Taking place in Anaheim, California, this past weekend, the Pokémon World Championship 2025 is the franchise’s top-tier competition for the TCG and esports ecosystem.
Split into four competitions, top players fought to become the very best across the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Video Game, Pokémon Go and Pokémon UNITE. Here are all the winners of the 2025 Pokémon World Championship.
Pokémon World Championships 2025 – VGC
The VGC Masters World Championship saw a full domestic final between James Evans and Giovanni Cischke.
The latter defeated his opponent 2-1 to record his first-ever tournament win in the game. Luke Whittier and Kevin Han were the winners of the Juniors and Seniors divisions, respectively, with the United States sweeping the entire VCG category.
Pokémon World Championships 2025 – TCG
It was a dominant run for Canadian Riley McKay, who conquered most of his playoff opponents, including the finals’ Justin Newdorf. McKay took his first-ever world championship and with it, $50,000 (~£36,913) in the prize pool. Chinese player Liao Fuguan took the Seniors division, with Japanese Yuya Okita winning the Junior division.
Pokémon World Championships 2025 – Pokémon UNITE
Despite only finishing second in its group in the first phase of the tournament, South American team PERÚ made an incredible run to win the Pokémon UNITE championship.
The team notably defeated Luminosity Gaming in the semi-finals and the Japanese team ZETA Division in the final match. PERÚ had previously taken part in the 2024 and 2023 editions, with a top-eight finish as the best result.
Pokémon World Championships 2025 – Pokémon GO
After coming in fourth place during last year’s world championship, Indian player Ved ‘Beelzeboy‘ Bamb took the crown at this year’s Pokémon GO championship.
Beating Leo ‘P4T0M4N’ Marín with a 3-1 and 3-2 score, this is the first time an Indian player has won an esports world championship.
Pokémon World Championships will move to San Francisco in 2026
The 2026 Pokémon World Championships will take place at the Chase Center, the same venue used for several other esports events, including the League of Legends World Championship back in 2022. Multi-day passes will be available for purchase starting on September 17th.
2026 will also mark the year of the first-ever Pokémon Champions competition, the new strategy game of the franchise. Shifting to the free-to-play game for the VCG, the game will be released on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.
In addition to the competitions, there will also be a new fan experience, Pokémon XP, at the Moscone Center, featuring a variety of offerings and activities, according to a release.
