J.C. Smith of The Pokémon Company International.
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How Pokémon Go is boosting the Pokémon World Championships

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 9 min

Pokémon Go isn’t a competitive sport yet. But the red hot augmented reality mobile game has given a big boost to the 2016 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco. More than 1,600 players are competing for $500,000 in prizes, and about 3,000 altogether are attending the event.

The Pokémon Company holds the event every year to celebrate the Pokémon trading card, 3DS, and Wii U games. J.C. Smith, consumer marketing director of The Pokémon Company International, said in an interview with GamesBeat that Pokémon Go has spurred interest for both the championships and the new Pokémon Sun and Moon 3DS games coming out on November 18.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.