Splatoon Raiders, the first spinoff in the popular Nintendo series, is set to launch on Thursday, July 23, 2026. The game will send players to islands infested with Salmonids in search of treasure, offering both solo play with AI companions like Big Man and Shiver, and the option to invite friends. While Nintendo has not provided a specific global release time, eShop releases typically become available at midnight in the easternmost time zone of each region. For North America, this means the game will unlock at 12 a.m. EDT on July 23 for the east coast and 9 p.m. PDT on July 22 for the west coast. Other regions will see the release at midnight local time, including 12 a.m. BRT for Brazil, 12 a.m. BST for the UK, 12 a.m. CEST for western Europe, 12 a.m. JST for Japan, and 12 a.m. AEST for eastern Australia.
Players looking to jump into Splatoon Raiders as early as possible can potentially gain access by purchasing the game from another region's eShop. For instance, a user on the east coast of the U.S. could play up to 14 hours earlier by purchasing from the Australian eShop. It is recommended to create a new Nintendo account for the specific region to avoid complications with unlinking existing Nintendo IDs. Games purchased this way are still accessible by other accounts on the Switch 2 console.
Preloading Splatoon Raiders is possible once the game is pre-ordered. The download file is approximately 20GB, and the time required to download will depend on internet connection speeds. Unlike some previous first-party Nintendo releases, Splatoon Raiders will not feature any specific pre-order bonuses in the U.S. from Nintendo or other retailers.