2026 is Pokémon Unite’s biggest year ever.
18 new Unite Licenses... (17 are free via event) - Toxtricitry, Jolteon, and Flareon are given for free to all players right now for just completing 1 mission that takes 5 minutes to complete.
Toxtricity is given to all players for free to commorate the hosting of the largest mult sport event in Asia. This event lasts a full year.
2022 had 15 Unite Licenses released from January till October while 2026 has 18.
2022 totalled 18 throughout the whole year, while 2026 still has 2 months left with likely 4 more release to go totalling 22 Unite Licenses.
Biggest anniversary... 5 free Unite Licenses, 5 free Holowears, thousands of aeos tickets and held item enhancers, and a Premium holowear worth over 3,500 aeos gems.
No previous anniversary gave away a holowear worth anywhere near 3,500 aeos gems for free.
Pokémon Unite Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo Tournament with $1,000,000 prize pool announcement
This is officially the biggest independent Pokémon tournaments ever made. Although the excitement of the World Championships is no longer there every year from now for thousands of players. This huge shift in the prize pool shows the game's growth.
In this deep-dive we’ll uncover what’s happening in Pokémon Unite and whether its plateauing or evolving,
My 2025 Prediction
Exactly 1 year ago today, I made a post titled “Unite’s Release Pattern 2021-2025: Why 2026 Might Be a Big Year”, where I predicted 16 Unite Licenses releasing in 2026 (shown in the third image). Pokémon Unite exceeded my expectations and released 18 in just 10 months, with 4 more likely yet to come in the next 10 weeks they have done so much more than I thought. This is going into Pokémon Unite’s 6th year.
Reduced to 1 Move-Path
Pokémon Unite reduced move paths from 2 to 1 in February 2026.
Whilst this took a chunk of the fun and enjoyment out of experimenting with different combinations of moves, it’s actually much harder to create from a strict development point of view.
Releasing a Unite License requires designing the Pokémon’s animations for its: walking, scoring, fainting, unable to act, asleep, 4 moves (2 base, 2 upgraded), ability, unite move. (some of these need to be done for whole evolution lines too). Also creating its own unique model for the Unite License.
The second move path is like a topping compared to the rest of the Unite License. They are doing this twice a month, not once a month like they used to... well, actually sometimes it was 6-8 weeks.
Design
They also research deeply about each Pokémon’s unique history such as the newly released Jolteon’s Pin Missile move in Pokémon Unite not firing green pin missiles 2-5 times like in mainline games which is meant to be similar to Greedent’s Bullet Seed in Pokémon Unite. Instead it’s inspired from its anime appearance/dex entry which states its fur becomes spiky and fires needles at enemies when it becomes angry.
As someone who loves Pokémon’s lore and history, these designs they’ve made are great even with 1 move path. This game truly brings the Pokémon to life in a unique way that has very rarely been done before.
Holowear Releases: 2026 vs. 2025
- 2 Aurora Tag vs. 4 in 2025
- 6 Orange Tag vs. 9 in 2025
- 3 Collaboration holowear vs. 0 in 2025
- 9 Battle Passes vs. 9 in 2025
- 6 Purple vs. 9 in 2025
- 1 Blue vs. 7 in 2025
- 3 Green vs. 22 in 2025
- Total: 30 Holowear vs. 2026 - 60 in 2025.
Reduced Number of Holowear
So far in 2026 Pokémon Unite has released half the number of Holowear than in 2025. This is likely due to the increase speed of releases, further proved by only the 2 Unite Licenses with 2 move paths this year, Meowth and Sirfetch’d having green tag holowear. While the rest don’t have any besides the Pokémon Horizons collaboration but that was an incredible way to promote the game into the anime, and vice versa.
Excluding 2 months (February and March 2026) Pokémon Unite has released 2 Unite Licenses per month since September 2025 (12 months = 24 Unite Licenses).
Green tier holowear and second move path don’t take anywhere near as much effort as releasing 2 unite licenses each month while making each one unique and different.
Also, making Jolteon and Flareon share the same early-game Eevee state as Leafeon and Vaporeon highlights how they are saving development time to maintain this rapid release pace. Although there was 8 different Swift animations, maybe making 10 different ones was not what they wanted as it could have got complex.
Evolution
Pokémon Unite made a lot of changes towards the end of 2025. This felt like it was going to start evolving faster than ever this year and that’s exactly what it did with more releases than ever before.
Whilst holowear outfits are great and it can be fun to wear different types of holographic clothes. I prefer the speed at which they are releasing Unite Licenses, twice per month without fail.
All in all, this support the theory I had this time last year that Pokémon Unite will continue to grow more and more with new Pokémon releases happening one after another. Also the independent Pokémon Unite Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo tournament with $1,000,000 USD is going to happen next year which is also incredible for an independent Pokémon tournament.
TL;DR - Quick Breakdown
- The Math: 2026 has already dropped 18 Unite Licenses by October 2026, matching 2022’s full-year record with two month left to go, which means we will undoubtedly exceed this number and have a new year record for most unite licenses released in a year.
- The Shift: TiMi cut move paths from 2 to 1 and halved Holowear production (30 skins vs 60 last year) to focus their development engine on dropping 2 stable characters every single month instead of releasing one every 4-8 weeks like they have done in the past, sometimes with no expectation of when a character will release.
- The Reality: The data proves the game is continuously evolving since the major updates in September 2025. This is also backed up further by the upcoming $1,000,000 Pokémon Unite Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo tournament next year.
Discussion
Which of the 18 Unite Licenses released in 2026 is your favourite?
What Pokémon do you want added next in Pokémon Unite?