The date of the Pokémon World Championships 2024 is approaching and competitors and fans alike should be getting ready for the experience. This is the major competitive event held by The Pokémon Company International’s Play! Pokémon division every year, and it is a blend of several of the titles in the series, from the main video games like Generation 9’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, as well as the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The competition, which ends up being a massive celebration of the Pokémon franchise, often limits access to it, and players need to go through local qualifying tournaments.
In addition to Pokémon TCG and the main entries in the series, the Pokémon Worlds 2024 event will also be the stage for competitions in spin-off titles, such as Pokémon GO, Pokémon Unite, and Pokkén Tournament. This tends to be an event that lasts several days and often sees thousands of attendees. During Worlds events, it is also common for upcoming titles to be showcased to the press, much like Scarlet and Violet were during Worlds 2022. With some releases set up for the future, like the teased Pokémon Legends: Z-A, there is a chance new content will be revealed.
Even though it is known that this type of event tends to occur during August every year, the exact date was still unknown. Now, as revealed during the closing ceremonies of the 2024 Pokémon Europe International Championships (via Pokebeach) on Sunday, April 7, it has been confirmed that Pokémon Worlds 2024 will occur from August 16 to August 18. This is a bit later in the year when compared to 2023’s edition, which ran in Yokohama, Japan from August 11 to August 13. Nevertheless, the date of this year’s edition seems to be in line with the yearly practice.
As was announced back at the closing ceremonies of Worlds 2023, the next version of the event will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The city destination has been known for months, so far, but the exact location in which the Pokémon Worlds Championships 2024 will take place had been kept under wraps.
Now, as reported by Pokebeach, this wait has come to an end, as The Pokémon Company International announced an official venue for the tournaments. Like the date for the event, the reveal of the location came through the closing ceremonies of the Pokémon Europe International Championships as well.
The Pokémon World Championships 2024 will occur in the Honolulu Convention Center, a venue that is located near the popular beach-adjacent neighborhood of Waikīkī – from which attendees can easily and quickly arrive with a stroll.
The establishment spans around 1.1 million square feet, according to the official Honolulu Convention Center website, with a massive exhibit hall, a rooftop garden, and meeting rooms. The Convention Center is located at 1801 Kalākaua Ave, Honolulu, HI 96815, and is just a few dozen minutes away from Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
As seen on Pokebeach’s rundown of previous versions of the competition, this is not the first time a Pokémon Worlds Championships event has been held in Hawaii. In fact, The Pokémon Company International held editions of the Worlds Championships on the island state during 2007, 2010, and 2012.
However, those three editions occurred in Kona, on the island of Hawaii. This is the very first time Pokémon Worlds will be held in Honolulu, the state’s capital on the island of Oahu. The rest of the American editions since 2004 occurred in various places of the contiguous United States.
The main attraction during the event should be the competitions across several games. As the franchise is currently in Gen 9, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are being used as the main video game entry for the tournament – back in 2022 it was still Sword and Shield since Scarlet and Violet had not yet been released; 2023 already featured Scarlet and Violet as the official competitive titles.
Of course, Pokémon TCG will also play a big role in Pokémon World Championships 2024, especially considering it is the game mode that gave birth to the event back in 2004.
While they are spin-off games, Pokémon GO and Pokémon Unite have been gaining a lot of traction and are very popular during Worlds, and the annual dispute to find the best player across several categories will be resolved during this year’s Worlds. Pokkén Tournament is also set to make a comeback during the special event.
While competition is the keyword for Worlds, it is a celebration of the franchise, and attendees should expect a lot of themed merchandise as well. There will likely be limited items that feature the official logo for Pokémon Worlds Championships 2024, set in Honolulu.
As was previously mentioned, there is a chance that there will be some sort of preview session for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Its release is still a ways off, as it has been announced to arrive at some point in 2025.
With the release window set several months from Worlds, it seems unlikely Nintendo will have anything to show, but not entirely impossible. In 2022, for instance, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were briefly shown to the press, but that occurred only two months before their actual release date. Because Legends: Z-A is still further away, the odds seem a bit slimmer.
Nevertheless, Worlds is a great place for the game to be partially shown for the first time. New Pokémon TCG sets and other reveals also tend to be teased during the annual event, and even the new Pokémon TCG game could be showcased prior to its release. If there are any big and unannounced projects on the horizon, Pokémon Worlds 2024 could be the best stage for them.
Source: Pokebeach, Honolulu Convention Center