{"id":444127,"date":"2026-08-26T15:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444127\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:16:16","slug":"the-2026-pokemon-world-championships-are-taking-over-san-francisco-this-weekend-featuring-a-debut-fan-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444127\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 Pok\u00e9mon World Championships are taking over San Francisco this weekend \u2014 featuring a debut fan convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/giorgio-trovato-W7KDN4OB_zI-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\" alt=\"The 2026 Pok\u00e9mon World Championships are taking over San Francisco this weekend \u2014 featuring a debut fan convention\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGiorgio Trovato on Unsplash<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/things-to-do-this-weekend-sf\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/things-to-do-this-weekend-sf\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">This weekend<\/a>, the highly anticipated 2026 Pok\u00e9mon World Championships will take over San Francisco. The event will take place at the Moscone Center from August 28 to 30, and thousands of fans are expected to flock to SF. <\/p>\n<p>2026 Pok\u00e9mon World Championships<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/worlds.pokemon.com\/en-us\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/worlds.pokemon.com\/en-us\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_non_sales\">The championships<\/a> are invite-only for competitive players from around the world. Categories of competition include Pok\u00e9mon video games, the Trading Card Game, Pok\u00e9mon GO, and Pok\u00e9mon UNITE. The final day of the championships will take place at Chase Center, utilizing the stadium for a full \u201carena experience\u201d. Fans can also look forward to plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/things-to-do-this-weekend-sf\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/things-to-do-this-weekend-sf\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_2\" data-category=\"click_internal\">exciting things to do this weekend,<\/a> including Pok\u00e9monXP. <\/p>\n<p>Pok\u00e9monXP <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with the world championships, San Francisco is hosting Pok\u00e9monXP, a major fan convention hosted by The Pok\u00e9mon Company International. The convention is making its debut this weekend in San Francisco. The fan convention will feature panels, workshops, and numerous fun activities. <\/p>\n<p>Pok\u00e9mon in San Francisco <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you weren\u2019t able to get tickets to the World Championship, there are still plenty of ways to embrace the event in San Francisco. This weekend, Union Square is hosting a free screening of Pok\u00e9mon: Detective Pikachu, with pre-show activities starting at 5 pm and the movie at 8 pm. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Francisco is also home to one of two Nintendo stores in the United States, which is a great place to find a variety of Pok\u00e9mon merchandise, games, and more. The store is located on Union Square and is open 10 am \u2013 8 pm on Friday and Saturday and 11 am \u2013 6 pm on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On August 27, Oracle Park is hosting Pok\u00e9mon Worlds Night, which will feature a Pok\u00e9mon-themed drone show over the stadium. Plus, the first pitch will be thrown by Luke Whittier, the 2025 World Champion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you can\u2019t make it to Oracle Park for the Pok\u00e9mon drone show, you can still catch a<a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/drone-art-show-harry-potter\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/drone-art-show-harry-potter\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_3\" data-category=\"click_internal\"> Harry Potter drone show<\/a> above the stadium next weekend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash This weekend, the highly anticipated 2026 Pok\u00e9mon World Championships will take over San Francisco.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-444127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}