Everything announced at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships closing ceremony

Pokémon Go, Unite, TCG Pocket, and more all had new announcements

The Pokémon Company

The 2024 Pokémon World Championships took place over the weekend, with hundreds of competitors fighting for victory across Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, Pokémon Go, Pokémon Unite, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Ahead of the event, The Pokémon Company revealed that Worlds’ closing ceremony would have some exciting announcements, and… well, there were some announcements. 

The news is good for fans of Pokémon Go, though nothing we haven’t heard about before, better for Pokémon Unite fans, and great for Pokémon TCG players, both present and future. Anyone hoping for news about the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be disappointed, though, but that was unlikely to begin with — Worlds tends to focus on competitive games, and Legends: Z-A is likely to be single-player, just like Legends: Arceus before it. 

So let’s get stuck into it, here’s everything announced at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships closing ceremony. 

Worlds 2024: Pokémon Go announcements 

Two big announcements were made for Pokémon Go, one of which is quite small (literally) and the other quite big (also literally). 

The first is that Morpeko, the chubby electric rodent from generation 8, is coming to Pokémon Go. It will be able to switch between its two forms, Full Belly Mode and Hangry Mode, by using a charged move. This includes Aura Wheel, Morpeko’s signature move, which will be added to the game alongside the Pokémon. 

The other was a tease for Dynamax, an upcoming mechanic that also originates in generation 8. In Sword and Shield, the only games to feature the mechanic, Dynamax turns your Pokémon into a big, kaiju-like form of itself. Some Pokémon even get special forms when Dynamaxing, called Gigantamax, and judging by the fact that icons for both Dynamax and Gigantamax are already in the game, we can bet both will be coming. 

Neither announcement had a release date attached. 

Worlds 2024: Pokémon Unite announcements 

The Pokémon MOBA is getting three new playable characters, which is pretty cool for Unite players. Armarouge is the split-evolution counterpart to Ceruledge, which was previously added to Unite in June, and is a Ranged Attacker specializing in, well, special attacks. It’s being added to the game on September 12, 2024. 

Darkrai is a Ranged Speedster, with a host of spooky shadow-based abilities that make it look like a nightmare to deal with. It will join the Unite crew at some point in October. Psyduck is the last of the newly announced Pokémon, and it’s a Ranged Supporter that focuses on special attacks and buffing allies or debuffing enemies. It’s coming in November. 

Worlds 2024: Pokémon TCG announcements 

There was only one big announcement for the Pokémon TCG: the return of Trainer’s Pokémon. A long time ago, we used to get Pokémon cards that belonged to specific trailers — think Brock’s Sandslash, Sabrina’s Alakazam, or Giovanni’s Persian. 

The trailer we saw, which you can watch below, showed Lillie’s Clefairy, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl, and a few of N’s Pokémon, including Zoroark and Reshiram. The end of the trailer also hinted at a Team Rocket-themed TCG expansion, which we’d imagine will probably see the return of Rocket’s Pokémon cards. 

Worlds 2024: Pokémon TCG Pocket release date 

Perhaps the biggest announcement of the event, we finally got a release date for the upcoming mobile game Pokémon TCG Pocket. If you aren’t aware, TCG Pocket is a new take on the TCG, with a simplified rule set that focuses on faster, more streamlined gameplay. If you’re into Yu-Gi-Oh, this is kind of like the Rush Duel of the Pokémon universe. 

Pokémon TCG Pocket will be released on Android and iOS on October 30, 2024. It’s currently available to pre-register on both platforms. 

Worlds 2024: Next Pokémon World Championships locations 

Finally, The Pokémon Company revealed the locations for the 2025 and 2026 Pokémon World Championships. The 2025 Pokémon World Championships will take place between August 15 and August 17 in Anaheim, California, while the 2026 Pokémon World Championships will take place between August 28 and August 30 in San Francisco, California. 

Having the next two Pokémon World Championships in California is certainly convenient for a lot of US competitors, but it’s a bit… boring, if we’re being honest. Six previous Worlds have been held in California, and none have been held in, say, continental Europe, South America, or Australia, so it does seem like there could have been some better options, but alas.