The Pokémon Company is removing Pokémon Unite from its annual World Championships lineup beginning with the 2027 season. The popular MOBA, which launched in 2021 for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, will instead feature a standalone in-person event held in Japan.
While Unite will no longer be a part of the official Championship Series, qualified teams will have their travel expenses covered for the new event. Further details regarding qualification and support will be announced later on the official Pokémon Unite website. The Pokémon Company expressed gratitude to the Unite community for their contributions to the competitive scene.
Speculation from sources like Serebii webmaster Joe Merrick suggests that declining viewership and potentially low player enrollment for the World Championship events may have influenced this decision. Last year, the VOD for the Pokémon Unite stream at the World Championships garnered approximately 135,772 views, a figure significantly lower than the viewership for the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet finals in the same year.
Pokémon Unite is not the only competitive Pokémon title undergoing changes. Pokémon Go is also set to alter its format for the 2027 World Championships, shifting to a 3v3 team-based competition. Individual player qualification for Pokémon Go Worlds will remain unchanged, with invitations based on performance and accumulated Championship Points throughout the 2027 season.
This year's World Championships in San Francisco will prominently feature Pokémon Scarlet and Violet as the primary competitive game. It remains unclear if future iterations of the tournament will include upcoming titles, such as the Generation X games, which are slated for release on the Switch 2 next year.