Pokemon Champions launches in April

Pokemon Champions has confirmed its launch timing, which is set for April on Nintendo Switch and the mobile version following this summer. News about the game just dropped during today’s Pokemon Presents event.

Pokemon Champions was actually announced exactly one year ago today. The battle-focused game was known to be coming sometime this year, but beyond that, we didn’t have specific timing.

Catch up on everything you need to know about the title with the following information:

Battle with Pokémon – including with Mega-Evolved Pokémon, like Mega Dragonite – against other players in the Pokémon Champions game – the same game that will be used for the Pokémon World Championships in 2026! These single and double battles use familiar mechanics from previous Pokémon series games such as Pokémon types, Abilities, and moves, enabling the rich and varied battle strategies you may already know and love.

Compete in Ranked Battles against players from all over the world, or try Casual Battles for some easygoing fun. You can also have Private Battles with just your friends and family.

Recruit Pokémon to join your team and train them to hone their skills

Before you venture into the world of Pokémon battles, try finding Pokémon to fight alongside you! Once per day, you can recruit Pokémon on a trial basis and use them in battle to see if they’re a good fit for your style. Once you’ve found a match, use your in-game Victory Points (VP) to bring Pokémon on to your team.

You can also use your VP to train the permanent members of your Pokémon squad. Hone their Attack, Defense, and other stats, and even alter their Abilities and moves to try out different strategies in battle!

Pokémon Champions will be compatible with Pokémon Home, the cloud service for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch system, and mobile devices. That means, in addition to the Pokémon partners available in Pokémon Champions, you can also team up with certain Pokémon brought over from past Pokémon series games and Pokémon GO.

We have the opening movie below.

Opening Movie

Additional news from today’s Pokemon Presents event can be found here.