After 8 years the Pokemon World Championship Event could be returning to San Francisco for its second time, marking its seventh time being held in California.
New reports out of the San Francisco Business Times suggest that the city may be host to the 2026 Pokemon World Championship. The event may be 2 years away, but if true, it would be the second time in a decade that San Francisco would play host to the Pokémon World Championship.
San Francisco would become the fourth city to see a repeat hosting of the Pokémon World Championship, joining Orlando in Florida (where the first-ever event was held), San Diego and Anaheim in California, and Waikoloa Village in Hawaii.
Pokemon fans — and SF tourism officials — just secured their own kind of Super Bowl for 2026. https://t.co/3JswinqcWA
— San Francisco Business Times (@SFBusinessTimes) February 13, 2024
Waikoloa Village currently holds the record at three, for the city to have hosted the most Pokémon World Championships. However, when expanded to states, California has hosted the Pokémon World Championships six times and if the reports from the San Francisco Business Times are true, it will be the seventh event to be hosted there.
Hawaii will hit its fourth event with the 2024 Pokémon World Championship.
The PokémonWorld Championship events take place over a three-day event. Players compete for their share of a prize pool that is over $2 Million, which is the highest-valued prize pool in Pokemon World Champion history. The event features competition in three Pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game), Pokemon VGC (Video Game Competition), and Pokemon GO (Mobile game).
