When Pokemon Worlds final got here to Anaheim in 2017, it was nonetheless a comparatively compact occasion. All the conference — which included the tournaments, the Pokemon Center, and the fan areas — match inside a single corridor. With just below 5,000 attendees on the time, Anaheim’s 2017 Pokemon Worlds actually carried the status of a world championship however may nonetheless be thought-about area of interest so far as aggressive gatherings go, primarily drawing diehard followers and devoted trainers to its doorways.
Quick-forward to 2025, and the distinction could not be any extra apparent. This year’s Pokemon Worlds in Anaheim took up a number of halls, a large plaza, and a devoted area for championship Sunday, with the one corridor it utilized in 2017 now devoted to the Pokemon Heart alone. On the occasion, Sport Rant spoke with Chris Brown, Director of World Esports and Occasions for The Pokemon Firm Worldwide, who defined simply how a lot the occasion has grown and the way that development has basically modified what Pokemon Worlds really is.
Pokemon Worlds Went From the Event Corridor to a World Competition
On the core of these adjustments is simply how a lot Pokemon Worlds has grown in scale because it was final in Anaheim eight years in the past. In lower than a decade, attendance on the occasion grew by 5 instances on the very least. When requested about what the expertise was like coming again to Anaheim and utilizing the conference heart for Pokemon Worlds, Brown replied,
“In order that present [in 2017] was, I believe, simply shy of 5,000 attendees complete, if I keep in mind. And this present — the numbers got here in lately, and there are nonetheless extra folks to verify in — however we’re now in extra of 25,000 distinctive badged attendees at this present, so we’re 5 instances the scale than we had been in 2017. We’re nearly at double what we had been a yr in the past in Honolulu, and there are nonetheless extra folks to verify in for Sunday who’ve day passes and the remainder of the day at the moment.”
And that is exactly why Pokemon Worlds has needed to reprioritize. In 2017, the occasion revolved nearly solely round competitors. This yr, nevertheless, Anaheim’s interconnected campus allowed The Pokemon Company to construct one thing resembling extra of a fan conference. The addition of pin buying and selling, a collect-and-trade space, a full programming stage, and even creator meet-and-greets made Worlds really feel like a celebration of the model as a complete. Now, aggressive matches had been now not the principle occasion and as a substitute merely turned the guts of a a lot bigger organism. As Brown defined,
“Again then, we weren’t doing pin buying and selling. We did not have a acquire and commerce space. We did not have the programming stage with the panels. We did not have a creator meet and greet. None of these elements had been there again in 2017. These are all issues we have added to attempt to turn into extra of an occasion to serve all of our followers.”
What’s attention-grabbing is that the franchise has been seeing elevated accessibility throughout the board, whether or not it is the Pokemon trading card game, video video games, and even the aggressive scene. In the identical approach, since 2017, Pokemon Worlds has fairly actually turn into extra accessible to the broader group of Pokemon followers because it goals to maintain all of it beneath one tent. Brown pressured that the purpose is not to separate followers from aggressive gamers, however to create an surroundings the place each really feel equally welcome. The result’s a Worlds that performs out extra like a celebration of all issues Pokemon, the place the competitors is extra of a showcase than the one cause to assemble.
Pokemon Worlds 2025 clearly seems to be nothing just like the Anaheim occasion from eight years in the past. What was as soon as a distinct segment aggressive meet-up has now exploded right into a spectacle the place tens of 1000’s of followers come collectively, all united by their love for Pokemon. Primarily based on the numbers alone, its reputation is plain, however what makes it really compelling is the way it has successfully modified what Pokemon Worlds even means. It is now now not nearly who walks away with the trophy however about what the occasion represents for the Pokemon group at massive.
