Pokémon Champions

The 2026 Pokémon Japan Championships was a National-level Pokémon Champions tournament that featured 128 players battling for invites to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. The event was ultimately won by Hiroshi Onishi alongside Mega Floette and Mega Charizard Y.

The 2026 Pokémon Turin Special Championships was the first official tournament in Europe to take place within Pokémon Champions. It featured 941 players battling for invites to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, and was ultimately won by 3x International Champion Marco Silva alongside Mega Floette and Mega Gengar.

Preregistration is now open for the iOS and Android versions of Pokémon Champions, which are set to release on 17 June 2026. The game will include cross-platform functionality, allowing players to battle between mobile and Nintendo Switch versions of the game. To celebrate the release of the mobile versions of Pokémon Champions, an in-game distribution will be held from 17 June to 2 September 2026.

The 2026 Victory Road May Challenge #5 was a grassroots Pokémon Champions tournament that featured 150 players battling for prize money. The event was won by Nikolaj Høj Nielsen alongside Mega Floette. Further information relating to the event can be found on Victory Road's website.

The 2026 Pokémon Indianapolis Regional Championships was the first official tournament outside of Asia to take place within Pokémon Champions. It featured 1,013 players battling for prize money and invites to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, and was ultimately won by Arsal Puri alongside Mega Charizard Y and Mega Floette.

The 2026 Singapore Master Ball League was an official National-level tournament taking place within Pokémon Champions. The event was held from 23–24 May 2026, and featured 100 players battling for an invite to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. The tournament was won by 2023 Thailand National Finalist Krittapas Augchariyajinda alongside Mega Glimmora.

The Pokémon Trainers Cup 2026 was an official National-level tournament in which South Korean players battled in Pokémon Champions to earn invites to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. The event ran from 24–25 May 2026, and was won by 2x Trainers Cup Finalist Jeongso Lee alongside Mega Charizard Y and Mega Floette.

The 2026 Victory Road May Challenge #4 was a grassroots tournament held in Pokémon Champions from 23–24 May 2026. The event featured 215 players battling for a prize of $730 USD, and was ultimately won by 2020 Knoxville Regional Champion Kyle Livinghouse alongside Mega Froslass and an uncommon pick in the Rock- and Bug-type Kleavor.

The 2026 Thailand Master Ball League was an official National-level tournament taking place within Pokémon Champions. The event was held from 16–17 May 2026, and featured 92 players battling for an invite to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. The tournament was won by Jittarin Rojmahamongkol alongside Mega Venusaur and Mega Aerodactyl.

The 2026 Global Challenge I ran from 1–4 May 2026, and featured over 400,000 trainers battling for the top spot, with 2025 North America International Champion Federico Camporesi coming out on top alongside Mega Charizard Y, Mega Aerodactyl, and a very uncommon pick in Ariados.

Pokémon Champions' first-ever Ranked Battles season, Ranked Season M-1, ran from 8 April to 13 May 2026, with 2x Grand Challenge Champion Joji Kaieda taking first place alongside Mega Charizard Y.

The 2026 Malaysia Master Ball League was an official National-level tournament held in Pokémon Champions from 9–10 May 2026. The event featured 103 players battling for an invite to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, and was ultimately won by Sow Wei Harng alongside Mega Floette and Mega Aerodactyl. This was the first official tournament to be held in Pokémon Champions.

The Champions Arena, an online grassroots tournament hosted by Victory Road, featured a total of 1,039 players battling for a grand prize of $3,120 USD. The event was won by a trainer named Hyungwoo Shin, featuring a team led by Mega Charizard Y alongside Incineroar, Milotic, Sneasler, Venusaur, and Garchomp. More details regarding the event can be found on Victory Road's official results page.

Following the release of Pokémon Champions, further details regarding its first competitive ruleset, Regulation Set M-A, have been released. Most Mega Evolutions return for this new ruleset, but there are a noticeable amount that are not present in Pokémon Champions at launch, including notably some of the game's biggest threats in Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross, and Mega Mawile.

The Play! Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC) Tournament Handbook was updated at the end of March 2026 to include rules and guidance relating to Pokémon Champions and VGC's transition to the upcoming title. It includes insights into currently unannounced features present in Pokémon Champions, future rulesets, and the controversial removal of local communication.

A ton of new information relating to the upcoming Pokémon Champions has been released following the public demo of the game at PAX East, and the private demo shown to a handful of content creators.

After more than a year since the game's first announcement on Pokémon Day 2025, The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo today confirmed that Pokémon Champions will be released for free download on the Nintendo Switch worldwide in just over two weeks, on Wednesday, April 8th.

Pokémon Champions' first Online Competition has been announced. The sign-up period for the 2026 Global Challenge I runs from 24 April 2026 at 02:00 UTC to 4 May 2026 at 01:59 UTC, with the event itself running from 1 May at 02:00 UTC to 4 May at 01:59 UTC. The results and winning teams from this event will be found here on Bulbagarden once the event has concluded.

Mega Evolution finally returns to the Pokémon Video Game Championships in 2026 after seven years of absence! At the closing ceremony of the 2025 Pokémon World Championships, it was confirmed that Pokémon Champions will be the main title for VGC at the following World Championships in 2026, which are taking place in San Francisco, California.

During the recent July 2025 Pokémon Presents, a new trailer for the upcoming Pokémon Champions was released, confirming a 2026 release date. New mechanics were revealed too, with details on teambuilding, in-game currency, training Pokémon, battling, and more. However, some unusual additions were highlighted in this trailer, confusing many VGC players as the future of VGC becomes increasingly unclear.