From the rise of Nintendo's Switch 2 game-key cards to the general trend toward digital games, physical media holdouts in the games industry don't have a ton of reasons to feel optimistic in 2025, but I'm here to share one small, isolated glimmer of hope. As reported by Mat Piscatella of Circana Research Tracking Service over on Bluesky, "Pokemon Legends: Z-A had a massive US launch at retail," in which launch week physical unit and dollar sales "were the biggest for a new physical video game launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom back in May of 2023." Pokémon Legends: Z-A had a massive US launch at retail. Launch week physical unit and dollar sales of Pokémon Legends: Z-A were the biggest for a new physical video game launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom back in May of 2023. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T18:47:00.416Z Pokémon Legends: Z-A had a massive US launch at retail. Launch week physical unit and dollar sales of Pokémon Legends: Z-A were the biggest for a new physical video game launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom back in May of 2023. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service Again, it's a modest and completely inconsequential win for physical media, but frankly, physical media nerds and preservationists should probably celebrate the small victories they're presented these days. Pokemon Legends: Z-A sells over 5.8 million copies in its first week, cementing the real-time RPG as a success even if it's still lagging behind Legends: Arceus Pokemon Legends: Z-A beat Battlefield 6 to become the best-selling game in Europe last week, but it's still the smallest Pokemon RPG launch for 7 years CD Projekt said ditching game-key cards for Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 was "the right thing to do," and it's apparently paid off because 75% of that version's sales were physical More generally, Pokemon Legends: ZA has cemented itself as a bonafide commercial success with 5.8 million copies sold in its first week. For reference, that lags behind the 6.5 million copies Pokemon Legends Arceus sold in 2022, and in fact, it's the smallest launch for a mainline Pokemon RPG in Europe since 2018's Pokémon: Let's Go! Pikachu and Let's Go! Eevee in 2018, but free from the context of being a Pokemon game, it's still inarguably a financial success nonetheless. Pokemon Sword and Shield made me a lapsed fan but Pokemon Legends: Z-A has turned me back into a super nerd