New Pokemon Champions Trailer Teases Major Changes (and Some Big Questions)

Pokemon Worlds has come to an end, and its conclusion has led to some big hints about the future. The Pokemon Company has released a trailer for Pokemon Champions, a brand-new game coming to Nintendo and mobile platforms. As we’ve known since February, Pokemon Champions will basically act as a new Pokemon Stadium type game, allowing players to compete in turn-based Pokemon battles that connect to Pokemon Home. The Pokemon Company is indicating that this is more than just a Stadium refresh though, and it will actually be a pivotal piece of software for fans.

As confirmed by The Pokemon Company, Pokemon Champions will serve as the replacement for the Video Game Championships (also known as VGC) at Pokemon Worlds in 2026. This implies that Pokemon Worlds is finally moving away from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and that Pokemon Champions could be the future home for all VGC activities moving forward. Fans had been speculating that might be the case, and it would make a lot of sense. The new trailer can be found below.

Play video

Mega Evolution is making a big comeback in all aspects of the franchise starting with this year’s Pokemon Legends: Z-A. The debut trailer for Pokemon Champions implied that Mega Evolutions and other “special battle features” could coexist in one game for the first time, as we saw Mega Charizard X battling a Terastallized Dondozo. The Pokemon Company has now confirmed that Pokemon Champions players will be using a new item called the Omni Ring, which seems capable of activating all of these special battle features. However, it has been confirmed that the first set of ranked battles in Pokemon Champions will only allow Mega Evolution.

The Pokemon Company has also confirmed a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pokemon Champions, which suggests we could see improved graphics and performance on the newer system. The game will be free to start, but there will also be a paid version. At this time, we don’t know what the differences will be between the two versions, or how much the paid version will cost. A set release date has not been announced, either. With Pokemon Champions officially replacing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at Pokemon Worlds in 2026, we can safely assume the game will be released earlier in the year, rather than later.

Read Next

I Need Pokemon Champions to Learn from Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Mistake

There are still a lot of questions The Pokemon Company has to answer. On top of associated costs, we don’t know whether this will serve as a full replacement for the multiplayer mode in mainline games. Fans have speculated that the tenth generation of Pokemon games won’t feature a dedicated multiplayer mode, with all competitive play taking place solely in Pokemon Champions from now on. However, it’s also possible we could see the developers using this as an excuse to implement unique multiplayer modes like Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s newly revealed Z-A Battle Club.

Are you looking forward to Pokemon Champions? How do you feel about everything new revealed for the game? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!