How to Fix Framerate Issues in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have released with high praise from fans and critics alike for their gameplay, new mechanics, and fresh take on the traditional Pokémon adventure. Their technical performance, however, leaves much to be desired, with fans particularly disappointed with the games’ sub-optimal framerate — especially in large, crowded areas. Luckily, there are a few methods that could potentially improve your framerate in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

How to Improve Framerate in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

To improve your framerate in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you may need to exit the game entirely and re-launch. This is due to the game currently suffering from memory leaks, which causes the game’s framerate to slowly degrade the longer it’s played. This is particularly noticeable in locations with a large number of NPCs, Pokémon, and buildings in one area, such as towns that host gyms.

To exit the game and re-launch, press the Home button, highlight Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet, press the X button, and select Close. You can then press the A button to relaunch the game. Just be sure that you save the game before closing, otherwise, you could lose progress, especially if you turned off auto-save.

If you are currently playing Pokémon Scarlet or Violet while your Nintendo Switch is docked, switching to handheld mode can actually improve performance in certain areas. This can be particularly useful if the game is struggling in heavily populated areas, or during weather conditions, like rainstorms.

Other than the above methods, there isn’t much the player can do themselves to vastly improve Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s performance. Hopefully, a future patch will fix the game’s glaring technical issues, or the issues with memory leaks, at the very least.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.