An auction house in New Jersey auctioned off a Flamin' Hot Cheeto that resembles the Pokémon character Charizard. The final price of the auction reached $87,840 after fees on March 2, 2025.
Cheetozard sold for $87,840
According to ABC Action News, Goldin Auctions house in New Jersey discovered and preserved a Flamin' Hot Cheeto that resembled a Charizard in a clear box along with a Pokémon card. The cheeto was dubbed the "Cheetozard," and reached a final price of $87,840 after 60 bids.
The Cheetozard was first discovered by 1st & Goal Collectibles between 2018 and 2022, and received a lot of attention on social media starting in 2024.
The auction ended on Sunday, March 2, 2025 after the Cheetozard was seen at the 2025 February Pop Culture Elite Auction, starting at only $250. The winning bid was actually $72,000 before Goldin Auctions' fees were added, bringing the final price to $87,840.00 USD.
Sources:
"Flamin hot Cheeto that resembles Pokemon character sells for nearly $90K at auction." ABC Action News
PC Gamer reported that Palworld server costs were almost $500K in February 2024 as the massively popular game merges elements that are similar to Fortnite, Monster Hunter, and Pokémon and has sold around 12 million copies on Steam.
Palworld video game
Palworld is Wildly Popular and Expensive to Maintain Servers
PC Gamer reported that Palworld has 19 million players, and sold about 12 million copies of the game on Steam at $30 each. According to the math, they have brought in at least $360 million in revenue so far.
PC Gamer also reported that Network engineer Chujo Hiroto was instructed to "never let the server go down" on the game.
He said:
"Following the order to never let the service go down no matter what, we have prepared servers without regard to cost. We will continue to give our all to ensure that all players can enjoy to the fullest! $478,000..." -Chujo Hiroto
He should have followed that up with an "Aye, aye, captain."
PC Gamer pointed out that Palworld will not be selling 12 million games a month, so the money coming in may not be able to continually sustain the high costs of maintaining the Palworld servers. There are also currently no microtransactions in Palworld. That may change down the road when examining how the game will bring in more money to offset the costs.
That may be a problem for another day. For now, let's just enjoy the game while we have it. To host more than four players in one world, it requires a Palworld dedicated server that could host up to 32 players in one single world.
Japanese Entertainment Agencies: Don't Compare Palworld to Pokémon
Dexerto reported that Japanese entertainment agencies are "advising their clients not to mention Pokémon on social media when speaking about the Palworld video game." (Source: Tokyo Sports)
Dexerto also noted that Palworld has "broken the third-party launch record on Xbox game pass."
Not too shabby.
They report that the game is now at 20 million players a day.
Meanwhile, Pokémon might be getting a little jealous. They said on January 25, 2024 that they are "investigating any unauthorized usage of their Intellectual Property in Palworld."
Official picture of 'Fish plays Pokemon' created by Reddit user Sundreamers
A fish plays Pokemon on Twitch, and people go nuts. Over 2 million people have tuned into the live stream to see Grayson (the fish) move about in his fish bowl and play Pokemon -- or so we are told. But it gives the people something to watch during times of extreme boredom. There is no sound to this live stream, because Beta fish can't be heard underwater without an extremely sensitive microphone.
A screenshot of a fish plays Pokemon
How Fish Plays Pokemon was Born
Catherine Moresco and Patrick Facheris combined brains to come up with the idea for this brilliant idea for HackNY. They decided to assign 9 quadrants of a fish bowl to a corresponding button on a traditional Nintendo Gameboy. Whenever the fish moves from one quadrant to another, it will then press the corresponding button or arrow to move the player in the Pokemon game. The result is a fish playing Pokemon. To everyone's surprise, Grayson has already won one battle in Pokemon already with his Charmander (a fire salamander) named 'AAAABBK', during the 160 hours of gameplay logged so far (as of 08/08/14 at 8:14 p.m.). Sometimes the fish does not move, and that is attributed to when he sleeps, because fish sleep too, ya know! So he has a name, and his name is Grayson Hopper. Grayson is a beta fish. Some fans of the live stream want a goldfish, and have expressed so much in the live stream chat window. The owners of the live stream (Catherine Moresco and Patrick Facheris) have indicated in the "Streaming Info" section that the live stream may be down while they make upgrades.
Upgrades to Fish Plays Pokemon
In the "Streaming Info" section, Catherine Moresco and Patrick Facheris share that Graysonplays and lives in a dorm room, and there is not a dedicated light for Grayson, which would mean the live stream is very dark during sleeping hours. The owners are getting him a dedicated lamp, and they are going to improve the quality of the live stream. Updates: On August 8, 2014, the live stream owners state that the live stream will be down for two hours while Grayson's host moves. The stream came back up around 8:34 p.m. Central Time on August 8, 2014.
