Pokémon Champions confirmed to be used at Pokémon World Championships 2026

A whole season of competitive Pokémon play has just wrapped up, following the electric finale of the Pokémon World Championships today. Following the finals of the VGC portion of the tournament was the Worlds closing ceremony, which revealed that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s reign in competitive Pokémon is effectively over. 

The closing ceremony of the Pokémon World Championships revealed that the 2026 World Championships will use the recently announced Pokémon Champions for its VGC portion, the first time in the series’ history that the official competitive circuit will use a game other than the main series games. Pokémon Champions will be used starting in 2026 up to and including the World Championships for all competitive play, with many speculating it could be used after that, too. 

It’s no surprise that Champions is taking over from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet in the competitive circuit. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, set to be released later this year, doesn’t have a traditional competitive mode – though it does have a newly announced free-for-all multiplayer deathmatch mode – so the earliest a new competitive game could be released would be late next year. Scarlet and Violet were also used for competitive play for three consecutive years at Worlds, and with no new Pokémon likely to be added to the game, there was a risk of the competitive scene becoming stale. 

Pokémon Champions avoids this by allowing different battle mechanics and gimmicks from across the series’ history while still sticking to the classic combat system fans know and love. The first competitive season for Champions features Mega Evolution for example – including the recently revealed Mega Dragonite, and likely other Mega Evolved Pokémon from Legends: Z-A – and the game’s newly updated website shows an “Omni Ring” that’s capable of Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Terastalization, and Dynamaxing, alongside a promise that new mechanics will come to the game in the future. 

Pokémon Champions is set to be released on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices in 2026, and will be a free-to-start game.