Liverpudlian Pokémon fans are looking forward to the reopening of the only pop-up shop in the country dedicated to the Japanese gaming phenomenon and optimistic that it will herald a new boom in its popularity.
It was announced this week that London’s Pokémon Centre pop-up shop is coming back in February for the 2026 Pokémon Europe International Championships. Players from across the continent will compete for a cash prize at the tournament while fans will be able to spectate and buy merchandise.
Clare Tansey, an active member of the Liverpool card game community, said: “For one I’m excited it’s back as I attended last year and spent a lot of money!”
For fans like her, however, even getting into the queue for the shop can be a challenge.
“It’s a nightmare to get reservations [for the queue] and as a player, it’s even harder as there’s no guaranteed slots for us.”
The London pop-up shop has existed intermittently since 2019, first opening for the release of the Pokémon Sword and Shield game on the Nintendo Switch. Since 2019, it has opened in 2022 and 2023 before its forthcoming 2026 reappearance.
Pokémon Centre mats sold at Gamers Lodge. Photo (c) Chloe Mcloughlin
Each time it has opened, the shop has seen an increasing number of visitors, making it hard to guarantee a place even in the queue.
The first ever Pokémon game to be released was in 1996, with the first UK game to come three years later, in 1999.
While there is no official Pokémon-only shop or national tournament in the northwest, local gaming stores stock some Pokémon cards and gamers in the region organise their own events.
The most recent official Pokémon TCG tournament in Merseyside was the Liverpool Pokémon TCG Regional Championship 2024.
This was hosted at ACC Liverpool and had over a thousand of players in attendance. This is a step before Internationals.
Shops with licenses can also host tournaments. The Gamers Lodge, located at Kempston Street in Liverpool, hosts a weekly tournament where attendees go against each other to win prizes.
Miss Tansey is one of the creators of an event hosted at the shop. It is about teaching anyone of any ages how to play the card game. On whether the Liverpool Pokémon community is impacted by the only specialist Pokémon Centre shop being in London, she said: “London is the capital city, with links to Europe, as the only pop-up Pokémon centre in Europe for the year, I don’t think it’s unfair for us to travel.”
She added: “I know a lot of the community have road trips planned so in a sense it brought it together, hopefully we’ll be able to pick things up for those who can’t make it down, but the justified purchase limits set by the Pokémon centre may make that tricky.”
Overall, fans are pleased to see the game so popular and while London might be far away, she said, the Pokémon pilgrimage “impacts the community, but not in a bad way!”
Featured image by Chloe McLoughlin.