We’re just four days away from the next major Nintendo Switch release dropping on consoles, but it appears that the game has already leaked online. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, the third entry in the larger Tomodachi series and the first since Tomodachi Life in 2013, isn’t due out until April 16, but those with Nintendo Switch emulators are seemingly already playing the game.
As first spotted on Reddit’s r/GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is available online, and those with the Ryubing emulator, a fork of the now-discontinued Switch emulator, Ryujinx, are playing it.
The ROM is available online, for those savvy enough to locate it, and others have vouched for its authenticity. Right now, it’s unclear just how the game managed to leak online a full four days before its release.
There are sellers on eBay offering the game, albeit at an inflated price, so it could be the result of some pre-release copies leaking into the wild and then a ROM dump after.
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream’s Wouldn’t Be The Same With A Profanity Filter
Nintendo hasn’t included any sort of profanity filter in Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream.
Nintendo First-Party Titles Have Leaked Online Prior To Release Before
In July, copies of Donkey Kong Bananza managed to find themselves out in the wild several days before its scheduled release on Nintendo Switch 2. In that instance, it doesn’t look like spoilers or a ROM were shared online.
Instead, people with early copies tried to cash in on the pre-release hype by offloading their copies on eBay for prices as high as $109.99, though there were zero guarantees that the game would get there before release.
Then, in October, before the anticipated release of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, the game was cracked and dumped online. That came about three days before its scheduled October release, and as is the case with Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, those savvy and brave enough to find a ROM online were playing the game well before those with legitimate purchases.
It seems we’ve run into another similar situation, and there probably will be more in the future.
Nintendo will almost assuredly not be pleased by these recent developments, and if recent history is any indication, whoever leaked the ROM needs to watch out. The company famously came after Yuzu back in 2024, alleging that the emulator’s presence led to 1 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom being downloaded prior to the game’s official release.
- Released
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April 16, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Prequel(s)
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Tomodachi Life
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