Another person has come forward and claims to be leaking an early copy of Pokémon Sword and Shield. The difference between this and most other leaks is actual pictures. There's also a certain progression to these leaks that appears to follow someone playing through game and encountering new Pokémon and evolutions as they go. As always, fans shouldn't accept these leaks as fact until they get the games and see the new Pokémon for themselves. But based on what's been revealed so far, a strong case can be made that these are Galar's starter Pokémon.
The alleged leaker in question claims to have picked Grookey as their starter. Because of this, they're guaranteed to see the grass monkey's three forms. The rival character picks the starter the main character is strong against, so the leaker also gets to see the Sobble evolution like as they progress and battle the rival. Pictured above are the second stage evolutions, as well as their supposed shiny forms.
As for the third evolution stages, that's where things get hazy. Fans have been sharing the leaks via several channels, so it's hard to tell exactly where they originate from at this point. One good source to follow is the SwSh Leaks subreddit, which is keeping up with the leaks as they come out. Another good source is PokéJungle, which is aggregating the leaks. The story going around is that the leaker played until they got the second Grookey evolution, then went to bed. However, images of the Grooky and Sobble's third evolutions popped up shortly after.
A different leaker seems to enter the picture at this point. They're armed with the official guidebook for Sword and Shield, they say, and they took blurry pictures of the pages to prove it. It's there that we see these two supposed Grookey and Sobble evolutions again. Also, there's finally an image of what could be Scorbunny's appearance. Surprise, it looks like a soccer player (or football, because it is England).
Along with all of these starter evolution leaks comes many other. Again, you can check the SwSh Leaks subreddit for everything, because there's too much for one article. Some towns are seen, as are plenty of new Pokémon. Some highlights are a Galarian Mewoth, a Guy Fawkes fox, and Gigantamax Garbodor. Yes, the trash bag Pokémon comes back with a vengeance.
The jury's still out on any of this is true. It's always strange when these "leakers" take nothing but bad phone pictures. Doesn't everyone know how to use a phone camera in this day and age? On the other hand, Pokémon Sword and Shield are available for pre-load now. There could be some juicy info for dataminers in those files. The only thing fans can do is wait. November 15 can't come soon enough.
Source: Twitter, PokéJungle, Reddit