‘Legends: Z-A’ is already one of the best-selling Pokémon games

It’s been confirmed that Pokémon Legends: Z–A is already one of the best selling titles in the long-running franchise.

Pokémon Legends: Z–A is the follow-up to 2022’s Legends: Arceus and the spin-off takes place in the Paris-inspired city of Lumiose, which was first introduced in 2013’s X & Y. Like most Pokémon games, players are able to catch, battle and train a number of creatures but instead of the typical turn-based setup, Legends: Z–A uses a real-time battle system. The game also reintroduces mega-evolutions for the first time since 2014’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Despite fans complaining about the graphics and rumoured $13million budget, Pokémon Legends: Z–A was praised by critics. The game launched earlier this month and according to Nintendo, has sold more than 5.8million copies in its first week, giving it the fifth best launch of any Pokémon title. Over half of those sales were for the Nintendo Switch 2 as well, which has only sold 5.8million units compared to the original Switch’s 153million sales.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A just had the biggest launch of a physical video game in the US since 2023’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

It outsold every other physical game since then in both unit sales and dollar sales (revenue). pic.twitter.com/gwlD2Jd8eL

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) October 28, 2025

Between the two titles, 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet & Violet sold more than 10million copies in its first week while 2019’s twin release of Sword & Shield shifted more than 6million copies during its opening weekend. Legends: Arceus racked up sales of more than 6.5million copies during its first week. However, Pokémon Legend: Z–A has had the biggest physical launch of any game in North America since 2023’s The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom (via Circana).

Based on 82 reviews, Legends: Z–A currently has a “generally favourable” score of 78 out of 100 on aggregate site Metacritic, making it one of the best-reviewed Pokémon games in more than a decade. 

The series is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026 and a London pop-up store and a Lego collaboration have already been confirmed. New multiplayer game Pokémon Champions has also been announced but there’s still no news about the next mainline entry after Scarlet & Violet.

In other news ICE, the US government agency responsible for the widespread detention and deportation of immigrants, have shared a new advert using Halo’s Master Chief and gaming fans are furious.