For the past 30 years, Pokémon has been celebrated during its anniversary on February 27th, known better as Pokémon Day. While every year’s Pokémon Day is special, things get amped up to the highest gear when it’s a major anniversary. And 2026 marks the 30th anniversary, a major milestone. But, for a lot of those years, The Pokémon Company has put out a special presentation on that day called “Pokémon Presents”.

Pokémon Presents comes through on the official Pokémon YouTube channel and, frankly, is a rapid-fire news cannon for anything Pokémon that they want to show off that day, such as special events across mobile games and already released titles, as well as news about media and upcoming projects.

For instance, in 2024, we were treated to the first look at Pokémon Legends Z-A and the announcement of the mobile game, Pokémon TCG Pocket. In 2025, we got our first look at Pokémon Champions, but that year felt a tad light by comparison to previous years.

Since that was the 29th anniversary, I speculated that the company was saving all of the good reveals for 2026. It seems I may have been correct.

When it comes to “realistic” predictions in 2026, the gloves are off, and we’re in very unpredictable territory. Welcome to the 30th anniversary of Pokémon, where nothing I predict can prepare us for what may actually be coming.

Pokémon Day 2026 Video Game Predictions

Let’s get the low-hanging fruit out of the way. In any Pokémon Presents, you’re bound to see a multitude of events announced for various already-released games in the franchise. You’ll likely see those rapid-fire announcements that I mentioned earlier here, which would include:

  • Pokemon Legends Z-A
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
  • Pokémon Masters EX
  • Pokémon GO
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game Live
  • Pokémon Sleep
  • Pokémon Cafe Remix
  • Pokémon UNITE

Any of those games could have special login events, limited-time special battles, or freebie events scattered across the entire year. And they likely will. I can’t predict exactly what they will entail, but you can expect cute staff members in Pokémon Cafe Remix, special Sync Pairs in fancy clothes in Pokémon Masters EX, and a special GO Tour based on a region in Pokémon GO.

Announced last year, we will also likely see the standalone mobile and Switch game, Pokémon Champions, make another appearance, along with more details of the game and its release.

Since the upcoming game, Pokémon Pokopia, is immenently releasing, just a week after Pokémon Day, the Pokémon Presents will likely give more details about it, possibly finally showing off what the game looks like at nighttime and various other in-game events related to it. I fully expect a special early adopter Mystery Gift of some sort to be announced during the presentation.

In addition, curiously, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were both announced early, releasing digitally on February 27th, the same day as Pokémon Day. Instead of being part of Nintendo Switch Online’s catalog, they get to be standalone titles, albeit just ports of the original Game Boy Advance versions. It’s plausible that the other Generation 3 games, such as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (or Emerald), could be released to tie back to it, similarly.

Original reports mentioned that Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen would be compatible with Pokémon HOME, which is noticeably missing from the announcements. So, it’s possible we may get some clarification during the presentation.

Plus, having them release a week before Pokémon Pokopia is still suspicious to me, as they seem to take place in the same version of Kanto. You can check out my theory about that here.

The big push to really expect this week is whatever Pokémon Generation 10 will be. Leaks and rumors have been all over the place, but no one seems to be able to agree on what we can fully expect from it. However, it appears that that generation may be based on south-east Asia. If this is indeed tied back to Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, they may be near or related to the Sevii Islands, which were included only in FRLG.

We will likely know definitely by the end of this week.

Trading Card Game (TCG) Predictions

The physical Pokémon Trading Card Game is relatively cookie-cutter in what to expect for 2026. We just had the release of Mega Evolution – Ascended Heroes, with the next set called Mega Evolution – Perfect Order coming in March, which will likely get some cards shown off in a trailer. There is also rumors and leaks involving a set titled Mega Evolution – Perfect Order, coming in May.

But, what about after that? If we are, in fact, getting Gen 10 in 2026, the first TCG set for it would likely be in November or December. So, this leaves room for a special 30th anniversary set to slip right between. It’s hard to predict what that set would include, but I have a feeling that Pokopia or the Kanto remakes could be referenced at some point.

We already got a promo pack set that will include special connected art for each set of starters, across all nine current generations. So, there will likely be more promos and special focuses on themes. Looking at previous milestone years, in 2016, we were treated to a monthly box that focused on Mythical Pokémon for each month, which also tied back to Mystery Gifts in the actual mainline video games.

Television and Movie Predictions

I’m going to be honest here. I’m unsure what to expect for multimedia in Pokémon for the 30th anniversary. You will still have Pokémon Horizons: The Series, and it’s plausible that a new season of Pokémon Concierge could crop up.

But, where are our yearly Pokémon movies? Ash Ketchum was such a household name for the first two-and-a-half decades that it made sense to have movies come out around him and his adventures. However, a new era of Pokémon movies needs to introduce new, larger-than-life characters to get butts in movie seats.

My theory is that we may see an official Pokémon movie being handled by Nintendo’s new movie studio, Nintendo Pictures. It’s not outlandish to consider, as they’re putting their biggest IP forward with both animated and live-action movies. I’m just going to cross my fingers for this one and move along.

Merchandise and Theme Park Predictions

The reason for my speculation of a Nintendo Pictures Pokémon movie stems from the fact that Pokémon is coming to Universal Parks Japan, which the announcement from late January also hinted at a future expansion in the US parks. We will likely see the first Pokémon Universal information during the Pokémon Day Presents, due to the timing.

PokéPark Kanto will likely also make an appearance in the presentation, even just to show it off as being a successful, adorable park. They may also announce future updates and expansions for it to keep it fresh.

As for the merch, we can always rely on Jazwares to fill in any gaps the toys may have. But, with the recent LEGO collaboration, Pokémon could get really expensive for a lot of fans going forward. I would not be surprised if there are a ton of announcements for LEGO Pokémon.

My Outlandish Predictions for the 30th Anniversary Pokémon Presents 2026

Every year, I have some of the same predictions and, every year, my hopes are dashed. Let’s get on with them and hope that I’m finally right.

Yes, this could be the year for a new Eevolution. A nice, rounded-number generation of Gen 10, the 30th anniversary, and they can announce it as “Eevee’s 10th evolution”. I’ve always speculated that another Eeveelution would be Dragon-type to counter-balance the Fairy-type Sylveon we got in Generation 6. But, anything will do.

With the release of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, my usual prediction of re-releasing the classic Game Boy games could be up in smoke for this year. But, if they wanted to, they could drop the Gen 1 and Gen 2 titles on Nintendo Switch Online, with or without Pokémon HOME support. I’d like to think I’m willing this one into existence, as they’d be a great reason to push NSO for more sales.

I talked about movies earlier and I want to drop my more outlandish prediction: A live-action remake of the Gen 1 games, but remixed and clearly in a different universe. The main character isn’t named Red, but follows the usual story of Kanto, allowing surprises and details that could help push new theories about how the Pokémon multiverse works.

The Pokémon Presents will be on Pokémon Day, February 27th, on the official Pokémon YouTube channel, as well as other channels. I expect that whatever comes from it, it’ll be a doozy.

You can check out last year’s reveals during Pokémon Day here.