One Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player witnessed their Pawmo hopping off a small cliff and disappearing in-game. The Pawmo was following along behind the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet trainer using the Let's Go mechanic when it took a hard left turn off the side of the road.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduced the Let's Go mechanic alongside its open world, allowing players to release their lead Pokemon from its Poke Ball and follow the player as they traverse the Paldea region. This is a fun feature that adds more immersion to the game, and it's also essential for Bramblin, Rellor, and Pawmo to evolve. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Pawmo only evolves into Pawmot after 1000 steps using the Let's Go mechanic, so players have to have their Pawmo follow them around for quite a bit in order to unlock the final evolution.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player Prettiestvirgin posted a video to the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet subreddit showing the unfortunate fate of their Pawmo. The video begins with the Pawmo trotting along behind their trainer as the pair travels through the Paldea region. After a few seconds, the Pawmo drops out of the frame, and Prettiestvirgin stops and turns around just in time to see their Pawmo start to run toward a nearby riverbank. Prettiestvirgin runs toward their Pawmo, but they're unable to do anything as the Pokemon reaches the edge and hops into the river. This isn't the first time a Pokemon has fallen off a cliff, however, with a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player's Tinkatuff falling off a cliff during a battle.
Pawmo's cliff dive didn't happen during a battle, but there do seem to be some similar bugs in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet causing various Pokemon to plummet off of cliffs. The game has had several bugs since launch, with a few being harmless and funny, like a Psyduck spawning in random situations, while others are a bit more serious, like a player clipping into a rock and getting stuck after they finished a battle.
While some of these bugs can definitely detract from players' enjoyment of the game, it seems for the most part that they're just funny and mostly harmless. For the more serious ones, it's likely that Game Freak has patched them or will do so in the future. At any rate, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sold 10 million copies in 3 days, so the games are definitely popular, bugs or no bugs.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.