If there's a child in your house who shouts things like "Pikachu, go mid!", this one is for you. Pokémon Unite is closing.
The date
The Pokémon Company announced that service ends on Tuesday, 23 March 2027, at 00:00 UTC, on both Nintendo Switch and mobile. The official notice, quoted by Dexerto and Shacknews, starts: "We regret to inform you that service for Pokémon UNITE will end..."
No reason was given. Dexerto points that out plainly.
What kind of game was it?
Pokémon Unite is a "MOBA", which sounds scary but just means two teams of five battle in an arena and try to score points. It was made by TiMi Studio Group, part of China's Tencent, and published by The Pokémon Company. It arrived on Switch on 21 July 2021 and on phones on 22 September 2021.
It was free to download and made its money from in-game purchases. According to market tracker AppMagic, quoted by PocketGamer.biz, it earned around $107 million on Google Play and the App Store over five years. That's a lot of Pikachu hats.
The money question: gems
This is the part parents should read twice. Aeos gems, the paid currency in the game, stopped being sold on 27 October. If your child already has gems, they can still spend them until the game closes. After that, they're gone.
The UNITE Club membership has also stopped taking new sign-ups and automatic renewals. Members who already paid keep their benefits until their current period ends, according to Gematsu.
What about refunds? None of the announcements we read mentions refunds. So the practical advice is simple: if there are gems left, help your kid spend them on something they'll enjoy in the next few months, rather than leaving them to vanish.
A goodbye party first
It doesn't end with a slammed door. From 12 November, an update adds a special event where players can get Unite licences, which unlock Pokémon, and Holowear, the outfits. Basically a farewell sale where everything is free-ish.
Competitive players aren't left out either. The Aeos Crown 2027 tournament in Tokyo still goes ahead, with qualifiers starting on Saturday, 5 December.
Can you keep anything?
A little. There's a "library" feature: if you download the library data before 23 March, you can still look at some of your records and content after the shutdown. Dexerto lists unlocked Pokémon, cosmetics, achievements and tournament records. Gematsu warns that this data generally can't be moved to a new device. So if a new phone is coming for Christmas, do the download on the device you'll keep.
How big was it, really?
For a while, very big. Pokémon Unite became part of the official Pokémon World Championships and built its own competitive scene around the Aeos Crown events. For a lot of kids it was their first real team game, the one where you learn that winning means sharing, in this case sharing points and not hogging the goal. That's why this goodbye stings a bit more than the usual app closing.
Why this matters beyond Pokémon
This is the quiet downside of "games as a service". You don't really own an online game. You rent access, and when the servers switch off, so does the fun, even if you paid along the way.
That can be a good little lesson for kids, too: spending real money in a game is buying an experience, not a toy you keep in a drawer. A Pikachu plush will outlive any server. Ask your attic.