2026 has just started, but Pokémon’s 30th anniversary has already given us a winner in Pokémon Pokopia, the announcement of Winds & Waves, and even more reveals. But we’re not done yet: yesterday, The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Champions will (try to) evolve the video game franchise’s competitive scene.

On 24th March, the official Pokémon website outlined the release plans for the Stadium-alike spinoff, which is targeting Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, as well as mobile phones. It looks like it’ll only descend on the hybrid consoles on 8th April, though, with a mobile release coming later. As previously stated, the game will be free-to-play, and “Nintendo Switch 2 players will be able to download a free update to the game that allows you to enjoy the action with even clearer graphics.”

Of course, Pokémon Champions has to make money somehow, so both diehards and casual trainers have been curious about its freemium model. Pokémon captured in Pokémon Go, Scarlet & Violet, and Legends: Z-A can make the jump to Champions through the Home service. Pokémon Go players, however, can’t receive creatures from Home. Okay, sounds simple enough. The first “but” here is that Pokémon Home already has its own set of limitations if you don’t use the paid Premium plan (like not being able to store more than 30 Pokémon or move them from the Bank, which is a big deal if you’re seriously considering the competitive side of Pokémon and exchanging your favourites between the different supported games).

Okay, let’s assume you’re fine with that and go for the cheap 12-month plan, which is only $15.99 at the time of writing. Move to Pokémon Champions’ rewards and memberships section and you’ll be greeted by:

• Battle Pass (with a Premium track, of course) that includes seasonal rewards and more.
• Starter Pack that raises the Pokémon limit in boxes (inside Champions, separate from Home’s limitations) from 30 to 80 while adding more rewards to the pile.
• Champions Membership that allows players to keep even more Pokémon and Battle Teams around at the same time while gaining exclusive quests and music.

The regional pricing might vary, but the battle passes seem to be landing at roughly around $9 each. The Starter Pack is set around $6, and the membership costs around $4.75 per month (or $47 for the entire year). Considering the game is built around the idea of putting your own Pokémon from other games under the same roof – and Home doesn’t deliver on its promise without having you pay for the full service – it seems that staying competitive with a hand-picked team of Pokémon, while also gaining the rewards offered by Champions – won’t be cheap.

All this, plus the lingering questions around how you can actually put together a decent team as a strictly free-to-play player, makes the arrival of the long-awaited turn-based battler a more complicated prospect than ‘find your dream team and start battling’. Things may get a bit smoother at launch, but as it stands, the multiple subscription strands you’ll need to shell out for in order to get the best expereince out of Champions is looking like a bit of a hard sell (especially just after Nintendo and The Pokémon Company asked for £16.99 per game for FireRed and LeafGreen, eschewing the Nintendo Switch Online service for the titles).