Pokémon Champions is a new Pokémon game dedicated to fighting and battling Pokémon that was showcased at the July 2025 Pokémon Presents and was once again shown off at the February 2026 Pokémon Presents just weeks ago.
At last month's Pokémon Presents, we learned that Pokémon Champions would arrive on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 in April, but no specific date was given. This morning, however, Nintendo debuted a new overview trailer for the game through the Nintendo Today! app, which goes over the different gameplay elements of Pokémon Champions, and is capped off with the reveal that the game will arrive on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 on April 8, 2026.
It is also still set to come to mobile devices, but that release will not be ready for next month. Though The Pokémon Company does add that when the mobile version arrives, "you'll be able to battle cross-platform between Nintendo Switch and mobile devices."
You'll recruit Pokémon to your team by transferring your Pokémon from other games like Pokémon Legends Arceus, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A through the Pokémon Home app. Once you link up all of your Pokémon games through the Pokémon Home app (if you haven't already done so) and add Pokémon Champions to your growing list of Pokémon titles, you'll be able access the Pokémon you've caught in previous games to battle them in Pokémon Champions.
That's one key way you'll be able to recruit Pokémon to your team. The second way is through the Recruit mechanic in Pokémon Champions. Every player can recruit a Pokémon once per-day from a random selection that appears in the game. But those Pokémon you recruit daily aren't permanently in your roster automatically. To keep them around for more than a week, you'll have to spend in-game Victory Points (VP) to make them permanent additions.
You'll earn VP through engaging in battles in any of the Battle Modes, which include Ranked, Casual, and Private. Each are exactly what they sound like. Ranked Battle pit you against players at your ranking, winning moves you up, losing brings you back down. Wins and losses in Casual Battles are not recorded, and Private battles let you battle against anyone who has the specific Room ID so you can directly battle your friends online.
There are also competitions that'll run in Pokémon Champions, each of which will have a unique set of rules that change with each fresh competition.
VP is how you do everything in the game. You'll need VP to make Pokémon permanent additions to your roster, to change their move-set, change their nature, abilities, everything. You can also use VP to get more than one opportunity to recruit a Pokémon each day, and it's also the currency you use to buy cosmetics for your trainer, battle music, and items for your Pokémon in battles, whether that's heals or Mega Evolution stones.
Pokémon Champions is a 'free-to-start' game, which means you'll be able to download it and play it for free in the beginning, but you'll quickly learn you can make your playing experience far, far better by spending real cash on things like the Starter Pack Bundle, which gives you storage for an additional 50 Pokémon, 30 Teammate Tickets, and 50 Training Tickets.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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