Pokemon Masters EX (iOS & Android)

Titles	Pokémon Masters EX ポケモンマスターズ EX (Pokémon Masutāzu EX) Pokémon Masters until August 2020 ポケモンマスターズ
Platform	iOS and iPadOS (App Store) · Android (Google Play) iOS/iPadOS 15 or later; Android 7.0 or later, 64-bit
Developer	DeNA
Publisher	DeNA, in partnership with The Pokémon Company
Directors	Katsuyuki Shiga · Noriaki Murakami · Takahiro Kawai (senior director)
Producers	Osamu Ikeda (general producer), Yu Sasaki and later Tetsuya Iguchi for DeNA · Takato Utsunomiya, Kazunori Sugiura and Yoshitaka Fujiwara for The Pokémon Company · executive producers Isao Moriyasu and Tsunekazu Ishihara
Music	Haruki Yamada · Shota Kageyama (ATTIC INC.)
Players	1 · 1–3 in online co-op
Genre	Strategy RPG with real-time three-on-three battles
Business model	Free-to-start, with in-app purchases (Gems, bundles and the Pokémon Masters Pass)
Sync pairs	More than 660 to recruit (October 2026)
Roles	6: Strike, Tech and Support (2019) · Sprint and Field (2023) · Multi (2024)
Released	28 August 2019 (North America) · 29 August 2019 (Japan, Europe, Australia, South Korea and worldwide) Previews from 25 July 2019 (Singapore) and 6 August 2019 (Canada)
Renamed	Pokémon Masters EX, version 2.0.0: 25 August 2020 (24 August in North America)
Status	Live, updated monthly (version 2.73.0, September 2026) · closed in Vietnam (2024), Russia and Indonesia (2026)
Rating	ESRB E10+ · PEGI 16 (Google Play; originally PEGI 3) · ACB G · GSRR 6+ · App Store 13+
Predecessor	None
Successor	None
Downloads	10 million in four days · 40 million celebrated in April 2022 · about US$75 million player spending in year one (Sensor Tower estimate)

Overview · Quick Answers · Story · Sync Pairs · Gameplay · Ultimate Battles · Characters · Pokémon · Updates · Regional Variations · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Sales & Reviews · Media

Overview

Pokémon Masters EX is a free-to-start strategy battler for iPhone, iPad and Android, made by DeNA in its first partnership with The Pokémon Company. It launched worldwide as Pokémon Masters on 29 August 2019 (a day earlier in North America), after preview runs in Singapore and Canada, and picked up its EX title with version 2.0.0 for its first anniversary in August 2020. Rather than casting you as a lone Trainer catching wild Pokémon, it brings the series’ best-known faces together – Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, Champions, rivals, villains and protagonists from every region – on Pasio, an artificial island built to host the Pokémon Masters League.

The playable unit is the sync pair: one Trainer and one partner Pokémon fighting as a team. You field three pairs against three opponents in real-time battles that run on a shared move gauge, switching targets on the fly and building towards each pair’s cinematic sync move. Pairs arrive through the story, events, Eggs and the gacha-style Sync Pair Scout, and grow stronger through levels, potential, the sync grid and the 6★ EX upgrade. Up to three players can team up online, while Champion Stadium, the Battle Villa, Legendary Arena and the Ultimate Battles of Challenge the Strong are there to test a finished roster.

It is the series’ great crossover. Characters from Red and Blue right through to Scarlet and Violet, Legends: Arceus and Legends: Z-A share the island, often in outfits designed only for this game. The story has grown from the original league arc into a ten-chapter Villain Arc, the Legendary Adventures collection and the Arceus Arc, and by October 2026 there were more than 660 sync pairs to recruit. Seven years after launch it still gets new content every month, which makes it one of the longest-running Pokémon games on mobile.

Quick Answers

The questions people most often ask about Pokémon Masters EX, answered up front and covered in more depth further down the page.

Is Pokémon Masters EX free to play, and is it pay-to-win?

It is free to download and play, and is funded by optional Gem purchases for the gacha-style Sync Pair Scout, along with bundles and the Pokémon Masters Pass. Spending money speeds up collecting the rarer 5★ pairs, but Gems are also handed out free for story clears, missions and log-in bonuses, and anniversary events often give away thousands at once. More →

Can you still play Pokémon Masters EX in 2026?

Yes. In October 2026 the game is live and updated every month on iOS and Android, and its seventh-anniversary celebration has been running since late August. It needs iOS/iPadOS 15 or Android 7.0 or later. Service has already ended in Vietnam, Russia and Indonesia, and is due to end in Turkey in late December 2026. More →

Is Pokémon Masters EX on Nintendo Switch?

No. It has only ever been released for phones and tablets – iPhone and iPad through the App Store, and Android devices through Google Play – and there is no Switch, PC or console version. You can, however, link a Nintendo Account to your save from the Poryphone menu. More →

How many sync pairs are in Pokémon Masters EX?

More than 660 that can be recruited, as of October 2026, covering every region from Kanto to Paldea plus characters from Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Legends: Z-A. Many Trainers have several pairs thanks to alternate outfits such as Sygna Suits, seasonal costumes, arc suits and the anniversary EX Master versions. More →

What is the difference between Pokémon Masters and Pokémon Masters EX?

There isn’t one: they are the same game. Pokémon Masters became Pokémon Masters EX with version 2.0.0 for its first anniversary in August 2020. The update brought a new logo, Champion Stadium and the 6★ EX upgrade, which unlocks new outfits, and it arrived as an ordinary update, so existing saves carried straight over. More →

Does Pokémon Masters EX connect to Pokémon HOME or other games?

No. Pokémon in Masters EX only exist as halves of sync pairs, so there is nothing to send to Pokémon HOME, the core series or Pokémon GO. The only outside link is optional Nintendo Account linking from the Poryphone menu, and co-op partners are found through the in-game friends list. More →

How do you get new sync pairs?

From main story chapters, limited-time events, the Sync Pair Scout and ticket scouts, hatching Eggs, Battle Point exchanges and reaching Friendship Level 100 with a guest in the Trainer Lodge. A standard scout has a 7% chance of a 5★ pair, which rises to 10% in Poké Fair scouts and 12% in Master Fair scouts. More →

Is there a sequel to Pokémon Masters EX?

No. Instead of making a sequel, DeNA has kept building on the original app: the Masters EX rebrand in 2020, the Villain Arc from 2021, the Arceus Arc from 2024 and a big anniversary update every August. No successor had been announced by October 2026. More →

Story

The player – Scottie or Bettie, unless you choose another name – arrives on Pasio with a Pikachu and learns from Blue about the Pokémon Masters League, a three-on-three tournament founded by Lear, a prince whose father has promised him the throne if the league is a success. Trista registers the player and hands over a Poryphone, and the player teams up with Brock and Misty, gathering more allies along the way. Entering the league takes five Badges won from the PML Leaders, and the team keeps running into Team Break, a gang that steals strong Pokémon. Lear, who turned cold after his mother’s death, treats Pokémon as tools and wins without relying on any bond with them. Beaten by the player, he goes after Team Break to recover his Hoopa, is captured himself, and rediscovers friendship once Hoopa is rescued. Thirty chapters and seven interludes later, the player’s team challenges to become the first PML Champions.

The Villain Arc brings every evil team in the series to Pasio. Giovanni, who comes from a world that Team Rocket conquered, works both with and against the other organisations; members of the Aether Foundation help summon Ultra Beasts before they are stopped; and Rose joins Giovanni in a scheme over the island’s sync stones that splits Pasio into factions. Paulo, tricked by Ghetsis into delivering Hoopa, takes over Team Break and tries to harness Hoopa Unbound, only for Giovanni to seize it, and the arc ends in a showdown with Team Rainbow Rocket.

The Arceus Arc begins with mysterious stones, later named sync stones ultimate, appearing all over the island. Volo arrives from the past, determined to meet Arceus, and when Arceus speaks to the whole of Pasio, Lear stages the Arceus Cup. Across ten chapters arc suits and divine moves make their debut, and the arc closes with Diantha and Geeta.

The story arcs

The main story is split into arcs, released years apart and all still playable today:

Arc	Length	Began	What it covers
PML arc	30 chapters and 7 interludes	August 2019	The original story: five Badges, Team Break and Lear’s league. Co-op opens at Interlude 1, and Hard Mode after Chapter 4.
Villain Arc	10 chapters	28 September 2021 (version 2.13.0)	Sorted by region and playable in any order: Team Rocket in Kanto and Johto, Magma and Aqua, Galactic, Plasma, Flare, Skull with the Aether Foundation, Yell with Macro Cosmos, Paulo’s Team Break and a Team Rainbow Rocket finale.
Legendary Adventures	Collected stories	24 November 2021	The stories of sync pairs with Legendary Pokémon, gathered from the retired legendary events and made permanent over the next two months. Villain-event battles followed on 26 February 2025, and their Power Boosts give Legendary Adventures pairs either Mega Evolution or six extra sync grid tiles.
Mysterious Stones Chapter	Monthly parts	1 November 2023	Released a part at a time until 1 August 2024, then rebranded as the Arceus Arc’s Prelude on 20 August 2024.
Arceus Arc	Prelude plus 10 chapters	20 August 2024	The Arceus Cup, from Cynthia, Steven and Lance in Three Champions to Diantha and Geeta in A Once-in-a-Lifetime Stage.

Sync pairs, sync moves & anniversaries

Everything in Pokémon Masters EX is built around the sync pair: a Trainer and one partner Pokémon who fight as a single unit and share a sync move. Seven years on, the cast of the original Pokémon Masters League has grown into more than 660 pairs to recruit, and the game has added new roles, upgrade tiers and costume lines along the way, saving its biggest changes for each August anniversary.

• 660+sync pairs to recruit (October 2026)
• 6roles, up from three at launch
• Lv. 150level cap since August 2022
• 50Champion Spirits for a 6★ EX upgrade

How a sync pair worksEvery unit is a Trainer partnered with one Pokémon species. A pair has a single type and one weakness, which is set separately from that type, up to four moves, and passive skills that work much like Abilities. Pokémon moves spend segments of the move gauge; Trainer moves, such as healing items and stat boosts, usually cost nothing; and powerful buddy moves can only be used once their conditions are met.

The roster in 2026By October 2026 more than 660 sync pairs could be recruited. Another 21 appear only in fixed teams in story chapters, Victory Road or one-off events, among them Lear’s Hoopa (Confined), Rachel’s Umbreon and Sawyer’s Honchkrow, and some characters, such as Byron, Drayden, Opal and Larry, have turned up on Pasio without becoming playable.

Costume linesAlternate versions keep favourite Trainers coming back: Sygna Suits, seasonal outfits, special costumes, Neo Champion looks, variety pairs that give minor characters new partners, arc suits from the Arceus Arc and anniversary outfits. Master pairs carry an extra passive skill, and EX Master pairs, introduced for the sixth anniversary in 2025, sit above them as a further top tier.

Sync movesThe signature mechanic is the sync move, a cinematic finisher powered by the sync stone in the Poryphone. A countdown starts at nine for your team and six for the opponents and drops by one whenever anyone uses a move; when it reaches zero, one pair can unleash its sync move and the countdown resets. Some pairs Mega Evolve as they use it, and later mechanics have been layered on top: once-per-battle Max moves for Dynamax-capable pairs, rainbow sync grid tiles that strengthen the sync move, Terastallization for newer pairs and divine moves for the arc suit pairs of the Arceus Arc.

Rarity, potential and 6★ EXPairs level up through battle experience or Level-Up Manuals, and the cap was raised to Lv. 150 in August 2022. Rarity runs from 1★ to 5★: Power-Ups raise a pair’s potential to 20, at which point a lower-rarity pair gains a star. A 5★ pair at full potential can become 6★ EX for 50 Champion Spirits (Legendary Spirits for Legendary Adventures pairs). Added with the EX rebrand in August 2020, the upgrade usually unlocks an EX outfit based on the partner Pokémon’s normal or shiny colours, although some pairs, such as Battle Point and Trainer Lodge rewards, keep their original look. Duplicate copies raise a pair’s move level from 1 to 5 for a 20% power boost, and the sync grid spends sync orbs on coloured tiles that add stats, move power, passive skills and stronger sync moves.

The six roles

A pair’s role sets its job in battle. Three roles existed at launch, and three more have been added since:

Role	Added	What it does
Strike (physical)	Launch, 2019	Deals damage with physical moves
Strike (special)	Launch, 2019	Deals damage with special moves
Tech	Launch, 2019	Lowers opponents’ stats and inflicts status conditions
Support	Launch, 2019	Heals, defends and boosts the team
Sprint	August 2023	Fast attacks that also shorten the sync move countdown
Field	August 2023	Sets up effects across the battlefield
Multi	August 2024	Raises and lowers type rebuffs; reserved for arc suit pairs

Many pairs can also unlock a fixed secondary EX role with a roll cake, gaining stat boosts and, once they reach 6★ EX, a second role-based bonus for their sync move.

Seven anniversaries

Every late-August anniversary brings the year’s biggest changes, usually with new headline sync pairs, thousands of free Gems through log-in bonuses and a limited Master Fair or EX Master Fair scout. The first gave the game its new name; the seventh, Marvelous Mega 7 in 2026, was themed around Mega Evolution.

Gameplay

Battles are quick, real-time and built for a phone screen, while the long-term pull comes from collecting and upgrading pairs. These are the systems that tie it all together:

Battles and co-op

Real-time three-on-three battlesBattles pit three sync pairs against three and play out in real time rather than turn by turn. A shared move gauge refills constantly, faster when the team’s combined Speed is higher, and every Pokémon move costs a set number of segments, so timing matters as much as type matchups. You can switch which opponent each ally is targeting at any moment, while the other side concentrates on the main target picked in the Tactics menu, and some moves have a limited number of move points, much like PP. The first side to knock out every opposing pair wins, and a defeat offers an instant retry.

Co-op multiplayerOnline co-op brings up to three players together. Each brings three sync pairs but fields one at a time, and swapping in a reserve costs a turn. Certain moves fill a shared unity gauge, and once it is full the team unleashes a unity attack. Co-op opens at Interlude 1 of the main story, and modes such as the EX Challenges in EX Plaza and special co-op battles pay out gear and upgrade materials. You can keep up to 100 friends and send co-op invitations through the Poryphone to players anywhere in the world.

Gems, scouts and missions

Around Pasio

Trainer Lodge and the Pokémon CenterThe Trainer Lodge, added for the third anniversary in August 2022, lets you invite guest Trainers to chat and go on expeditions to raise their friendship; reaching Friendship Level 100 earns special photos, stories and sync pairs. The Pokémon Center is the hub of Pasio, with Trista on reception, Tricia’s shop, Trinnia’s café and, since January 2022, a Jukebox whose Song Keys unlock music. Elsewhere, Eggs hatch into new partners for the player character, the Photo Creator frames up to three Trainers in a shot, and Sync Pair Stories add short side episodes for most recruits.

EventsA constant calendar of limited-time events carries most new content: story events, special sync pair events, Legendary Gauntlets, high-score and ranked-damage challenges, villain events, Neo Champion events, Trainer Gym seasons and the monthly Pokémon Masters Day. Academy events, set at Clavell’s Pasio Academy, hand you a special pair at Lv. 140 with just one move and let you build its sync grid as the event goes on, choosing which grid to keep after the Final Exam stage. The original legendary events were retired in November 2021 and folded permanently into Legendary Adventures.

Champion Stadium & Ultimate Battles

Once a team is built, the game offers plenty of places to prove it, from each region’s Pokémon League to fights designed to push a finished roster to its limit:

Challenge the Strong

Added to the Side Area in November 2023, Challenge the Strong holds the game’s Ultimate-difficulty fights: 18 Ultimate Battles against bosses with enormous HP and powerful passive skills, each paying 300 Gems on its first clear. Every boss has a set weakness, so picking the right type of attacker is the first step. Battle facility bosses, from Hoenn’s Battle Frontier to Unova’s Battle Subway and Alola’s Battle Royal Dome, make up most of the list, alongside Leon, Nemona, Wally and Giovanni.

Ultimate Battle: Anabel’s Flickering Flames

Set weakness: Water · Challenge the Strong · 300 Gems on first clear

Anabel, the Salon Maiden of Hoenn’s Battle Frontier, heads the list of Ultimate Battles with the Legendary Entei.

Sync pair: Anabel & Entei

Like every boss here she has inflated HP and strong passive skills, so Water-type attackers do the heavy lifting.

Ultimate Battle: Leon’s Unbeatable Blaze

Set weakness: Electric · Challenge the Strong · 300 Gems on first clear

Galar’s Champion and his Charizard take the stage as an Ultimate boss.

Sync pair: Leon & Charizard

Electric-type strikers are the usual answer to this one.

Ultimate Battle: Giovanni’s Destructive Power

Set weakness: Dark · Challenge the Strong · 300 Gems on first clear

The Team Rocket boss and his Mewtwo, which can Mega Evolve, make up one of the best-known pairings in the game.

Sync pair: Giovanni & Mewtwo

Dark-type attackers are the ones to bring.

Ultimate Battle: Nemona’s Lightning Spirit

Set weakness: Psychic · Challenge the Strong · 300 Gems on first clear

Paldea’s Champion-ranked student brings her Pawmot, giving Challenge the Strong a boss from Scarlet and Violet.

Sync pair: Nemona & Pawmot

Psychic-type sync pairs make the most of its set weakness.

All 18 Ultimate Battles

Characters

Beyond the hundreds of familiar Trainers, a few characters hold the story together: the player, Pasio’s founder and his aides, the island’s receptionist and the newcomers at the heart of the later arcs.

Scottie and Bettie (the player)The default names of the player character, who arrives on Pasio with a partner Pikachu to enter the Pokémon Masters League. Over the story the player character also partners Torchic (who joins in Chapter 20), Legendary Pokémon such as Solgaleo, Battle Point pairs and every Pokémon hatched from an Egg. Hair and hat customisation arrived in December 2022, and the player character has an EX outfit too, added through the Poryphone.

LearPasio’s founder is a prince whose father has promised him the throne if the Pokémon Masters League succeeds. A kind child, Lear turned cold after his mother’s death and a strict upbringing, and he built the league after losing to Red. His partner is Hoopa, and he later gained a Sygna Suit pair with Gholdengo and a pair with Krookodile. Bryce Papenbrook voices him in English and Mamoru Miyano in Japanese.

Rachel and SawyerLear’s two aides live with him at the Battle Villa and make up the rest of his PML team, battling with Rachel’s Umbreon and Sawyer’s Honchkrow. Together with Lear they used Hoopa to bring sync pairs to Pasio and drum up excitement for the league, and they win a league match without him before facing the player.

TristaTrista welcomes new arrivals and hands the player a Poryphone once they have registered for the league. She runs the reception desk at the Pokémon Center, home of the Explore and Tips menus, while Tricia staffs the shop and Trinnia runs the café where sync pairs are managed. An in-game help feature, Trista’s Guide, was added in August 2022.

PauloAn original character at the centre of The Path Forward, the Villain Arc’s Team Break chapter. Deceived by Ghetsis into delivering Hoopa, Paulo appears to lose his Rockruff and, embittered, takes charge of Team Break, trying to wield the power of Hoopa Unbound until Giovanni wrests Hoopa away from him.

VoloThe Pokémon Legends: Arceus character comes to Pasio from the past through a rift in space-time, still obsessed with meeting Arceus, something Rei already knows about him. His hunt for the mysterious stones drives the Arceus Arc, and Chapter 6, Fixation on the Creator, features Volo with Giratina.

ClavellPaldea’s academy director founds Pasio Academy, a school where Trainers gather to socialise and share what they know. The four-part Academy Founding Chapter follows him and the bosses of Team Star as they set it up, Academy events take place in its grounds, and Clavell and Sprigatito starred in a special sync pair event in August 2026.

Pokémon

There are no wild Pokémon to catch in Masters EX. Every Pokémon is half of a sync pair, tied to one Trainer, and many partners evolve through one-on-one evolution battles in their Sync Pair Stories. The roster spans all nine generations, from the Kanto starters that hatch from Eggs to Paldea’s Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly, and takes in Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, regional forms, Mega Evolution, Dynamax and Gigantamax, and Terastallization. With more than 660 pairs to recruit, plenty of species turn up several times with different Trainers or outfits. These are some with a special part to play:

• PikachuScottie / Bettie
• TorchicScottie / Bettie
• HoopaLear
• MewtwoGiovanni
• RayquazaZinnia, Steven
• LunalaLillie
• ArceusThe Arceus Arc
• GiratinaVolo
• CharizardRed, Leon
• GreninjaSerena
• FeraligatrHarmony
• GholdengoLear

• Pikachu – The player’s starting partner in the PML arc.
• Torchic – Joins the player as a second story partner in Chapter 20.
• Hoopa – Lear’s partner, and the centre of both the PML arc and Paulo’s Villain Arc chapter.
• Mewtwo – Giovanni’s partner, able to Mega Evolve, and an Ultimate Battle boss.
• Rayquaza – Mega Evolves with Zinnia, and partnered Steven in the 2021 anniversary line-up.
• Lunala – Lillie’s partner in the second-anniversary trio, alongside N & Reshiram and Steven & Rayquaza.
• Arceus – Its voice, heard all over Pasio, sets off the Arceus Arc and the Arceus Cup.
• Giratina – Partners Volo in Arceus Arc Chapter 6, Fixation on the Creator.
• Charizard – Partners Red and Leon; the arc suit Leon & Charizard were the first arc suit pair able to use Max moves.
• Greninja – Partners Serena (Anniversary 2026), an EX Master pair for the seventh anniversary.
• Feraligatr – Harmony’s partner, a Water-type Sprint pair that debuted in August 2026.
• Gholdengo – Partners Lear in his Sygna Suit.

Updates & events timeline

Pokémon Masters EX has been updated every month since launch. These are the updates that changed the game most, from the first big patch to the latest version; the launch milestones themselves are listed under Legacy:

Regional Variations

Pokémon Masters EX is one app worldwide, but where you live still changes a few things:

• The game has never been released in Belgium or the Netherlands, two countries that have taken action against paid loot boxes.
• At launch, players in Iceland and Switzerland could only get it on iOS.
• Vietnam lost access after 27 November 2024, and Russia and Indonesia after 28 January 2026; Turkey is due to follow in late December 2026.
• The island is Pasio in English, Italian, Japanese (パシオ) and Korean, but Passio in French, German and European Spanish.
• Age ratings vary widely: E10+ from the ESRB in North America and G from the ACB in Australia, but PEGI 16 on Google Play in Europe, under PEGI’s rules for in-game purchases that include random items. It was originally rated PEGI 3.

Videos & media

Two recent trailers from the game’s official YouTube channel.

The sixth-anniversary trailer from August 2025, which introduced the first EX Master sync pairs.

The trailer for Team MZ Joins the Fray, the event that led into the seventh anniversary in August 2026.

Trivia & facts

• Masters EX is the only game in which Ash’s World Cap Pikachu can use the Z-Move 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt.
• The island’s name, Pasio (パシオ in Japanese), comes from the Esperanto word for passion.
• Sync pairs go by a different name in Japanese, where they are called Buddies.

• 

  Lear’s Japanese name, ライヤー (Lyer), comes from pliers, and his English name may also be a nod to Shakespeare’s King Lear.

• 

  Several characters come from other worlds: Giovanni from one where Team Rocket conquered everything and he leads Team Rainbow Rocket, Cyrus from one where he never learned of the Distortion World, and Florian from one in which the events of Pokémon Violet took place.

• The Pokémon Legends: Arceus cast reached Pasio from the past through a rift in space-time, and Leon believes the Rose and Oleana on the island come from a time before Galar’s Darkest Day.
• Red and Juliana are the only player characters confirmed as Champions in the game’s story.
• The game happily merges versions of the core series: Lyra and Kris both appear, as do Victor and Gloria, and Gloria owns Zacian while Hop has Zamazenta.
• Elio and Selene appear both in their Sun and Moon outfits and in their Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon designs.

• 

  The App Store age rating went up to 13+ in November 2025, mainly to comply with COPPA, the US children’s privacy law.

Legacy

What came after

• Announcement – 29 May 2019. Revealed at the Pokémon Press Conference in Tokyo (28 May in the Americas)
• Regional previews – 25 July 2019. Preview versions in Singapore, then in Canada from 6 August 2019
• Worldwide launch – 29 August 2019. Released free-to-start on iOS and Android in eight languages (28 August in North America)
• 10 million downloads – 3 September 2019. Reached within four days of launch
• 20 million downloads – Late January 2020. Marked with 1,500 free Gems for every player
• Renamed Pokémon Masters EX – 25 August 2020. Version 2.0.0 for the first anniversary, adding 6★ EX and Champion Stadium
• Villain Arc – 28 September 2021. The second main story arc begins with Team Rocket in Kanto
• 40 million downloads – 28 April 2022. Marked with 3,000 free Gems, log-in bonuses and Mission Bingo
• Arceus Arc – 20 August 2024. The fifth-anniversary story arc, bringing arc suits, divine moves and the Multi role
• Sixth anniversary – 26 August 2025. Version 2.60.0 introduces EX Master sync pairs
• Seventh anniversary – 28 August 2026. The Marvelous Mega 7 celebration, themed around Mega Evolution
• End of service in Turkey (scheduled) – Late December 2026. Announced in September 2026, after earlier closures in Vietnam, Russia and Indonesia

Where to play it today

In October 2026 Pokémon Masters EX is still live and free to download from the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS/iPadOS 15 or later) and from Google Play (Android 7.0 or later). Version 2.73.0 arrived in late September 2026, and the seventh-anniversary events are still running into October. There is no Switch, PC or console version. The game has never launched in Belgium or the Netherlands, it has closed in Vietnam, Russia and Indonesia, and Turkey is due to lose access in late December 2026.

How it was made

Pokémon Masters was developed and published by DeNA, Nintendo’s long-standing smartphone partner, in its first collaboration with The Pokémon Company, and the idea of gathering the series’ past Trainers in a single game came from Ken Sugimori. At DeNA, general producer Osamu Ikeda, producer Yu Sasaki and directors Katsuyuki Shiga and Noriaki Murakami led the team, with Kana Yamamoto as lead character design artist and Yuichi Kanemori as battle director. Tetsuya Iguchi later took over as producer and is the face of the development team’s regular messages to players.

On The Pokémon Company’s side the producers were Takato Utsunomiya, Kazunori Sugiura and Yoshitaka Fujiwara, with Isao Moriyasu and Tsunekazu Ishihara as executive producers, and the music was written by Haruki Yamada and Shota Kageyama of ATTIC INC. The game was unveiled at the Pokémon Press Conference in Tokyo on 29 May 2019, with fuller details of sync pairs, Pasio and the league following on 27 June and preview versions in Singapore and Canada ahead of the worldwide launch.

Masters EX and the anime

Sales & reviews

Downloads and revenue

Pokémon Masters is free to start, so there are no sales figures as such; what DeNA and The Pokémon Company have announced are download milestones. More than five million players pre-registered, the game passed 10 million downloads within four days of its 29 August 2019 launch, 20 million followed by late January 2020, and 40 million downloads were celebrated in the game from 28 April 2022. Player spending has only been estimated by analytics firms: about US$10 million in the first four days, roughly US$25 million in the first week, US$33 million in the first month and, on Sensor Tower’s figures, about US$75 million in the first year. No separate figures have been published for Japan.

• 10mdownloads in four days
• 40mdownloads, celebrated in April 2022
• ~US$75mestimated player spending in year one
• 63on Metacritic, iOS (11 critics)

Review scores

Critics reviewed Pokémon Masters at launch in 2019, and the iOS version settled at 63 on Metacritic from 11 critics. Nintendo Life called it “perhaps one of the most well-realised Pokémon mobile titles to date”, while Pocket Gamer’s review concluded: “Pokémon Masters is an ambitious game that has made plenty of mistakes along the way.” Edge was cooler still: “Once again we leave a Nintendo mobile game feeling a little underwhelmed.” Players have been kinder over the years, with a 4.7 average from about 219,000 App Store ratings and 4.1 from more than 500,000 Google Play reviews by October 2026.

Critics liked the idea and the presentation but found the launch version thin. Seeing decades of Trainers share one stage was the big draw, and Gamezebo enjoyed writing engaging enough that it never felt the need to skip the story. The real-time battles were judged approachable but shallow, and Pocket Gamer, Vandal and Edge all pointed to a repetitive grind, too little content and a familiar gacha structure, while Multiplayer.it dismissed it as a gacha game like hundreds of others. Players raised similar complaints about content, rewards and difficulty, and on 9 October 2019 DeNA’s producers answered with a letter of apology promising improvements. Commercially it was an instant hit, and later additions such as Champion Stadium, new roles and fresh story arcs have kept it going for seven years.

Media & artwork

• Box art from Pokémon Masters EX, with logos and app icons

Further reading

More Pokémon games for phones and tablets, and two of the core-series games whose Trainers fill Pasio: