Pokémon Sleep announces global competitive sleeping tournament (April Fools) 

In one of the most surreal April Fools jokes this year, The Pokémon Company announced a worldwide “Pokémon Sleep Champion Tournament,” planned for 2024. The promotional video depicts intense sleep battles happening before a live audience. 
 

Pokémon Sleep, normally a peaceful app designed to improve users’ quality of sleep while providing some casual gameplay, suddenly took a competitive turn. Players who qualified to represent their countries through the Pokémon Sleep app enter an arena of sleep booths, where they engage in sleep battles before an audience. Battles are accompanied by live commentary by “Kenny Mattress” and “Chris Pillow.” The competitors perform their personal sleep routines, such as doing stretches, reading boring books and relaxing with plushies. 

In the Pokémon Sleep Champion Tournament, participants have 8.5 hours to sleep, and their scores are calculated using the time it took them to enter deep sleep, their sleep rhythms, and general “sleep-style artistry.” The high production value of this elaborate April Fools stunt has earned a good number of double takes, with the words “Pokémon Sleep Worldwide Tournament” briefly tending on X in Japan.  

Pokémon Sleep is free to play on iOS and Android.   

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-04-01 08:00 JST)