Pokémon Unite is shutting down in March 2027, days after its final tournament
The Aeos Crown will have a permanent winner, but everyone else is running out of time
- Pokémon Unite ends service on March 23rd, 2027
- The Aeos Crown 2027 finals take place in Tokyo
- A farewell update adds free licenses, Holowear and an archive feature
Pokémon Unite’s biggest tournament of the year now has its finals booked for two days before the servers go dark. The Pokémon Company and TiMi Studio Group have announced that the MOBA is ending service on both mobile and Switch, so whoever wins the Aeos Crown 2027 in Tokyo gets to keep the title for good.
The esports side shouldn’t come as much of a shock if you were following along over the summer. Back in July, Pokémon confirmed Unite wouldn’t be part of the 2027 Championship Series or the World Championships, with the Tokyo event spun off as its own thing. So, August’s Worlds in San Francisco ended up being its last appearance there.
Then you’ve got the Aeos coins. They stopped being handed out last December, were swapped for License Journeys, and the coin exchange was wound down by May.
When you put two and two together, you’ll realise that the shutdown has been slowly arriving for about a year now. Pokémon Unite started off quite strong back in 2021. It just ran out of steam eventually, and I don’t think the Pokémon name was ever going to fix that on its own.
If you’re still playing, a fair bit changed this morning. Gem sales have stopped, as have new Unite Club memberships and automatic renewals, though any gems you’ve got can still be spent and current members keep their perks until their period runs out.
A send-off event and update land on November 12th, handing out Unite licenses and Holowear from across the game’s run, plus a library feature for looking back at certain records and in-game content. It only works if you download the data beforehand, or you can’t use it afterwards.
Pokémon Unite ends service on March 23rd, 2027.
Given the news, you might want to take a look at our list of the best MOBAs on iOS, which, for now, is made up entirely of games with working servers.
