilometers) with only a single parachute to share before swimming "two miles" (~3.2 kilometers) and getting rescued by a tuna boat. 

Speed:

Drake and Josh don't have as many impressive speed feats, but they do have a few including a very quantifiable feat. In Season 4 Episode 11 Josh runs from their house to the school (2.5 miles or ~4 kilometers in almost exactly 23 minutes.) This feat would be within the human ranges of speed though above average and definitely pretty impressive for Josh who last season got tired running around his couch a few times (Season 3 Episode 6.) Josh is implied to have at least temporarily outrun an angry cow in Season 4 Episode 14 (cows being able to charge at speeds of 27.4-40.2 kilometers per hour or 17-25 miles per hour) and temporarily kept up with a car driving at a casual speed in Season 4 Episode 9. In Season 4 Episode 2 Josh says Drake is faster than him, and the two in this episode escape Tiberius, Tiberius being Miss Hayfer's pet Rottweiler who is angry and vicious to the point the Animal Control guy says that despite doing his job for 11 years and serving in Vietnam he's never seen anything scarier. Rottwilers can reach similar speeds as the speeds of a charging cow and both Drake and Josh evade and escape Tiberius this ep. Walter even runs away from Tiberius all the way from Miss Hayfer's house to Drake and Josh's house, and Drake and Josh should be relative to Walter. The average speed for Olympic runners is between 25.4 kilometers per hour to 35.3 kilometers per hour with the world record being Usain Bolt's 44 kilometers per hour. So Drake and Josh reaching around 27.4 to 40.2 kilometers per second means that they can at least temporarily reach Olympian Athlete level speed. Overall, still human speed but very impressive. 

Outside their physical stats, there isn't necessarily any kind of parity between Drake and Josh however both have shown in different areas some impressive mental skills. 

Overall Intelligence:

Josh is considered very intelligent. As early as Season 1 Episode 4 he built a model scale working catapult that can fling things 50 feet through the air. In the first science fair in Season 3 Episode 4, he created a supermagnet that draws up a can 36 inches. In the second science fair in Season 4 Episode 4 he creates a "hyperbolic photon cannon" that can shoot a laser through a one-inch thick wooden board. The Judge calls this the most impressive scientific display he's seen in 26 years and Josh wins the Science Fair with it. In Season 4 Episode 16 Josh aces a Chemistry Exam, not getting a single question wrong. The teacher was so impressed he didn't take a letter grade off for tardiness despite being an extreme stickler for tardiness. Despite never playing before, Josh was incredibly good at "billiards" to the point of never losing a game he wasn't trying too due to him calling it "simple geometry and physics" in Season 2 Episode 5. In Season 2 Episode 6 we learn that Josh took two extra classes and Aced both of them, before teaching Drake Chemistry and it's implied four other subjects via relating it to music. He then goes on to help Drake at the Academic Bowl, a contest for the brightest academics, getting every question he answers correctly. 

Drake is nowhere near as smart as Josh in broad knowledge and has several mental antifeats like mispronouncing the country he lives in (Season 3 Episode 2), taking six tries to get his Driver's License (Drake and Josh Go Hollywood), and having to repeat Algebra II, nearly having to do it again (Season 3 Episode 11.)  However, he's also shown significant mental potential. In Season 3 Episode 15 Drake calculates the exact time it will take to ride the Demonator and get back before their parents down to the minute and accurately. Josh asks if he can do all that in his head, then how's he failing math, with Drake replying "Because THIS...is important." Drake was also able to create a primitive burglar alarm with cans and rope in Season 3 Episode 9 and in Season 3 Episode 2 knew a little impromptu Spanish. In Season 2 Episode 6, Drake not only passed as academically smart on his date with a genius girl but during the Academic Bowl gets a chemistry question right thanks to Josh's earlier teaching that wins his team the game. 

Social Influencing:

Sort of the opposite way around Drake has extremely good ability to manipulate people. There are many feats of this over the course of the series. Both Drake and Josh have agreed on multiple instances that it must be nice being Drake. Drake took two girls to a concert and kissed both it is mentioned in Season 2 Episode 6 and convinced a supermodel to kiss him despite not really liking them in Season 4 Episode 16. In Season 4 Episode 14 Drake convinces Josh both that cows are ticklish and to use fake IDS despite Josh's characterization as a genius with extremely strict morals. He also hustled a ton of people out of their money using Josh's billiard skills in Season 2, Episode 4 despite them being seemingly aware of the other people he's hustled. 

Josh initially had none of this skill whatsoever however Season 4 Episode 5 is about how Josh is no longer the nerdy kid that moved in with Drake three years ago and in this ep he gets dates from 22 girls in one week, a feat that's deliberately supposed to mimic Drake's normal ability.

Combat Skill:

In Season 1 Episode 1 Josh takes a crash karate course though later in Season 1 Episode 5, Josh is described as being "very very bad" at karate. That said he was at least good enough to break a wooden board with his head and flips a little girl who previously flipped him. Much later in Season 4 Episode 16 the brothers get into a lightsaber duel with Josh doing noticeably better and in Drake and Josh Go Hollywood, the two fight against hardened criminals with their leader being one of the FBI Most Wanted and do well. 

Both are also fairly accurate shots with Josh hitting a lamp with an avocado at range in Season 3 Episode 11 and Drake hitting two cans on the room's table from up on his bed with his slingshot in Season 4 Episode 4. 

Dexterity/Sports Skills:

Some other showings of general dexterity. In Season 2 Episode 8 Josh does an acrobatic double backflip and backflips a second time and in Drake and Josh Go Hollywood Josh does an acrobatic jump into a car, surprising himself. In Season 4 Episode 11 Drake and Josh play epic ping pong where they show good reactions and coordinations with Josh later beating Helen at Racquetball 2 games out of 3, Helen being a Pro Racquetball player. The brothers also win a dance contest in Season 4 Episode 19.

Magic:

Josh is skilled at magic tricks pulling an egg from behind Drake's ear in Season 2 Episode 4, making a form seem like it's going one ear and out the other in Season 2 Episode 17, and making milk disappear in Season 3 Episode 13. 

Music Skill:

Drake is an aspiring and talented musician such that in the episode originally made to be the finale, Season 4 Episode Episode 17, Drake gets the number one hit song in the country which is played during the Superbowl. 

Stealth:

Drake steals a sandwich out from under Josh's nose in Season 2 Episode 2.

Voice Mimicry:

Drake alters his voice so Josh thinks he's the man on the radio in Season 3 Episode 2.

Lock-Picking:

In Drake and Josh Go Hollywood, Drake picks a lock. 

Metafictional Awareness/Fourth Wall Breaking:

At the start of each episode, Drake and Josh address the audience. Season 4 Episode 11 strongly implies these start of episodes are canon, with this one setting up the premise of the episode. Season 4 likes to play with the start of episode segment. In Season 4 Episode 18 some guy called Dave gets a webcam, turns it on, and appears in the same start of episode segment with Drake and Josh, the three able to hear each other. In Season 4 Episode 7 Drake and Josh literally communicate with the audience, hearing their responses and responding to it with Josh at the end saying "Enjoy the program." In Season 4 Episode 16 Drake and Josh talk specifically to the young children watching at home and interacting with them with Drake being cookies by them and Josh getting spit at by them. A minor piece of support for this, in Season 4 Episode 5 Drake comments that Josh is probably "on a montage of dates right now" with it immediately cutting to that exact thing, also potentially suggesting metafictional awareness. They've never really used this is in a combat scenario however, nor are there many ways they hypothetically could. 

Weaknesses:

Josh starts the series as physically deficient in numerous ways though this lessens with his exercise. Drake is also kinda deficient in overall intelligence even if he has the potential to be smarter if he tried. 

Beyond this Josh seems to have a real weak spot in his knowledge when it comes to astronomy as neither of the brothers could immediately name the eighth planet from the Sun in Season 2 Episode 2 and didn't realize you can't set foot on Jupiter. The brothers seem particularly bad at fighting characters who are highly skilled or crafty. They lost to Corey, a boy Megan's age just because he "knows Kung Fu real good" in Season 4 Episode 15, and in both Season 4 Episode 13 and Season 4 Episode 4 the Brothers psych themselves out when they think Megan and Mindy respectively are after them when they aren't, breaking their ability to function normally. 

So I'm just going to say it from the outset, The Suite Life is significantly less consistent power-wise compared to Drake and Josh. While the latter is broadly realistic with some decently impressive showings for comedic purposes, Zack and Cody is a verse of minor toonforce (and blatant supernatural shenanigans), where characters' capabilities can vary significantly depending on the episode, even in the same episode, and based on their level of motivation. Also technically the Suite Life of Zack and Cody has three seasons and the followup series the Suite Life on Deck have three seasons however for efficiency sake I will just be referring to the seasons of the Suite Life on Deck as seasons 4-6. 

Powerscaling:

Zack and Cody don't actually physically fight that much. They have a very brief scuffle in Season 1 Episode 26 and they have a longer one in Season 5 Episode 7 where Zack beats Cody who's wearing a Banana suit. The two grapple with Zack having the overall advantage but not an immense one. Outside a direct fight Cody is implied to be weaker than Woody, Mr. Moseby, and Zack in Season 6 Episode 9 during a game session and a casual swat from a sleeping Zack knocks Cody down in Season 6 Episode 14. However, Cody makes a mountain climb much easier than Zack does in Season 4 Episode 12 and when determined to win Bailey's love Cody lifts a glass case in Season 4 Episode 7 that Milo couldn't and he and Zack together couldn't earlier in the episode. It seems the verse for comedic effect exaggerates the boost in power that determination can give, with Cody normally being physically fodder compared to Zack, but able to rise to being stronger than a not especially determined Zack when he's determined. 

Zack, and through him, Cody also has scaling to London and Mr. Moseby. London was initially considered extremely strong, a Kung Fu Champion (Season 2 Episode 2) who was trained by the top professionals (Season 1 Episode 20). However as of Suite Life on Deck, specifically Season 6 Episode 7, London is considered at risk of failing Gym and required Zack to train her. Granted this is most likely the writers just forgetting that London was prior established to be physically very strong. That said London's best feats are in the Suite Life on Deck so even if you only scaled Zack to Suite Life on Deck London for some reason, it wouldn't really change anything save arguably making it so he wouldn't scale to Moseby. London scaling to Moseby comes from her opening a door with enough force to accidentally knock Moseby out without even noticing in Season 3 Episode 11 and she and Maddie overpowering Moseby earlier in Season 1 Episode 23. Maddie was physically weaker than London until she trained her in Season 1 Episode 20 with the two being equal physically in both their fights in Season 1 Episode 23 and Season 3 Episode 11. The only thing notable about not including scaling to original Suite Life London is this wouldn't scale Zack (and Cody) to Mr. Moseby and his physical feats though considering their presentation I would be very surprised if Adult Zack didn't physically scale to Mr. Moseby.

Power:

Most of Zack and Cody's most impressive feats are actually joint feats both have. In the very first episode of the series Zack and Cody hold up a hotel satellite dish holding onto a cable attached to it, keeping it from hitting the ground after it was knocked off the roof. Their friends Max and Tapeworm also perform the feat as do their mother Carrey separately. In Season 1 Episode 12 Zack and Cody as well as the other people there easily survive an explosion that shakes the Tipton Hotel at least from the laundry room to the Lobby, this explosion creates a hole in the wall reaching into the bank adjacent to the hotel. In Season 1 Episode 19 when Zack and Cody along with Maddie and London experience a ghost in the haunted suite and scream, this scream apparently being loud enough that Mr. Moseby could them from the lobby while they were on the sixth floor. In Season 2 Episode 8 Cody claimed Zack once noggied him hard enough that he lost 5 IQ points. 

Cody doesn't have any particularly impressive feats by himself but the ones he do have would obviously scale to Zack, which would include easily withstanding being trampled (Season 4 Episode 21), being uninjured with the twins falling from the vents and Zack landing on him in Season 1 Episode 9, and Zack and Woody landing on Cody after parachuting in Season 5 Episode 28. It would also include Cody crashlanding from a jetpack and being fine in Season 2 Episode 7. These would represent Cody's normal level of strength though he was intimidated by a woman being able to metal platter with her bare hands in Season 5 Episode 1. Zack's feats alone also aren't that impressive compared to his scaling and joint feats from Cody but he has some more notable. Zack fell from a vent onto his head and was fine as early as Season 1 Episode 5, pushed Cody so hard he was sent backwards into a cart with a mummy on it, knocking both backwards in Season 2 Episode 38, and bit a golfball in half in anger in Season 2 Episode 33. More relevantly Woody jumped on a primitive bamboo lever catapulting Zack off the other end and slamming him into a mountain in Season 5 Episode 8 and it's implied will be hit by lightning the way Mr. Moseby was at the start of the episode in Season 6 Episode 21. He can also hurt himself accidentally as seen in Season 5 Episode 17. 

The Twins also have powerscaling that's pretty relevant, most notably to London and Mr. Moseby. In Season 1 Episode 10, London crashes a car with her and Moseby in the front into the Tipton Hotel through the wall, with neither being noticeably injured and two episodes later she and Esteban fell down a dumbwaiter without injury. However, London's more impressive feats come from later in Suite Life on Deck. In Season 6 Episode 17 she and Bailey easily survive a blimp crash, and in Season 6 Episode 19 London in a large wheel survives being in a powerful tornado described as "tearing through large parts of the midwest." Kettlecorn, the town she was in was the area of the MOST damage. Late in Suite Life on Deck Mr. Moseby also gets some impressive feats. In Season 6 Episode 6 Mr. Moseby withstands being comically flung through the air and survives laser shots from Granny Smith Bot. Granny Smith Bot is stated to be able to take out 12 city blocks using rocket launchers and high intensity microwave pulses. Though in fairness, the potency of her laser is never stated to be at all comparable and earlier in the ep Mr. Moseby takes more damage from a normal taser. There's also some very strong feats from random characters that while they are never suggested to scale to Zack and Cody, show the general toonforce-y of the verse. In Season 1 Episode 13 Sal casually throws peanuts to Maddy across the street from Fenway Park. In Season 6, Episode 6, Woody states that his bodily functions blew his grandmothers septic tank clear out of the ground and it was "shot down over Canada." Similarly, in Season 6 Episode 10 the bodily functions of a sumo wrestler shakes the room they're in. Zack and Cody are implied to be above average in strength for their universe as in Season 5 Episode 24 when Zack was delirious it was stated his deliriousness gave him "the strength of ten men." yet he was held back by Cody, Bailey, and Marcus put together. This suggests Cody might scale to a fraction of the strength of ten men, and Zack scales above him even normally. 

Speed:

Zack and Cody have numerous superhuman speed feats, usually feats of them moving like a blur or disappearing from sight for comedic effect. Similar to power the series really exaggerates the boost in speed a person can have when highly motivated. Cody is implied to have outrun a prehistoric monster in the Antarctic in Season 6 Episode 14, ran the whole perimeter of a tropical island looking for London in under 250 minutes (an island that was once home to a town and an ecosystem), and cut up a tomato so fast in Season 5 Episode 4 that his limbs became a blur turning the tomato into a rose in seconds. Notably the last seemed rather casual on his part and was done basically just as an example when he was teaching the cooking class. Zack drank a tall drink at superspeed in Season 5 Episode 2 and cycled in the Tour de France in Season 5 Episode 28. However his most impressive feats are actually from the earlier in the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. In Season 1 Episode 24 in the brief time it takes Agnes to turn around Zack, in fear of her, has gone from right next to her to far enough away he can't be seen. Later in Season 1 Episode 1 after Cody cleans their room in the 3-4 seconds it takes Cody to turn to his bed and turn around Zack turned his half of the room into a complete mess with junk everywhere.

From Mr. Moseby and London, the twins should also have some more impressive speed scaling. In Season 1 Episode 13 Sal throws some peanuts from Fenway Park to Maddie's room across the street who casually catches it, a feat which is easily replicated right after, Maddie and London later with a verbal warning from Sal dodging a baseball that was knocked towards them. London was also able to change Nurse Shannon's clothes fast enough London became a blur in Season 2 Episode 25. Mr. Moseby was able to technically win the Tour de France in Season 5, Episode 28 and in Season 3 Episode 6 when he heard the Tipton was in trouble, Moseby raced from his house to the Tipton in seconds with him apologizing it took so long because of "traffic." 

General Intelligence:

Most of the time, Cody is depicted as a fairly realistic smart kid in the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. He was class valedictorian in Season 3 Episode 1, built a laser for the Science Fair though required Arwin's help in Season 1 Episode 17, and installed a doorbell in his closet in Season 2 Episode 1. He and Zack also trick some Jewel thieves by spreading rumors about great riches in a Hotel Room and setting up camera in it and its established Cody does his mother's taxes in Season 2 Episode 21. His beat feats from the Suite Life of Zack and Cody era come from Season 2 Episode 1 and Season 1 Episode 3. In the former episode, Cody moves out of his and Zack's room and into their closet where he buys a flat screen tv, and numerous other things, which he claims he can do because he invested his allowance wisely. In the latter episode it's stated Zack and Cody, most probably Cody, somehow break a computer so that every key just brings up a Koala dancing. During the three seasons of the Suite Life Cody was between 12 and 15. 

The Suite Life on Deck exaggerates his intelligence far more, particularly the latter two seasons. In Season 5 Episode 5 Cody considers Zack intellectually a monkey which could be a feat for Cody or an antifeat for Zack, he built a hot air balloon to help the gang escape an island in Season 5 Episode 8, and its mentioned Cody and Bailey correct their science textbook regularly in Season 5 Episode 10. In Season 6 Episode 22 it is mentioned when Cody was born he cut his own umbilical cord because Zack was choking him with it. In Season 6 Episode 5 Cody plays the International Junior Chess Championship and not only puts his opponent in check blindfolded, but talks Zack and company into saving themselves from a sinking submarine while playing and technically wins. In Season 6 Episode 11 Cody turned his electric toothbrush into an energy detector for a ghost hunt and it's implied he turned a vacuum into an ectoplasmic containment unit and in the movie he's shown to have a level of understanding of the evil mad genius scientist Dr. Olsen/Spaulding's science. But his best intelligence feat comes from Season 5 Episode 26. Now it's possible the events of this ep didn't happen and were a story Zack told to explain him not doing his schoolwork but that isn't confirmed to be the case and if anything is slightly implied to not be the case with the very end of the episode showing a conclusion for the story even after Zack is finished telling it. In this ep a robot from 500 years in the future, a world with interstellar technology, comes back to the past to get Cody to fix their spaceship. Cody actually does get close to fixing it, manipulating the technology to "create a tear in reality and warp spacetime" except London messes it up. Cody is also implied to have created a time machine and in the future it's said Cody won seven Noble Prizes in physics and nanomechanics.

In the original Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Zack was a bad student who had the potential to be much smarter if motivated, very similar to Drake. He was unable to spell "award" in Season 1 Episode 23, and purportedly had never gottne a "B" before in Season 1 Episode 24. However, he was quite crafty and almost always came up with the twins' schemes along with tricking Cody in Season 1 Episode 18 and Season 2 Episode 2 playing off Cody's perception of him and doing the opposite as well as temporarily tricking Mr. Forgress, the school's dyslexia tutor that he has dyslexia. He easily calculates the days before he would be 18 in Season 1 Episode 8 and when an online test tells him he's going to be a CEO he starts doing complex math about stock prices. He says that if Math Textbooks had Dollar Signs, he'd probably have done better in math. Similarly, Zack easily checks the math in his mother's contract in Season 3 Episode 10. When she asks why he can't do this in math class he responds it's because those are "make-believe numbers" while "this is the real stuff." 

Unfortunately, the Suite Life on Deck really exaggerates Zack's lack of intelligence, with him doing dumb things pretty consistently, especially in Season 4. He is stated to have a GPA of 0.75 in Season 4 Episode 16. It's stated Zack can't do mazes most four years old can do in Season 4 Episode 6, implied he's less intelligent than an octopus in Season 4 Episode 1, and kinda implied he has trouble writing his name in Season 4 Episode 10. He does graduate along with the rest of his class, something that impresses the rest of the students around him and after Season 4 is moreso treated as an underachiever then an imbecile. The only notable intelligence feats for Zack in the Suite Life on Deck is Zack creating a stink bomb that created a noxious cloud so potent it required Hazmat Suits in Season 5, Episode 3. Also in the crossover episode Season 4 Episode 21 it's kind of implied Zack is smarter than Max from Wizards of Waverly place. Max is a very similar kind of character to Zack in that he's an academic underachiever with better feats when he is motivated. So this is maybe an intelligence feat of Zack being smarter then someone conceptually similar to him though the crossover also treats Max as pretty dumb with him saying London Tipton is "really dumb" before saying "and that's coming from ME."

Social Influencing and Potential Resistance:

Zack and Cody are pretty good manipulators first seen in Season 1 Episode 3 when they manipulate the hotel guests and bystanders and often doing so as part of their schemes. Probably the best feat of this is in Season 6 Episode 19 when Zack, Mr. Moseby, and Woody infiltrate a Military Search and Rescue mission. Cody's is not usually as good as Zack's though he has been able to manipulate Zack before in Season 2 Episode 2. 

Mr. Moseby also has the feat of infiltrating the military search and rescue mission infiltrating but this isn't his most impressive feat. Mr. Moseby is known for his legendary ability to keep order in the Tipton. In Season 1 Episode 4 Zack and Cody create as much chaos as possible in the hotel for the new evil hotel manager Ilsa. When Mr. Moseby shows up he is able to quickly put things back in order including just commanding a bunch of out of control dogs chasing cats to stop by angrily ordering "STOP." This also worked on Maddie, a human, who was with the dogs at the time and stopped and sat with them at Moseby's commands. Despite this, the two kids he was completely unable to control consistently were Zack and Cody. 

Combat Skill/Sleep Manipulation:

In Season 3 Episode 17 Zack and Cody are flipped by a little boy who knows karate. Cody takes two karate lessons from him and learns a move that can instantly put people to sleep. He then fails to flip his girlfriend Barbera who uses the same move on him. This is to suggest Suite Life of Zack and Cody era Cody has a very small amount of combat skill as well as sleep manipulation. 

Much later in the Suite Life on Deck Season 6 Episode 10 Zack and Cody fight some Ninjas and beat them in skill. No qualifications or reasons, they just can. 

Dexterity/Sports Skills:

Zack has demonstrates some high level of skill at sports most notably making cartoonishly impossible shots in Minigolf in Season 2 Episode 33 and in Croquet in Season 5 Episode 17. He's also demonstrated skill in skateboarding and bowling in Season 1 Episode 2 and Season 2 Episode 13 respectively.

Stealth:

In Season 1 Episode 5 Zack sneaks into the wedding of a celebrity to get a picture of the 20,000 dollar kiss despite all the paparazzi being unable to. 

Voice Mimicry:

Zack is shown to be able to perform a perfect impression of his mother in Season 2 Episode 21 when calling him and Cody home sick from school. Whether he can do other people is unknown.

Limited Mental Connection:

In Season 2 Episode 29 it's shown that when asleep Zack and Cody are in the same dream at once though this is kind of inconsistent. It's likely this is a limited version of the "twin telepathy" Dr. Olsen was trying to create and the kind of thing twins Jessica and Janice use to regularly complete each others thoughts. 

Astral Plane Interactions:

It's established in Season 6 Episode 11 that not all people can see ghosts. In this episode no one can see the ghost except Zack including Cody. Both boys also see a ghost in  Season 1 Episode 19 which is actually referenced in Season 6 Episode 11, and in the film the rest of the characters see Zack and Cody's souls leave their body during Dr. Olsen's attempted merger of the two. Their souls then begin to fight creating power surges and destroying the equipment.

Weaknesses:

Cody outside rare moments is treated as physically inept as well as a prissy neurotic and Zack outside rare moments is treated as ignorant, impulsive, and short-sighted. The two also have little camaraderie or teamwork. It's a plot point in the Zack and Cody movie that the insane Dr. Olsen's plan to merge twins mentally so they are one mind in two bodies as part of his plan to eradicate conflict from the world, and has done so to many pairs of twins before. When he tries to do this to Zack and Cody however their very souls start fighting preventing the merge from happening and destroying his equipment. 

With all that said it's pretty evident to me that this would be, by the standards of low tier characters a pretty one-sided match for Zack and Cody, who hold almost every advantage. 

Drake and Josh's advantages in this fight would be:

• If you lowball both sides, Drake and Josh should be much physically stronger than Cody normally. If you midball they should be at least around Cody's strength if not still superior. (Lowballed Cody is a complete weakling while Drake and Josh are still strong enough to physically fight dangerous criminals and Midballed Cody scales to half of holding up a hotel satellite dish while Drake and Josh can punch people across a room and knock each other out)
• Both Drake and Josh are smarter than Zack normally (Drake's mental antifeats are there but rarer and not as potent as Zack's which at times make him out to be animal tier in intelligence.)
• Arguably Better Manipulation Skills/Social Influencing (Zack and Cody mostly manipulate people into believing things they would otherwise be neutral on while Drake several times manipulated people into acting contrary to their own interest with Josh getting Drake tier social influencing)
• Better Endurance/Stamina (Do a lot more slapstick and drag out fights)
• Better Teamwork (Drake and Josh are close friends who do things together a lot and can work together well while Zack and Cody fight so much that it breaks a mad scientist's machine)

Conversely, Zack and Cody's advantages in this fight would be:

• Zack and a determined Cody are physically stronger scaling from the explosion feat that they withstood in both a lowball and a midball scenario. Highballed they stomp in raw power, as Drake and Josh at best survived hits from an ice machine that was demolishing a neighborhood overtime while Zack and Cody at best scale to London surviving being in a tornado that devastated large parts of the Midwest and a Robot who can destroy multiple city blocks. 
• More Durable (Josh survived being smashed through a stone wall, Zack and Cody survived an explosion that shook at least a section of a large Hotel)
• Faster (Drake and Josh at best scale to peak human-ish while Zack and Cody have several toonforce feats of moving fast enough to become a blur, completely disappearing from sight Flash Step-style, and completely messing up half a room in a couple seconds as well as scaling to Moseby traveling from his house to the Tipton in a couple of seconds)
• Assuming you take Season 5 Episode 26 as having happened Cody should dwarf Drake and Josh in intelligence. Even without it, Cody has better intelligence feats then Josh (outright superhuman intelligence feats compared to genius level intelligence feats) and Zack when motivated has arguably better intelligence feats compared to Drake
• Zack and Cody can resist Mr. Moseby's social influencing which is superior to Drake and Josh's while Drake and Josh have no resistance to being psychologically manipulated. In fact, if they realized their opponents were crafty, Drake and Josh are liable to psych themselves out. 
• Zack has better feats of dexterity/accuracy than Drake and Josh being cartoonishly superhuman as opposed to humanly impressive 
• Zack's stealth feat is pretty clearly superior to Drake's
• Zack's feat of voice mimicry is arguably superior to Drake's, though it may be more specialized
• Cody has an instant win button with his sleep manipulation
• Zack and Cody have better combat skill (Drake and Josh's best combat skill feats come from fighting criminals while Zack and Cody have fought actual Ninjas. Trained Professional Warriors are a bit of a leap above violent lawbreakers)

In a midballed scenario I feel fairly confident Zack and Cody would take it. Cody might have a bit of trouble doing damage to Drake and Josh but Zack should be able to knock them out of commission with his strikes while in return Drake and Josh would struggle to even hit the twins given Zack and Cody's superior skill and speed. Drake and Josh might have better endurance, but Zack and Cody's durable enough they won't even need to rely on endurance and while Drake and Josh can fight through the pain, the physical tear plus the mental damage of psyching themselves out against crafty opponents like Zack and Cody would keep them from fighting optimally. Plus if Zack and Cody are really having a tough time knocking Drake and Josh out Cody can use the sleep inducing karate he learned. A highballed scenario is a bigger stomp with Zack and Cody arguably being able to blitz as well as being able to tank Drake and Josh's strikes and Zack at least one-shotting them. A lowballed scenario is probably the only situation where I could see it being even kind of relative and even then I feel like to give Drake and Josh the win, you'd have to just sort of ignore Zack and Cody's bigger feats. 

Drake and Josh was 56 episodes and two movies in total. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody alone was 86 episodes and the Suite Life on Deck was another 71 episodes and a movie. Beyond that Drake and Josh's world was mostly realistic, with the only supernatural element being the alien in Season 3 Episode 16. Conversely in just the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, the more "tame" of the two series before it went overboard with supernatural elements there's a ghost, humans being able to talk to dogs, people talking to their own thought bubbles, a wacky inventor who created a machine that can take you to alternate dimensions and a robot version of himself, toonforce that lets you stay in midair for a few seconds before falling, and a crossover with the psychic Raven from That's So Raven. Zack and Cody is simply a much more out there world and with so much more content which is why their feats are so much higher. I'd argue that in-universe, Drake and Josh are supposed to be more impressive. They have been a major part in the lives of several worldwide celebrities, got a number-one hit song, and apprehended a criminal on the FBI's Top Ten most wanted while Zack and Cody in the present and outside the movie have mostly lived relatively normal lives. As smart as Cody is presented as being, Bailey is generally seen as an intellectual rival to him (as well as numerous other characters treated as similarly smart) and he doesn't get into the college he wants. As smart as he is, that's just a normal high level of intelligence in the Zack and Cody universe. It's just that the universe of Zack and Cody is one that's just randomly absurd at times.

To give a quick vs profile for each character to sum up what I found (this is what I would consider a midball interpretation)

Name: Drake Parker

Origin: Drake and Josh

Powers and Abilities: Above Average Human Stats, Social Influencing, Skilled at Music, Dance, Ping-Pong, Lock-Picking, and Stealth, Voice Mimicry, Fourth Wall Breaking/Metafictional Perception and Interaction

Weaknesses: Usually fairly ignorant and impulsive, can psych himself out against opponents he knows are crafty

Attack Potency: Wall Level (Has knocked out Josh out, contributed to knocking a treehouse over, fought Lucy evenly)

Range: Melee Range normally

Speed: Likely Peak Human Speed (Evaded an angry rottweiler and similar to Josh)

Durability: Wall Level (Survived being hit by ice shards from Sally that was doing damage to the neighborhood. Was uninjured from Lucy tackling him through a wooden door. Has taken numerous hits from Josh before)

Stamina: At least Upper Human Level (swam for two miles)

Intelligence: Normally Below Average (Usually depicted as being as below average), Genius in areas of his specialties (Got a Number 1 Hit Song and regularly dates and kisses from women who would be motivated to not like him.)

Skill: Low C Tier (Fought dangerous criminals in hand to hand)

Name: Josh Nichols

Origin: Drake and Josh

Powers and Abilities: Above Average Human Stats, Limited Martial Arts (Has taken a crash Karate course), Skill at Billiards and Magic, Fourth Wall Breaking/Metafictional Awareness and Interaction | All of the prior as well as: Social Influencing, Skill at Dance and Racquetball

Weaknesses: Physically Uncoordinated and easily tired out. Is easily made anxious. | Can still be overly anxious at times

Attack Potency: Probably Wall Level (Hurts Drake with his strikes. Helped knock down a treehouse) | Wall Level (Stronger than before. Fought with criminals that can tank having wood smashed on the back of their heads and possibly knocked one across the room) 

Range: Melee Range normally

Speed: Likely Peak Human Speed (Evaded an angry rottweiler and is implied to have temporarily outrun an angry cow. Run 4 kilometers in 23 minutes. Temporarily kept up with a car)

Durability: Wall Level (Survived being hit by ice shards from Sally that was doing damage to the neighborhood. Withstood being tackled 20 yards into the endzone. Withstood while unconscious Bludge pushing him through a stone wall)

Stamina: At least Upper Human Level (swam for two miles)

Intelligence: Genius Level (Won the science fair with a hyperbolic photon cannon the judge called the most impressive scientific display he had seen in 26 years. Mostly won the Academic Bowl for Drake.)

Skill: Low C Tier (Fought dangerous criminals in hand to hand)

Key: Seasons 1-3 | Season 4

Name: Zack Martin

Origin: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Powers and Abilities: Above Average Human Stats, Social Influencing, Skill at Skateboarding, Bowling, Mini-Golf, and Stealth, Voice Mimicry, Can see Ghosts, Limited Telepathy (Has a limited connection with his twin brother Cody) Potential Resistance to Social Influencing (Neither Zack nor Cody could be controlled by Mr. Moseby) | All of the prior as well as Skill at Croquet | Astral Nature (Is a soul)

Weaknesses: Usually Ignorant and Impulsive. 

Attack Potency: Likely Wall Level (Can damage Cody, helped hold up a Hotel Satellite Dish) | At least Wall Level, possibly higher (Scales above London and Mr. Moseby who walked off being in a tornado and hit by lightning and a robot's laser respectively)| Higher (Destroyed a lab as a side effect of fighting with Cody as souls)

Range: Melee Range normally

Speed: Varies but up to superhuman, potentially subsonic (Has moved fast enough to become a blur, has and scales to feats that would require being several times or even an order of magnitude faster than a normal human)

Durability: Wall Level (Was not significantly injured from being near an explosion that destroyed the wall of the Tipton and shook at least part of the Hotel) | At least Wall Level, possibly higher (Scales above London and Mr. Moseby who walked off being in a tornado and hit by lightning and a robot's laser respectively and was implied to be going to be hit by a lightning bolt himself) | Higher (His soul was undamaged fighting Cody's)

Stamina: Likely Above Average (Given his athletic background, likely has higher than average stamina)

Intelligence: Varies based on motivation between Below Average (Never gotten a B before, couldn't spell award) to Clever (Did complex math about Stocks and reviewed his mother's contract) | Varies between High Animalistic (Compared to a Monkey and an Octopus) to Clever (Created a stink bomb that created a noxious cloud which required hazmat suits to safely navigate)

Skill: High D Tier (Shown good dexterity and coordination) | Mid C Tier (Outfought Ninjas before)

Key: Suite Life of Zack and Cody | Suite Life on Deck | As a Soul 

Name: Cody Martin

Origin: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Powers and Abilities: Above Average Human Stats, Social Influencing, Limited Martial Arts (has taken two Karate lessons), Sleep Manipulation (knows a Karate move that can put people to sleep), Can see Ghosts, Limited Telepathy (Has a limited connection with his twin brother Zack) Potential Resistance to Social Influencing (Neither Cody nor Zack could be controlled by Mr. Moseby) | All of the prior | Astral Nature (Is a soul)

Weaknesses: Is physically uncoordinated, a Neurotic Priss

Attack Potency: Likely Wall Level (Can damage Zack, helped hold up a Hotel Satellite Dish) | Varies Between Human Level (Intimidated between a woman being able to bend a metal platter with her bare hands) and at least Wall Level, possibly higher (Lifted a glass case he and Zack couldn't initially from determination)| Higher (Destroyed a lab as a side effect of fighting with Zack as souls)

Range: Melee Range normally

Speed: Varies but up to superhuman, potentially subsonic (Has moved fast enough to become a blur, has and scales to feats that would require being several times or even an order of magnitude faster than a normal human)

Durability: Wall Level (Was not significantly injured from being near an explosion that destroyed the wall of the Tipton and shook at least part of the Hotel) | Wall Level | Higher (His soul was undamaged fighting Zack's)

Stamina: Average

Intelligence: Genius Level (Broke a computer so every key brought up a dancing Koala. Does his mother's taxes and made a ton of money investing his allowance despite being a pre-teen.) | Potentially Type 2 Supergenius (Created a Time Machine and aided the interstellar civilization of humanity centuries in the future by using technology to warp spacetime though this episode only arguably happened. Understood the mad science of Dr. Olsen who wanted to merge the minds of twins into one in the movie.)

Skill: High D Tier (Shown good dexterity and coordination) | Mid C Tier (Outfought Ninjas before)

Key: Suite Life of Zack and Cody | Suite Life on Deck | As a Soul

Given I'm apparently one of, if not the only person, to actually research these two verses for feats, feel free to say if you want more vs blogs about them.