Pokemon Legends Z-A is ‘the best-selling physical game of the year so far’ in the US
“It’s going to be one of the big drivers of the holiday quarter”, Circana’s Mat Piscatella says
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the best-selling physical game in the US so far this year,.
That’s according to Mat Piscatella, senior director at market research company Circana, who revealed the data during a YouTube interview with Kyle Bosman.
Discussing the popularity of the game, Piscatella explained that Pokémon continues to be a leading IP across a number of the categories tracked by Circana.
“Pokémon’s the biggest media property around right now,” he said. “It’s leading in our toys tracking, the trading cards are one of the biggest drivers of the entire toy industry right now, the Pokémon cards.
“It’s broken all containment from the video game world in terms of franchise strength. It’s the best-selling physical game of the year so far already and it’s only been in the market a few weeks, and it’s going to be one of the big drivers of the holiday quarter”.
Piscatella’s information may not come as a huge surprise given that last month he revealed that Pokémon Legends: Z-A had enjoyed the best US retail launch week in two and a half years, according to Circana’s data.
The game’s total physical sales in the US in its first week of release were the highest – in terms of both number of physical units sold and dollar sales – since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released in May 2023.
It should be noted that Circana’s data on Nintendo games only covers physical sales, since Nintendo doesn’t provide digital sales data to the company.
As such, it’s therefore possible that a different game is the best-selling title in the US so far this year when both physical and digital sales are taken into account. In terms of purely physical sales, though, Pokémon Legends Z-A is the current US leader for 2025.
Last month The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Legends: Z-A had sold 5.8 million copies globally in its first week – including both physical and digital sales – with around half of these played on Switch 2.
VGC’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A review calls it “a love letter to older fans that betters Pokémon Legends: Arceus in every way”.
“Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a grand adventure that once again proves that the Legends series is home to the most interesting ideas Game Freak has,” we wrote. “It’s a game that understands its audience, and feels like a love letter to both players who grew up with X & Y, and those who’ve been here the whole time.”
