Pokemon Fans Are Going to Want to Tune In to the Super Bowl This Year

A special Pokemon presentation will be happening during Super Bowl LX on Sunday, marking another important milestone moment in the video game franchise’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Pokemon has only been around about half as long as the National Football League’s most celebrated annual event, but with around 130 million viewers expected to tune in, one of the biggest video game fan bases in the world will surely be in for a surprise.

Though they wouldn’t make their way into western markets until September 1998, the first Pokemon games, Pokemon Red and Green, were launched in Japan on February 27, 1996. Pokemon‘s official 30th anniversary plans, which were teased just before the start of the new year, have stated that 2026 will be “the best one yet” without going into much detail over what special events and releases fans should expect to see. The benchmark anniversary has a lot riding on it, and fans around the world have high expectations for what might happen during the course of the year.

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Pokemon Will Be Part of Superbowl LX

Coming just a couple of weeks ahead of the actual anniversary date, Pokemon has now confirmed that it will be releasing a special video that will air during the broadcast of the Super Bowl on February 8. A short teaser released on Twitter shows Gen-1 Pokemon Jigglypuff hopping and floating around what appears to be a green room, singing its signature lullaby song and relaxing on a leather sofa. There’s not a lot of content or information given to fans during the short teaser, which wraps up after only 21 seconds, but an ending card attached to the video gives the date of the Super Bowl while also displaying an anniversary logo of Pikachu with the number 30 replacing the usual red dots on its cheeks.

That ambiguity leaves a lot of speculation about the possibilities that the Super Bowl video could entail. Some are hoping that the official reveal of the Generation 10 Pokemon games could be coming during the big game, though many others feel it’s much more likely that The Pokemon Company will be saving that announcement for the actual worldwide anniversary celebration on February 27. Still, multiple Gen-10 Pokemon leaks have reached the public over the past four months, reportedly revealing its box art, starter and legendary details, in-game images, and more, making it very unlikely that Pokemon will sit on the official reveal for too much longer.

Fit the 9 games into the grid.

Many fans have found humor in the selection of Jigglypuff as the Pokemon chosen to appear in the promotional video, hoping it will be heavily featured during the actual Super Bowl video as well. While its soft, pink body and round features have made Jigglypuff a mainstay in the series since the first pair of games, it’s also one of the first Pokemon associated with status effects, as its Sing attack has been used to put opposing Pokemon and any human listers in the anime series to sleep for years on end, usually to great comedic effect. Multiple fans have reacted to the Super Bowl video’s announcement with posts and hand-drawn visuals of Jigglypuff, hoping that it will be incorporated into the annual game’s Halftime Show, which this year stars 27-time platinum record-holding Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny.

Regardless of what is shown during the Super Bowl, fans have plenty of expectations for Pokemon Day 2026. In addition to the official announcement of Pokemon Wind and Wave, fans can also look forward to potential updates in ongoing mobile titles like Pokemon GO, Pokemon TCG Pocket, and Pokemon Unite, as well as 2025 Switch and Switch 2 game Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Also, if history is any indication, the upcoming annual showcase will likely contain more information on previously announced games that haven’t hit their release date yet, which this year should include strategic battler Pokemon Champions and life simulation game Pokemon Pokopia.