Leaks show that Pokémon World Championships could become PokeCon

It looks like the recent move to make the Pokémon World Championships more of a general Pokémon convention is what's next, at least according to leaked information about upcoming events.

As part of the ongoing Game Freak Teraleaks, some details about upcoming Pokémon World Championships have been announced early. These include promotional images for PWC 2025 in Anaheim, which may have confirmed the Pokémon Legends: ZA starters, as well as a list of plans for the 2026 event, which will drastically shake things up for Pokémon as a brand.

Since 2004, the Pokémon World Championships have been a venue for The Pokémon Company to bring together top players from several different games in the franchise, ranging from the Pokémon Trading Card Game to spin-off titles such as Pokémon UNITE and Pokémon Go. While the focus of Pokémon Worlds has remained on the competitive aspect in recent years, interest in the event has grown from a casual perspective, and it looks like that interest exists internally as well.

It appears that for the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, TPC and its partners will host a larger event at the same time that will better appeal to the general Pokémon audience. According to a translation of leaked documents, the expansion will be handled internally by Project Mistral. It is listed as “an event that brings together all things Pokémon and celebrates the 30th anniversary of Pokémon and the recent rise of the Pokémon World Championships.”

Very few details are given apart from the general plans, but TPC is clearly committed to hosting both events as complements to one another, noting that the promotional art for each event must be different but interconnected, as they are considered “two interconnected Events”. This isn't a new pivot in the event space for major brands, as Wizards of the Coast recently did something similar with Magic the Gathering's MagicCon, and Evo has slowly evolved from just a tournament series to a center of fighting game culture.

According to TPC in this leaked document, the current style of using location-inspired themes would change to the theme for Project Mistral's event art, while the World Championships would take on more of an “eSports” style.

Related article: Leaks show that Pokémon have tried more action battles in Legends Arceus

As always with Pokémon leaks, none of this information has been confirmed and should be taken lightly until The Pokémon Company makes an official statement regarding the next World Championship events. Additionally, the shared document is likely machine translated. So if any context is misrepresented, this article will be updated accordingly.