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We need more support for competitive Pokémon TCG Pocket

Grassroots Pokémon TCG Pocket tournaments are sweeping the online scene, but competitors are calling for official support and recognition.

Pokemon TCG Pocket tournaments: A gold Palkia card and an official Pokemon Worlds trophy pasted on a blurred Limitless listing page

It’s been just over three months since Pokémon TCG Pocket launched worldwide on mobile and its popularity shows no signs of diminishing. In fact, alongside the millions of casual players and collectors, trainers around the world have developed a huge grassroots tournament system and are calling for official recognition from The Pokémon Company.

The vast majority of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s marketing focuses on the app’s pack opening and collecting features, so it might come as a bit of a shock that the battling side of the free mobile game has taken off. However, according to Pokémon TCG Pocket content creator Ursiiday’s research, the game’s competitive scene “boasts more unique users than every other game” on Limitless TCG, the popular online tournament platform.

Ursiiday’s weekly tournament averages 1.8k players showing off their Pokémon TCG Pocket decks and skills, and the recent Hooglandia & Spragels Open livestream reached over 6k concurrent viewers. From my own experience of watching the official Pokémon TCG and VGC tournaments, which I’ve seen peak at around 4k viewers, these numbers are staggering. This consistent level of interest is why Ursiiday and other Pokémon TCG Pocket players are calling on Pokémon’s Director of Global Esports, Chris Brown, to extend official support to the mobile game’s tournament scene.

If this were to happen, it wouldn’t be the first Pokémon mobile game to join the Championship Series, but it’s unclear how long this would take. Pokémon Go and Pokémon Unite both joined the official Championship Series in 2022, but the former launched all the way back in 2016, whereas Unite launched in 2021. Hopefully, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s incredible grassroots tournament success will lead to some form of official support, namely an in-game ranked system.

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If you’re interested in getting to grips with one of the best Pokémon games of all time, make sure you check out our Pokémon TCG Pocket tier list to learn more about the game’s strongest cards. We’ve also got a list of Pokémon Go’s best Pokémon if prefer that style of battling.