​The Pokémon Company International has announced that the free-to-play MMO Pokémon Unite will not appear at the Pokémon World Championships starting from 2027. This means that this year’s World Championships, held in San Francisco between August 28 and 30, will be the last time that Pokémon Unite appears at Pokémon’s largest tournament.Pokémon Unite first appeared at the Pokémon World Championships in 2022, a year after the game was released. It has been a staple of Pokémon tournaments since then, with Unite players competing alongside Pokémon Go, VGC and TCG participants. There are $500,000 in cash prizes available at the World Championships for the top 16 Pokémon Unite teams, with the winning players taking home $100,000 to share between the five competitiors.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA statement on the official Pokémon Unite website reads, “we have decided that Pokémon Unite will not be part of the 2027 Pokémon World Championships and will instead hold a separate tournament, Pokémon Unite Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo.” Aeos Crown will also replace the Asia Champion League finals, and Unite’s championship circuit will be replaced by five months of online regional qualifiers.The online circuit is expected to begin around November 2026, and results will be separated by region. The top teams of each region will then receive prize money and an award will be given to cover their travel expenses to Tokyo for the March 2027 finals. This will be the only official in-person tournament that Pokémon Unite will be a part of after this year’s Pokémon World Championships.No explanation has been given for the removal of Pokémon Unite from most official in-person Pokémon tournaments, but it is likely due to wider changes to Pokémon esports. Pokémon Champions launched in April 2026, as the new official platform for video game competition. Historically, Pokémon VGC is played in the latest mainline Pokémon game, and Champions marks the first time that a game has been released specifically for competitive Pokémon.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile games such as Pokémon Stadium, and Pokémon Battle Revolution have been used in official tournaments before, they also contain single-player modes and mini games. By contrast, Pokémon Champions is a free-to-play game for Nintendo Switch 2 and mobile made specifically for online competitive play. Alongside the announcement that Unite would be dropped from the Pokémon Championship circuit, it was revealed that despite Pokémon Champions being available on mobile, competitors will need a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 if they want to compete in in-person tournaments.