2026 Pokémon World Championships highlights include historic Pokémon GO win and UNITE crown

The 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco delivered memorable moments across Pokémon VGC, Pokémon TCG, Pokémon GO and Pokémon UNITE, with champions crowned in all four competitions before the Pokémon esports season moves toward next year’s Worlds in Singapore. The event marked the first time Pokémon VGC crowned World Champions competing on Pokémon Champions, while GGs489hiromaru made history in Pokémon GO by defeating MEweedle in the Grand Finals to become the first Japanese player to win the World Championship. Other standout moments included Antonio Sánchez’s clever Protect play in VGC, Takuma Yamazaki’s dramatic double Feint and Aqua Jet knockout against Mega Charizard Y, Andrew Hedrick’s deck-out victory over 2017 World Champion Diego Cassiraga in the Pokémon TCG, Mateusz using Dusknoir’s Cursed Blast twice to force an unusual tiebreaker and ZETA Division claiming the Pokémon UNITE World Championship after finishing runner-up in 2025. The celebrations continued at San Francisco’s Chase Center with a live performance of “Gotta catch ’em all!” as fans marked the conclusion of another Pokémon World Championships.