Pokémon Unite is shutting down on 23 March 2027

Another live-service game is on its way out. Pokémon Unite, the free-to-play five-on-five battle arena game, will shut down on 23 March 2027 at 00:00 UTC, which is 8 p.m. ET on 22 March, Engadget reports. In Kyiv that is 02:00 on 23 March.

Developed by Tencent's TiMi Studios for The Pokémon Company, Unite launched on Nintendo Switch in July 2021 and came to phones a few months later, with cross-play between the two. Players pick a Pokémon at the start of each match, and it levels up, evolves and learns new moves as the game goes on. That formula kept it running for almost six years, which is a long life by today's live-service standards.

What changes now

The wind-down has already started:

• Gem sales have ended, and so have new Unite Club memberships and automatic renewals. Gems you already bought still work until the shutdown.
• Existing Unite Club members keep their perks until their current membership runs out.
• A final update on 12 November adds a special farewell event.

What happens to your items

The Pokémon Company is adding a Library feature that lets you keep looking at some of your in-game items after the servers go dark. The catch: you have to log in before 23 March 2027 to download the Library data. Because it is stored on your device, the company says it "generally cannot be transferred" to a new phone or console. If you plan to upgrade your phone, download it on the device you intend to keep.

As with most online-only games, nothing else carries over. Matches, ranks, the battle pass and any unspent gems disappear with the servers, so there is little point topping up now.

The signs were there

In July, The Pokémon Company said Unite would not be part of the 2027 Pokémon World Championships and would get a separate tournament in Tokyo instead. That event is still planned, with qualifiers starting in December. In hindsight, being split from the main Worlds event hinted that the game's days were numbered.

Unite joins a growing list of games and stores that stop working once their servers close. We saw the same recently with the Atari VCS store shutdown. It is also the main trade-off with games that only run online, which we cover in our cloud gaming explainer.