Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen get Home support in October — and Ruby, Sapphire ports may follow

Nintendo has officially confirmed that the Switch versions of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen will receive a Pokémon Home compatibility update this October. On top of that, fan speculation is running hot that ports of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald could be announced around the same time.

The October update lets players sync their FireRed and LeafGreen Pokédex data with Home — and anyone who has completed the Kanto Pokédex will receive the Mythical Pokémon Celebi as a gift directly in the app. Crucially, you don't need to physically transfer every species to trigger this; Home simply reads your caught data and awards Celebi automatically. Transfers from FireRed and LeafGreen into Home are one-way only, and no Pokémon from other games can be brought back into these GBA titles. Separately, Pokémon Go creatures caught in Safari Balls will also become Home-compatible in October, timed to coincide with 2026's Wild Area event — The Pokémon Company may have delayed this due to the unusually high stats Wild Area Pokémon carry. Nintendo also confirmed today that Pokémon Bank, the 3DS-era predecessor to Home, will shut down permanently on February 25, 2027, after which any Pokémon left inside will be lost for good.

FireRed and LeafGreen launched on Switch as standalone purchases rather than Nintendo Switch Online additions, a pricing model that drew criticism online — but the sales numbers have been hard to argue with. The two games shifted a combined 4 million copies in just six weeks, generating an estimated $80 million in revenue. That commercial success is exactly why fans are betting Nintendo will follow up with Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald ports: those three Game Boy Advance titles were the mainline generation that came just before FireRed and LeafGreen, and the same release template would fit neatly. The October timing of the Home update is fueling the theory further, since Nintendo could use it as a launchpad to announce the next wave.

With Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves — the Switch 2-exclusive Generation 10 games — not arriving until 2027, there's a clear gap in the release calendar that another set of GBA ports could fill. Whether Nintendo confirms anything in October remains to be seen, but the Celebi reward gives players a concrete reason to wrap up their Kanto Pokédex sooner rather than later.