Pokémon Champions, the series' battle simulator, now runs on both Switch and mobile devices with nearly identical experiences, yet The Pokémon Company still bars mobile play from higher-level competitive tournaments, including this year's World Championships. As of 1 September, some local tournaments now permit the mobile version, but regional events and above continue to require Switch hardware, a restriction the article argues lacks a compelling justification, particularly since these bigger tournaments are the ones streamed to the largest audiences.

Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino attributed the Switch requirement to superior graphics on Switch 2 and the logistical difficulty of allowing varied personal devices at events. However, the game's battle calculations run entirely server-side to enable cross-platform play, undermining claims of a technical barrier, and organisers already have a system for issuing "team ID" replicas on provided hardware for streamed matches. VGC, the competitive format name, drew the highest viewership among the four games featured at this year's Worlds, held for only the second time in an arena setting at San Francisco's Chase Center, further highlighting the disconnect between mobile's growing role and its continued exclusion from top-tier play.