Pokémon Day: What has been announced for the anniversary?

Pokémon fans it's time to celebrate, because Pokémon is turning 30!

The franchise is celebrating 30 years since the first games were released in Japan in 1996.

Now it's one of the highest grossing media franchises in the world, with millions of Pokémon games, cards and cuddly toys sold worldwide.

A special Pokémon Presents livestream was broadcast on 27 February to celebrate its history.

It also gave fans a look ahead at new things coming - including a brand new mainline game called Winds and Waves.

Take a look below to find out about some of the big new announcements for the anniversary.

The biggest news from the livestream was the reveal of the next big mainline games Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves.

This marks the 10th generation of Pokémon to come to the series.

From the trailer it looks like the game will be based on a windswept tropical island, with lots of different locations to explore including lava-filled caves, leafy swamps and forests and vast underwater reefs.

Like Gen 9's Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Winds and Waves will also feature an open world environment for trainers to explore and bump into Pokémon in the wild.

Fans also got their first sneak peak at the trainers they will play as in the game, and how they will look different depending on if you're playing Winds or Waves.

It also revealed the three new starter Pokémon which a player will begin their journey with:

Pokémon has said that the game will be released some time in 2027, and will be playable on the Nintendo Switch 2 console.

Later this year Pokémon fans from around the world will have the chance to gather in San Francisco in the US to take part in the Pokémon World Championships on 28-30 August.

As part of the live stream more information about the tournament was revealed, including new event artwork, and a special fan event called Pokémon XP which will take place there.

There was also more information revealed about Pokémon Champions – the new battling game that contestants competing in the VGC (video game competition) category in the World Championships will have to play.

The game will be released on the Switch console in April and mobile phones later this year.

A new musical gadget was also revealed as part of the birthday celebrations.

The Pokémon Red & Pokémon Blue Game Music Collection: Game Boy Jukebox is a new device which plays music and looks like the original Game Boy handheld console.

It comes with 45 cartridges, which look like the old video game cartridges, and each contains a song or sound effect from the Red and Blue games.

"We took particular care to make the audio sound just like Game Boy," said Junichi Masuda who composed the music for the original Pokemon Red and Blue games.

The first ever Pokémon games were released in 1996, and they were called Pokémon Red and Green.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, the 2004 remaster of the games FireRed and Leaf-Green Version have been made playable on the Nintendo Switch console.

The world's first permanent Pokémon theme park opened in Japan in Februrary 2026.

PokéPark Kanto has been built inside Tokyo's largest theme park, Yomiuriland, to celebrate Pokémon's 30th anniversary.

This isn't the first official Pokémon park to be built.

Back in 2005 and 2006, pop-up PokéParks came to Nagoya (Japan) and Taiwan, but these were only short-term attractions.