Five months on the market, one DLC drop, and now a confirmed 5 million copies sold. Nintendo has officially announced that Pokémon Pokopia is the second best-selling game on the Switch 2, sitting just behind Mario Kart World, which has moved over 15 million units by Nintendo's own count.
The milestone was confirmed shortly after the launch of Bubbly Basin, the cozy spin-off's first paid expansion. The timing is no coincidence. DLC releases tend to pull lapsed players back in, and Bubbly Basin gave Nintendo a clean narrative hook to attach a sales announcement to.
What Bubbly Basin actually adds
Bubbly Basin shifts the game's focus from land to water, introducing a brand-new underwater town, ocean-themed Pokémon to befriend, mermaid-style furniture sets, and a fresh batch of outfits to collect. For a game built around building, collecting, and just... existing in a world with Pokémon, that's a meaningful expansion of the core loop.
This is the first of three planned DLC packs bundled into Pokopia's expansion pass, priced at $34.99. The other two remain unannounced, though Nintendo has teased that one of them will let players dress their Pokémon in fashion items. The expansion pass currently comes with 30 rare Pokémetal items if purchased before August 31, 2027.
Why 5 million in five months is a bigger deal than it sounds
Here's the thing: Pokopia is a spin-off. Not a mainline entry. Not a numbered sequel. A cozy sandbox sim that Koei Tecmo built with the explicit goal of making the franchise's best-selling spin-off, which is a bold target to set publicly. They hit it.
For context, the Switch 2 install base is still growing, and Pokopia launched into a console lineup where Mario Kart World was already dominating. Climbing to second place on that chart, past every other first-party and third-party release, signals that the game has legs far beyond its launch window.
The sandbox structure is a big part of that. Pokopia functions more like Minecraft than a traditional Pokémon game. There's no hard endpoint, the building and resource systems keep generating new goals, and the community has been vocal about the sheer volume of things to do. If you want a head start on navigating all of it, the Pokémon Pokopia strategy guides cover everything from resource farming to early-game priorities.
Two more DLC packs still to come
Nintendo hasn't revealed what the second and third expansion pass entries will contain beyond the fashion hint. Given that Bubbly Basin launched to enough player enthusiasm to push Pokopia past every other Switch 2 game except Mario Kart World, the pressure is on to deliver something equally compelling with the next two drops.
The Pokopia expansion pass is live now. If you're jumping back in for Bubbly Basin or starting fresh, check out our in-depth review for a full breakdown of what makes the base game worth the time investment before the DLC content kicks in.
