The Pokémon World Championships 2024 results are in, celebrating the very best Pokémon Go, Unite, and VGC players from across the globe. As well as crowning new champions, the Worlds closing ceremony also gave us a look into the future of Pokémon’s mobile and Switch titles.
Over 13k players and fans descended on the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu this past weekend to watch and participate in heated battles and friendly competition across the Pokémon games, capping off the 2024 competitive season. The Pokémon Company International crowned the US’s Kevin Han, Japan’s Ray Yamanaka, and Italy’s Luca Ceribelli as Pokémon VGC Juniors, Seniors, and Masters Champions respectively, while Yekai0904 from Hong Kong took home the Pokémon Go title and Japan’s Pokémon Unite team, FENNEL, succeeded against Korea’s XoraTigersGaming.
Aside from the competition itself, the most exciting part of the Pokémon World Championships is the closing ceremony, which always features big announcements for the Pokémon games as well as revealing the location of next year’s event. This year, we finally got the Pokémon TCG Pocket release date after attendees got to test out the card-collecting app in Hawaii during the tournament weekend.
Dark Pokémon fans can get excited for Morpeko making its debut in Pokémon Go, as well as the new battle-only form feature that lets you change a Pokémon’s form by using its charged attack. This means you can use Morpeko’s Hangry Form and Full-Belly Form to make the most of its dual typing. Another trailer also teased that ‘something big’ is coming to Pokémon Go, and based on the swirling red clouds and stomping footsteps, we reckon it’s finally time for gigantamax Pokémon to hit the app.
Pokémon Unite is also getting a new type of casual battle and three more Unite licenses for Armarouge, Psyduck, and Darkrai. The new additions are sure to shake up the competitive meta, but if you prefer a more casual approach, you can look forward to 500-Point Battles in spring 2025. Finally, both 2025 and 2026’s Pokémon World Championships will take place in California, with 2025 returning to Anaheim and 2026 journeying to San Francisco.
Those are the Pokémon World Championships 2024 results and all of the headlines from the closing ceremony. If you were hoping for more mainline game news, check out our Pokémon Legends: Z-A release date guide to see what we know so far. Alternatively, check out our Pokémon Go best Pokémon tier list to get to grips with the game’s meta and practice for next year’s competition.