Pokémon Legends: Z-A might not have flown off the shelves quite as fast as its series predecessors around the world, but that’s not to say that its launch has been anything to scoff at. In fact, it has put up the US’ biggest physical game launch in over two years.
That’s according to Circana‘s Mat Piscatella on Bluesky, who noted that the US hasn’t seen a launch like Z-A’s since Tears of the Kingdom arrived back on the scene in May 2023.
We should note that the data only accounts for “physical unit and dollar sales” and not digital or bundle purchases, but nonetheless, standing up there with TOTK — one of the most-anticipated games in recent memory — isn’t bad going.
Of course, there might be a bit of you thinking “well, duh, it’s Pokémon, obviously it sold well,” and you’d be right… for the most part. As we alluded to earlier, Z-A’s release numbers are far from what the series has mustered in the past. In Europe, the game’s racked up the smallest retail launch for a mainline game since Let’s Go! Pikachu and Let’s Go! Eevee, and while the Japanese numbers are impressive, it’s far from Scarlet & Violet‘s debut.
All this is to say, even a quieter Pokémon launch is still a rather big deal, in the grand scheme of things.
