Walmart cancels Zelda Switch 2 pre-orders a day before delivery

What changed: Walmart has canceled pre-orders for the Triforce-adorned, Legend of Zelda-themed Switch 2 console, one day before the consoles were due on doorsteps. Affected buyers received emails saying their delivery order was “out of stock.” ¹

That is a sharp turn from the usual plan. Kotaku frames it this way: retailers normally hold an allocated stock of an item so people can reserve it by paying early, which is the whole point of a pre-order. ¹

Buyers who reached Walmart customer service say the retailer oversold its pre-orders, and one was told there “literally isn’t” a console left to send. ¹ On Reddit, past customers say Walmart has canceled pre-orders on other items before. ¹

The console still shows as out of stock on Walmart’s website, but it also appears at $700, nearly $200 above the bundle’s original listing price. Kotaku says that figure may be a third-party seller using Walmart’s platform to scalp, which it stops short of confirming. ¹

One canceled buyer wrote on Reddit that Walmart shouldn’t allow pre-orders beyond what it can stock, and that they would try again elsewhere. ¹

What it means if you already own a Switch 2: your console is fine, but a canceled pre-order on a limited bundle puts you back at the starting grid. Kotaku points to Reddit threads where people who have been through this before swap tips on landing one of the Zelda consoles, ideally before the Ocarina of Time remake launches on November 5. ¹

This is a single-outlet story. Everything here rests on Kotaku’s reporting of buyers’ emails and what customer service told them. ¹

Our read: The report establishes that cancellation emails went out and that buyers say they were told stock ran out. It does not establish how many orders were affected or why, and there is no Walmart statement in it. The $700 listing is the loosest thread, since Kotaku itself only floats a third-party seller. Watch for Walmart to say something before November 5.

What it costs you: a scramble for a replacement bundle, and possibly a higher price.

Footnotes

1. Kotaku, “Fans Can’t Believe Walmart Canceled Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Switch 2 Pre-Orders The Day Before They Were Meant To Arrive”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸