A 2004 Pokemon Game Just Topped the Switch eShop

Number four on the overall Nintendo Switch eShop chart this week isn't a new release. It isn't a first-party Nintendo title from the last two years. It's Pokemon FireRed, a Game Boy Advance game that launched in January 2004, back when the biggest console debate was PS2 versus Xbox and broadband internet was still a luxury in most households.

According to the latest eShop charts for the week of May 16, 2026, reported by Nintendo Everything, FireRed sits at number four overall, sandwiched between Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Party Jamboree. Its companion title, Pokemon LeafGreen, isn't far behind at number twelve. On the download-only chart, which strips out physical releases, the picture is even more striking: FireRed is number one. LeafGreen is number two. Everything else, from Nine Sols to Stardew Valley to Hades 2, is eating their dust.

I did not expect to write a sentence like that in 2026, but here we are.

22 Years and Still Selling

FireRed and LeafGreen were themselves remakes, rebuilding the original Pokemon Red and Green for the GBA with updated visuals and quality-of-life improvements. They were excellent games in 2004. They were the definitive way to experience Kanto for an entire generation of players. But the fact that they're outselling modern titles on a modern storefront, over two decades later, says something about how deep the demand runs for classic Pokemon experiences on current hardware.

Nintendo has been drip-feeding Game Boy and GBA titles through its Switch Online service and eShop for a while now, and the strategy clearly works. Players who grew up with these games are willing to buy them again, and younger players who missed them the first time are discovering why Kanto remains the gold standard for Pokemon region design. FireRed's placement above Pokemon Legends: Z-A, a game that launched relatively recently, is the detail that jumps out to me most. A GBA ROM is outperforming a full-price modern Pokemon title on the same storefront.

The rest of the chart tells a familiar story. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream continues its extended reign at number one overall, a position it has held for weeks now. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe occupy their usual spots in the top three, proving once again that Nintendo's biggest evergreen titles simply do not leave the charts. Minecraft sits at six. Animal Crossing: New Horizons hangs on at eight. These are permanent fixtures at this point.

The download-only chart has a few more surprises buried in it. Nine Sols, the Taoist-themed action game from Red Candle, is holding strong at number three. The Devil May Cry trilogy is scattered across positions seven, twelve, and twenty-four, suggesting a wave of players are working through the series. Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong sit back to back at twenty-one and twenty-two, which is a nice visual even if their sales numbers are probably wildly different.

But nothing on either chart is as absurd as a pair of GBA games from the Bush administration leading the download rankings. Pokemon has always had an unusual relationship with nostalgia. Game Freak and The Pokemon Company have historically been reluctant to make older titles easily accessible on new platforms, which means every time they do make a classic available, pent-up demand floods in. FireRed and LeafGreen benefiting from that scarcity isn't surprising in theory, but seeing them actually top the chart over games like Hades 2 and Silksong is still a jolt.

It also raises a question I keep coming back to: why doesn't Nintendo do this more aggressively? The demand for classic Pokemon, classic Zelda, and classic Metroid on modern hardware is clearly enormous. Every time they release one of these titles, it charts immediately. The GBA library alone is a goldmine that's barely been tapped. If FireRed can hit number one on downloads in 2026, imagine what a proper Pokemon Emerald release would do.

For now, the Switch eShop charts for the week of May 16 are a snapshot of a platform in its twilight period, dominated by evergreen first-party titles and, improbably, a 22-year-old pocket monster game that refuses to age out.