Pokémon UNITE is shutting down on March 23, 2027, and gem sales have already stopped

Game over in March. The Pokémon Company says service for Pokémon UNITE on both Nintendo Switch and mobile will end on March 23, 2027, at 00:00 UTC, which is 8 PM ET on Sunday, March 22, according to its end-of-service notice. After that, nobody will be able to log in or play a match. The free-to-play MOBA launched on Switch in July 2021, so it will have run for a little under six years.

The money side shut off today. Aeos Gem sales and new UNITE Club memberships ended on October 27, and auto-renewal for existing members was switched off too, the official Japanese notice says. Gems you already have still work until the end, current memberships run out on their normal date, and players with unused paid gems will be able to ask for a refund through an in-game form after service ends. That notice asks players with leftover paid gems not to delete the game until their refund goes through.

A send-off update on Nov. 12. An update on November 12 at 04:00 UTC (11 PM ET on Nov. 11) adds a Unite Coin exchange, Unite Coin missions and a log-in bonus, plus a farewell event that hands out licenses and Holowear from the game’s history, Pokemon.com details. It also adds a library that keeps your battle records, licenses and Holowear viewable after shutdown, but only if you finish the library data download before March 23.

Esports carries on for now. The Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo tournament is still happening, with qualifiers starting December 5, per the shutdown schedule.

PPR take: UNITE was the easiest way to get a non-MOBA crowd into a MOBA, and it had a real competitive scene. The library feature and gem refunds are a more graceful exit than most live-service games get, but it’s another reminder that a game you can’t run offline is only around as long as the servers are.