Event Guide
Pokémon Worlds 2026
Updated August 1, 2026 · August 28–30, San Francisco
The 2026 Pokémon World Championships run August 28–30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Sunday's Grand Finals at the Chase Center. Alongside it, for the first time, is PokémonXP — an official Pokémon fan convention rather than a tournament floor with a merch booth attached. 3 TCG promos are tied to the weekend, and only one of them can be had without being in San Francisco.
The date most articles get wrong
Worlds is August 28–30. The August 27 event is a San Francisco Giants promotion at Oracle Park — Pikachu first pitch, drone show, jersey with the special ticket — not an official Worlds day, and a Worlds badge will not get you in. Separately, the Worlds Celebration tournaments that give out the Pikachu promo start August 21 per pokemon.com, not August 24 as several outlets have it. If you plan around the later date you can miss the first three days of the only promo you can get at home.
Schedule
The San Francisco Giants host a Pokémon Worlds Night at Oracle Park — a Pikachu first pitch, a Pikachu jersey with the special event ticket, and a drone show after the game. This is a Giants promotion with its own ticket. A Worlds or PokémonXP badge does not get you in, and nothing here is a TCG distribution.
Preliminary rounds begin at the Moscone Center. PokémonXP opens the same day.
Advanced Swiss rounds and Top Cut at the Moscone Center.
Grand Finals move across town to the Chase Center — the Warriors’ arena. This is the first year the finals get a venue that size.
Every Worlds 2026 promo card, and how to actually get one
None of these have been distributed yet, so this page links to live and sold eBay comps rather than printing a price. A number quoted before a card exists on the secondary market is a guess, and guesses on this page have a way of becoming other sites' facts.
The annual competitor promo, handed out in the Worlds welcome kit. Carries a gold World Championships 2026 stamp and pictures Pikachu, Sylveon, Archaludon and Klawf against the Paradise Resort backdrop.
How to get it: You have to have earned an invite and be competing in San Francisco. Attendees who did not qualify can also win copies through side events, which is the only realistic route for a non-competitor who is already there.
A Rayquaza from Ascended Heroes with a "PXP" stamp in the corner, exclusive to the two San Francisco events. This is the first year attending gets you a promo card at all.
How to get it: Sources differ on the exact mechanism. PokéBeach reported every badged attendee receives one; pokemon.com describes it alongside purchasing the PokémonXP Pikachu plush. Either way it requires a badge and being in San Francisco — treat "buy the plush" as the safe assumption until the on-site rules are posted.
This year’s Worlds Pikachu, drawn on a San Francisco-inspired background. The only Worlds 2026 promo you can get without flying anywhere.
How to get it: Play in a 2026 Worlds Celebration tournament at a local Play! Pokémon store between August 21 and August 30 — participation earns the card, while supplies last. Win your age division (Junior, Senior or Masters) and you get a "WINNER"-stamped copy instead; TCG division winners also take home a Worlds Celebration deck box and sleeves, while VGC and Pokémon GO winners get a themed screen cleaner.
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Get alerted when Worlds 2026 promos hit the market
Competitor promos list on eBay within hours of the welcome kits going out on August 28 — the first listings are almost always the cheapest. Free email alerts, plus the restock waves that follow Worlds week.
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Worlds Celebration: the promo you can get at home
From August 21 to August 30, local Play! Pokémon stores run 2026 Worlds Celebration tournaments. Playing in one earns the Worlds Pikachu promo while supplies last — no invite, no travel, no badge. Find one through the official Pokémon Event Locator and look for "2026 Worlds Celebration" as the event name.
- Go early in the window. Allocation is per store and the card is explicitly "while supplies last" — the last weekend is the one most likely to be dry.
- Winning changes the prize. Take your age division and you get a "WINNER"-stamped copy instead of the standard one, which is the scarcer card of the two.
- TCG winners get more. A Worlds Celebration deck box and sleeves on top of the card; VGC and Pokémon GO winners get a themed screen cleaner.
- Call ahead. Stores set their own format, entry fee and capacity for these. Turning up at a full event on August 29 is the common way people miss out.
PokémonXP
PokémonXP is the first official Pokémon fan convention, running at the Moscone Center on the same August 28–30 dates. Panels, workshops, special guests, and a pop-up Pokémon Center store with exclusive merchandise. It is the structural change that makes this year different: Worlds has always been a closed competitive event that spectators could watch, and PokémonXP is the first time the weekend is built for people who did not qualify.
The pop-up Pokémon Center is the part with resale consequences. Event-exclusive merchandise sells out on site and appears on eBay the same weekend, and Pokémon Center's regular online stock tends to move during high-profile weeks — which is what the alerts below cover.
What to expect on the secondary market
- Day-of listings are the cheapest. Competitor promos appear within hours of kits being distributed, before anyone has a comp to anchor to. The spread narrows fast once a few sell.
- Check sold, not asking. Early asking prices on an undistributed card are aspirational. The Sold links above are the real number.
- Stamped versions are separate cards. A "WINNER"-stamped Worlds Celebration Pikachu and the participation version are not interchangeable — read listings carefully in the first week when sellers are still sorting out titles.
- Raw now, graded later. Worlds promos are graded heavily after the fact; population is near zero on release week, so early sold prices are raw prices.
Worlds week is the busiest restock week of the season.
Hype weeks are when Pokémon Center and the big-box retailers move stock, and none of it is announced. Running restock alerts, we have caught something on every Pokémon Center drop for the past 12 months — the difference between paying MSRP and paying the post-Worlds premium is being pinged the second a SKU flips live.
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FAQ
When is Pokémon Worlds 2026?
The 2026 Pokémon World Championships run Friday, August 28 through Sunday, August 30, 2026 in San Francisco. Preliminary rounds and Top Cut are at the Moscone Center; the Grand Finals on Sunday, August 30 are at the Chase Center. A San Francisco Giants "Pokémon Worlds Night" at Oracle Park on August 27 is a separate, ticketed Giants promotion rather than an official Worlds day.
What promo cards are being given out at Worlds 2026?
There are 3 Pokémon TCG promos tied to Worlds 2026. Paradise Resort, with a gold World Championships 2026 stamp, goes to competitors in their welcome kit and can also be won through side events on site. A "PXP"-stamped Rayquaza from Ascended Heroes is exclusive to Worlds and PokémonXP attendees — the first time attending Worlds comes with a promo card. The Worlds Celebration Pikachu, on a San Francisco-inspired background, is the one anybody can get, by playing in a Worlds Celebration tournament at a local Play! Pokémon store from August 21 to August 30.
How do I get the Worlds 2026 Pikachu promo without going to San Francisco?
Play in a 2026 Worlds Celebration tournament at a local Play! Pokémon store between August 21 and August 30, 2026. Participating earns the Pikachu promo while supplies last. Use the official Pokémon Event Locator and look for "2026 Worlds Celebration" as the event name. Winners of each age division receive a "WINNER"-stamped version instead, and TCG winners also get a Worlds Celebration deck box and sleeves. Stores order a fixed allocation, so the ones near you can run out before August 30 — going early in the window is worth more than picking the most convenient date.
What is PokémonXP?
PokémonXP is the first official Pokémon fan convention, running at the Moscone Center alongside the World Championships from August 28 to 30, 2026. It brings panels, workshops, special guests and a pop-up Pokémon Center store with exclusive merchandise. It is the reason Worlds 2026 is worth attending even if you did not qualify to compete — historically the tournament floor was the whole event.
What is the Paradise Resort promo worth?
It has not been distributed yet, so any figure quoted right now is a guess rather than a price. Competitor-only Worlds promos are the scarcest cards Pokémon prints — the print run is bounded by the number of invited players — and they typically appear on eBay within hours of the welcome kits being handed out on August 28. The sold-comp links on this page show what copies actually change hands for rather than what sellers are asking, which is the only number worth acting on in the first week.
Can you buy Worlds 2026 tickets or badges?
Competing requires an invite earned through regional and international events during the season. Spectator and PokémonXP badge details are handled through the official Pokémon registration site linked from championships.pokemon.com. The Giants Pokémon Worlds Night on August 27 is sold separately through the Giants as a special event ticket that includes a Pikachu jersey.
What games are played at Worlds 2026?
Four competitions run at the 2026 World Championships: the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Champions (making its competitive debut as the video game title), Pokémon GO in Great League format, and Pokémon UNITE. This is the twenty-first TCG World Championship.
Shop Worlds promos
Past-year Worlds promos are on the market now, and the 2026 cards start listing the weekend of August 28.
Worlds promos on eBay
Competitor promos, stamped Pikachus, past-year Worlds cards
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Worlds week, without refreshing anything
Free email alerts for Worlds 2026 promo listings and the Pokémon Center restock waves that follow the event.
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Sources
- Dates and venue: Moscone Center event listing and championships.pokemon.com
- Worlds Celebration dates and prizes: pokemon.com announcement
- Promo card reveals: pokemon.com and PokéBeach
- Competitions and event history: Bulbapedia