Nintendo recently released Pokémon Pokopia exclusively to the Switch 2, the first life-sim genre game in the remarkably fitting Pokémon franchise. The creature-catcher has long been a best-selling one, but the sales of Pokémon Pokopia are so astronomically high that entire countries are struggling to provide stock of its physical release following huge demand.
We first had word of stock shortages from Walmart Canada, with the official account for their gaming division sharing a post over on X (formerly Twitter) clarifying that “due to massive demand” they had “sold through our initial allotment of Pokémon Pokopia“, and were opening pre-orders for a second wave of copies. Despite Pokopia being a Game Key Card release, it seems many want the boxed copy of the game, perhaps in part to it being purchased alongside the Switch 2 in stores.
This issue went global over the weekend, with the United Kingdom now also struggling to stock Pokémon Pokopia. British games journalist Christopher Dring shared that the game was “seriously undersupplied”, with launch sales being less than half of Pokémon Legends: Z-A despite the immense hype and demand due to it being hard to find in shops.
Whilst the supply of Pokémon Pokopia had initially held up in the United States, it’s gradually selling out as the week begins, with the Nintendo store now being sold out of physical copies and certain Walmart, GameStop and Target stories running out of the boxed Pokémon Pokopia. At time of writing, Amazon just sold out of the last of its physical versions, with the price rising from third-party sellers on the retail giant to $80 to capitalize from the demand.
Before release, Pokémon Pokopia‘s review embargo dropped to waves of positive reviews, even going so far as to make Pokopia the highest-reviewed game in Pokémon franchise history. The past weekend has seen a surge of social media users sharing their new Switch 2 console purchases alongside Pokémon Pokopia; we’ll be very eager to hear official sales numbers when the time comes.
Be sure to check back often to GameObserver so you never miss out on the latest gaming news!
