Demand crashes Natural History Museum's Pokémon shop on opening day
- maxwell museums
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The Natural History Museum in London has today opened its new Pokémon shop, and released brand new Pokémon products inspired by the museum and its collection. Unsurprisingly, demand and online traffic have been huge and caused the online shop to crash.
The Pokémon x Natural History Museum collaboration was first announced in September 2025, but it opened its doors to visitors and Trainers today (26 January 2026) for a special three-month run. Newly-created collaborative products and Pokémon-themed merchandise have also gone on sale.
But due to intense demand, the Natural History Museum's Pokémon online shop struggled with enormous traffic, After a many hours of problems, the first day of sales had to be abandoned.
First, the on-sale time was pushed back 30 minutes, from Midday to 12:30pm. Then when it did go live, the online queue to purchase items had to be quickly paused, which lasted for much of the first afternoon. For those who did successfully join — and the virtual line hit 90,000 — they then saw the queue paused once again, around 6 hours after opening. A message then appeared that the sale and online queue for the day would be abandoned.
📚 Book lovers: here are best new art books to read or gift
The updated message read "unfortunately we are experiencing technical issues, and we need to pause the queue until tomorrow. You won’t lose your queue place overnight. We'll restart the queue in the morning GMT time."
I attended the shop's preview today before it opened to the public. While the shop has a relatively small footprint, it's filled with hundreds of new products that Pokémon fans will love.
What new Pokémon x Natural History Museum products have gone on sale?
The new Pokémon product range at the Natural History Museum spans stationery, clothing, pins, bags, posters, gold-plated decorations and a special Pikachu plush.
The theme of the special pop-up space is inspired by the acclaimed Japanese publication Pokécology: An Illustrated Guide to Pokémon Ecology, which explores how Pokémon live, interact with their environments, and adapt to habitats from deep forests to shadowy caves.
As well as themed merchandise, the shop touches on this concept through a simple graphic display that visitors will see when entering. It's filled with illustrations and many Pokémon facts.
The collection features exclusive items created in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, inspired by elements such as the building’s iconic Hintze Hall and its botanical ceiling panels, reimagined with Grass-type Pokémon like Ivysaur and Victreebel.
Fans will also find artwork inspired by the classic naturalist books and scientific illustrations that fill the museum’s archives, showcasing Pokémon from Water-type to Bug-type as well as designs celebrating Eevee’s evolutions.
📩 Get UK museum news sent to your inbox with my weekly free newsletter
The plush on sale sees Pikachu hugging the Natural History Museum building.
Customers who make purchases in‐store at the pop‐up will receive the new Pikachu at the Museum oversize Pokémon TCG Promo Card as a gift with their items. The large bespoke new card features Pikachu inside the Natural History Museum, accompanied by Aerodactyl and Tyrantrum skeletons.
This card is expected to be hugely in-demand, and only one will be given to each customer. But, from Friday 30 January, the oversized card will also be available as a gift with purchase at select UK retailers, giving more fans the chance to grab one.
Natural History Museum Pokémon shop tickets SOLD OUT
All tickets to the Pokémon x Natural History Museum pop-up shop have sold out. 105,000 people snapped up all the free tickets, including for the additional month extension.
This means that currently if you don't have a ticket, you're only hope is monitoring See Tickets here for any potential returns.
RECOMMENDED READING: