Renowned Pokémon fan Ed Sheeran made a surprise appearance at the Pokémon World Championships, where he performed an acoustic version of the classic theme.
The Pokémon franchise has done its fair share of collaborations with celebrities over the years, including the likes of Katy Perry, Post Malone, and Lady Gaga.
Amongst the most famous celebrity fans – as opposed to people that just do paid promotions – is Ed Sheeran, whose song Celestial was used in the end credits of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Before that, he collaborated with The Pokémon Company for an event in Pokémon Go in 2021.
Sheeran has now doubled down on his Pokémon fanaticism by making an appearance at the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
On Sunday (August 30) during the finals, the singer popped up and performed Celestial against a backdrop of animated visuals – including Sheeran in an anime style – pulled from the song’s music video.
Afterwards, he ripped into an acoustic cover of the classic Pokémon theme song from the animated series. You can check out some clips below.
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This isn’t the first time Sheeran has crossed paths with the Pokémon World Championships. In 2022, he delivered a video message to participants of the London event.
Elsewhere at this year’s ceremony, The Pokémon Company announced Pokémon: Wild Card, a new feature-length animated film about a Pokémon trading card game player and his partner Mimikyu.
The film is in partnership with Japanese animation studio CloverWorks, who are known for anime shows like Spy x Family.
The first trailer for Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu was also released, which comes from Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman Animations. The series is set to be released on DIsney+ in 2027.
Next year’s Pokémon World Championships is set to take place in Singapore from August 13-15, which will be the fourth time the event has taken place outside of the US. The other three times were in Canada in 2013, the UK in 2022, and Japan in 2023.
Nintendo is set to release the next mainline Pokémon games, Pokémon Winds and Waves, on Nintendo Switch 2 sometime next year.
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