{"id":136584,"date":"2026-03-24T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-199028"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:10:00","slug":"pokemon-champions-nails-down-switch-release-date-and-its-only-two-weeks-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/03\/24\/pokemon-champions-nails-down-switch-release-date-and-its-only-two-weeks-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Champions Nails Down Switch Release Date, And It&#8217;s Only Two Weeks Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/882e924ca74a8\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/882e924ca74a8\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<figure class=\"youtube\" data-videoid=\"pOfW-qdsvpU\" data-start=\"0\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pOfW-qdsvpU?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1\">\n<p>[embedded content]<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company have announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/pokemon_champions\">Pok\u00e9mon Champions<\/a> is coming to Switch on <strong>8th April 2026<\/strong>. The iOS and Android release will follow later in the year.<\/p>\n<p>While the game won&#8217;t be getting a Switch 2 version, we will be getting a free update which will boost the visuals on the newer console (separate from that shiny Boost Mode).<\/p>\n<p>If you download the game before a certain date, you&#8217;ll get a free Dragonite, and eventually, a Dragonite Mega Stone if you keep playing. TPC also announced a Starter Pack version of the game, which allows you to pay for increased your box space and extra in-game tickets.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"ea96e8866b87e\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ea96e8866b87e\/pokemon-champions.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ea96e8866b87e\/pokemon-champions.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Over on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/nintendo_today\">Nintendo Today!<\/a> App and on YouTube, you can also ways a brand new 6-minute Overview Trailer, which goes over many of the game&#8217;s key features.<\/p>\n<p>Single and Double Battles will be available in-game, with three online battle modes to pick from: Ranked, Casual, and Private, meaning you can either play competitively with strangers, casually, or simply play with people you know.<\/p>\n<p>Mega Evolutions are back, and some Megas \u2014 with Feraligatr, Meganium, and Emboar highlighted here \u2014 will be getting new unique abilities.<\/p>\n<p>Champions will be Pok\u00e9mon HOME compatible from day one, where you can transfer your favourites into the game from Switch and Switch 2 titles such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/pokemon_scarlet_and_violet\">Scarlet &amp; Violet<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/pokemon_legends_z-a\">Legends: Z-A<\/a> (as long as the &#8216;mon are compatible with the game). Crucially, in terms of Legends: Z-A, you&#8217;ll actually get a free Mega Stone for Chesnaught, Delphox, Greninja, and\/or Eternal Flower Floette if you transfer them into Champions.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"6d469dbbdbe6f\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6d469dbbdbe6f\/pokemon-champions.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6d469dbbdbe6f\/pokemon-champions.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Pok\u00e9mon Champions\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Other ways to get Pok\u00e9mon in-game are by recruiting them once a day \u2014 once you have them, they&#8217;ll only stick around for about a week before leaving your team, known as a Trial Period.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also a in-game currency that you&#8217;ll want to use if you want to permanently recruit new team members, amend Pok\u00e9mon&#8217;s moves and stats, and purchase costumes and music in-game.<\/p>\n<p>Soo, yeah, free-to-start, remember? Definitely not one for the casual battler unless you&#8217;re happy to play with the systems and just mess with random &#8216;mons every week.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>Let us know if you&#8217;re looking forward to Champions in the comments<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/nintendo-switch\/related-articles:198079,186647 @ 1774403506 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[embedded content] Nintendo and The Pok\u00e9mon Company have announced that Pok\u00e9mon Champions is coming to Switch on 8th April 2026. The iOS and Android release will follow later in the year. While the game won&#8217;t be getting a Switch 2 version, we will be getting a free update which will boost the visuals on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}