The next ruleset for the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Video Game Championships (VGC) has been announced. Regulation Set I will once again return from 1 April 2026 onwards, with no end date currently announced. Regulation I was the ninth official ruleset for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet VGC, and allows the use of up to two Restricted Special Pokémon per team, such as Koraidon or Miraidon.
The Pokémon Company is once again collaborating with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, this time for a series of Pokémon-themed concerts to be performed across Japan. The tour offers four dates in four cities, beginning in August of this year. Performances will include musical selections from Pokémon games, including Pokémon Red and Green and the upcoming Pokémon Winds and Waves. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale in May..
Owners of Garmin Smartwatches will no longer need to double-up on their Sleep Research, with Pokémon Sleep announcing that the app will now fully support most Garmin smartwatches for Sleep Tracking and studying Pokémon Sleep Styles.
The Pokémon Company has announced a new kind of Pokémon Center location, scheduled to open on April 9th in Yokohama. The new location is dubbed Pokémon Center Yokohama Satellite, and functions as a smaller branch to Yokohama’s regular Pokémon Center, which is located just a six minute walk away. This new satellite location will be in the Joinus shopping center, just outside the west exit of the Yokohama train station.
Noibat and Noivern will be sleepwalking their way onto player's devices later this month, as they making their Pokémon Sleep debuts in the Pokémon Skills Spotlight Week Vol. 1 event. This event is scheduled to begin on March 23rd at 4:00am local time, running through to March 30th at 3:59am local time.
The Gamers For Hope's 2026 Gamers Against Cancer marathon is scheduled to go live this weekend from March 13th to March 15th. A run of Pokémon Crystal is scheduled for the event, which can be watched from its Twitch channel. The marathon will be raising money for the Stand Up To Cancer Foundation.
The Pokémon Company is debuting a new collection of merchandise drawing inspiration from a blooming field of flowers in spring. The collection stars Grass- and Bug-type Pokémon, especially Lurantis, Roserade, and Sunflora, and features plushes, homegoods, apparel, and more. This new floral collection will arrive at Pokémon Centers in Japan on March 21st, and to the Pokémon Center Online on March 19th.
The latest Pokémon to join the fray in Pokémon UNITE is Moltres, a Melee All-Rounder with Intermediate difficulty that deals Special damage. Until Thursday, April 9th, players can clear event missions to collect exclusive coins and exchange them for Moltres's Unite License.
Sleep Researchers will soon be getting another opportunity to observe the sleep styles of a Legendary Pokémon, with a new event featuring Latias announced for Pokémon Sleep. This event is set to begin sometime in April.
The Pokémon Company is offering some sales data for the newly released Pokémon Pokopia, which had its worldwide release on March 5th. The company states that it sold more than 2.2 million units of Pokopia in its first four days, putting it on track to become one of the best-selling spin-off games in the Pokémon franchise.
The next Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion in the Mega Evolution Series has been officially announced in a press release by The Pokémon Company International. Mega Evolution—Chaos Rising will release internationally from May 22nd. The set will primarily contain cards from the Japanese Ninja Spinner expansion, which releases there this Friday March 13th.
While this was a great episode, I also find it both bittersweet and a bit terrifying. It’s bittersweet to see how Coral, Sidian and Chalce were like before, how they are now, and how Hamber has witnessed this all. It’s terrifying because the Strong Spheres have now launched to the general public.
Episodes from the 8th season of Pokémon the Series, "Pokémon: Advanced Battle", are now available on the Pokémon TV YouTube channel, with five new episodes being added per week. These uploads have audio tracks in a total of 14 languages and closed captions in 2 languages.
The newest Drop Event in Pokémon TCG Pocket, running through to March 20th, offers players the opportunity to challenge a series of special solo battles to attempt to obtain new promo cards, including a full-art Charcadet, and various other rewards. The newest Ranked Match Season, for the Paldean Wonders expansion, is also underway, running through to March 24th.
Project VOLTAGE High ↑, the continuation to the art and music collaboration between Pokémon and the popular Volcaloid character Hatsune Miku, has posted its seventh song, 「クロスロード」 “Crossroad”, by vocaloid producers kz and TAKU INOUE, on Monday, March 9th, at 6:39pm (JST).
The official X (formerly Twitter) account for the White House has shared a meme making use of the Pokémon Pokopia logo, to the chagrin of The Pokémon Company International (TPCi). The Tweet features Donald Trump’s infamous mantra, Make America Great Again, in the Pokopia title font. TPCi has responded with a statement firmly disassociating itself from the controversial administration. Sravanthi Dev, spokesperson for TPCi, said: We are aware of recent social content that includes imagery associated with our brand. We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda. TPCi has previously had to distance itself from the Trump White House, when in September of last year the official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) X account posted a video with the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” tagline...
Lots of new merchandise has been released in the lead up to the Pokémon franchise’s 30th anniversary, and this week saw even more announcements and debuts of Pokémon-themed goods. Frequent Pokémon partner Uniqlo is offering customizable Pokopia t-shirts at their locations in Japan, while Puma, another continuing collaborator, has announced their new Pikachu sneakers. Plus, Pokémon Centers worldwide have added plenty of plushes of Ditto posing as other Pokémon, available online now.
Updates posted today on the Pokémon Trading Card Game's official Japanese homepage and YouTube channel have given fans their first look at all remaining regular print versions of cards from the upcoming Ninja Spinner expansion that hits store shelves in Japan on March 13th.
Pokémon Champions' first Online Competition has been announced. The sign-up period for the 2026 Global Challenge I runs from 24 April 2026 at 02:00 UTC to 4 May 2026 at 01:59 UTC, with the event itself running from 1 May at 02:00 UTC to 4 May at 01:59 UTC. The results and winning teams from this event will be found here on Bulbagarden once the event has concluded.
Pokémon Pokopia released for the Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5th, and is already introducing new content to the game, with the confirmation of multiple limited time special events to be held in the game. The first of these, “More Spores for Hoppip” (Japanese: 「ハネッコのわたげあつめ」 Hoppip Fluff Collecting) will be held from Monday, March 9th at 1:00pm (PDT) / 8:00pm (UTC) to Tuesday, March 24th at 12:59pm (PDT) / 7:59pm (UTC).
