{"id":446555,"date":"2026-08-28T22:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:28:15","slug":"pokemon-world-championship-pokemon-xp-makes-its-debut-in-san-francisco-as-over-50000-fans-converge-at-moscone-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446555\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon World Championship: Pok\u00e9mon XP makes its debut in San Francisco as over 50,000 fans converge at Moscone Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Pok\u00e9mon history is happening right now in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

More than 50,000 Pok\u00e9mon fans are in the city for the 2026 World Championships.<\/p>\n

But there’s also a brand-new event to kick off the globally anticipated competition: Pok\u00e9mon XP.<\/p>\n

Fans from all over the world have been pouring into the city long before Day 1 of this big weekend.<\/p>\n

They’ve even had some events leading up to it — but many said there was nothing like finally walking through the gates Friday morning.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Pok\u00e9mon World Championship draws global audience, big business to San Francisco this week<\/a><\/p>\n

At 7 a.m. sharp, thousands of people from all over the world rushed through the gates at 4th and Howard streets.<\/p>\n

“I’m just so starstruck. And honest, I’m a little emotional with being here,” said one fan.<\/p>\n

All of this for the first day of the annual Pok\u00e9mon World Championships, where players face off in games like Pok\u00e9mon Go and the official trading card game.<\/p>\n

It’s also the first-ever XP fan convention: a type of “Comic-Con” for Pok\u00e9mon fans.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon officials say that it was 10 years ago, that the championships were last held in San Franciso. Back then, there were about a few 1,000 fans in a ballroom.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: Highly-anticipated Pok\u00e9mon events expected to bring in more than 50,000 fans to SF<\/a><\/p>\n

This time around, there are tens of thousands of fans who have taken over Moscone Center and an entire block of the city.<\/p>\n

“San Francisco is, you know, continued to evolve with us. It’s such a special city in our hearts. So, there was reason we came back 10 years later. It’s really just got something for everyone,” said Nick Salazar, spokesperson for the Pok\u00e9mon Company International.<\/p>\n

Many visitors we spoke with made a point to spend time, not just at the convention, but also taking in what the city has to offer.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice out here, seeing all the stores, seeing everything. It’s nice. The beach views are amazing,” said Samuel, who was visiting from Santa Clarita.<\/p>\n

MORE: How Pok\u00e9mon GO is helping create connections<\/a><\/p>\n

Bailey Fuentes was visiting all the way from Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n

“We’ve already been down to the pier and the Ghirardelli Square. Just a chance to look at San Francisco as a whole and Pok\u00e9mon,” she said. “I feel like it’s the best of both worlds.”<\/p>\n

Now, with both the championships and fan convention underway, organizers say visitors have even more to look forward to at what’s called “Championship Sunday at Chase Center.”<\/p>\n

“We’re expecting over, I want to say, it’s about 16,000 fans, if not more. I can’t give away too much as to what it looks like, but that main stage is going to look amazing,” Salazar said.<\/p>\n

Even with so much excitement planned, many say what they’re looking forward to most this weekend is connection.<\/p>\n

“It’s just so cool how everyone can just come together around this one thing. I love the community that Pok\u00e9mon creates,” Fuentes said.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a>
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Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Pok\u00e9mon history is happening right now in San Francisco. More than 50,000 Pok\u00e9mon fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[176903,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-446555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-176903","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\/446555","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=446555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}