Pokémon Legends Z-A will arrive on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 later this year on October 16, 2025, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have announced. It’ll be available on both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, with the Switch 2 version featuring “improved graphics and frame rates.”
It’s right around the time we were expecting the release date to be, because mainline Pokémon releases have all recently launched in that same fall-early winter window to get it in just ahead of the holidays, and because that was the release window Nintendo revealed earlier this year during a Pokémon Presents presentation. You’ll be able to pre-order Legends Z-A when the Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5, 2025.
The Pokémon Company announced the news with a post on its official X account, sharing a new piece of key art for the game. “Pokémon Legends Z-A arrives October 16, 2026!” the caption for the post reads.
“In addition to the Nintendo Switch title, a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition will offer improved graphics and frame rates! The digital and physical versions of Pokémon Legends Z-A can be upgraded to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition via upgrade pack.”
There’s also going to be another Pokémon Presents event on July 22, 2025, which will likely showcase more of what’s to come in Legends Z-A, and hopefully some news on what else we can expect to play from the world of Pokémon.
For the 150 million+ that already own a Nintendo Switch, it’s great that one of the biggest series on the platform will still be available on the Switch 1, but it’ll be interesting to see what the release of Legends Z-A does for Nintendo Switch 2 sales.
At the time of writing, the Nintendo Switch 2 is only days away from launching globally, and there’s no doubt it’ll be a big seller for the rest of the year. But with how poorly the recent major Pokémon releases on the Nintendo Switch have been from a technical perspective, it wouldn’t be surprising if the launch of Legends Z-A pushes people to upgrade more than any other game we know about in the console’s launch year.
Especially if Pokémon Legends Z-A arrives and is borderline unplayable on the Nintendo Switch.
