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Switch 2 sales dropped 37% this summer, mostly before the price hike hit; Nintendo now expects sales to slump 16.9% in console's second year
The Switch 2 is still comfortably ahead of the Switch in its first year, but it might not be ahead by its second.
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Switch 2 sales have plummeted over the summer months compared to this time last year; accounting for a drop of nearly four million units. That's sure to be a warning sign for Nintendo, especially as the company increased the price for the handheld across the globe at the start of September—near the end of the period it's currently reporting—which could have an impact on future sales over the busy holiday period.
Nintendo has reported its sales figures from April 1, 2026 until September 30, 2026. It calls this period 'FY27 Q1-Q2' because companies are weird. Nevertheless, it's the previous six months of the year, and it's been a tough one for hardware.
The Switch 2 sold 6.49 million units: a 3.87 million unit reduction compared to the 10.36 million in the same period last year. That makes a change from the original Switch, which sold in increasingly larger amounts for the first five years of its life.
The Switch sold just 1.27 million units during the same period, down 32.7%, but that's not a huge surprise for the outgoing handheld.
So, what to make of the dip? It is a marked reduction in Switch 2 sales compared to its bumper launch year. But that's the thing. The Switch 2 sold incredibly well in its first year; 19.8 million units sold. That's a bigger success story than the Switch. It launched just before the end of Nintendo's weird financial years but reached around 17.7 million units sold by the end of its first full year. Though it did go on to double that figure the following year, which the Switch 2 is likely to fail to achieve.
Nintendo raised the price of the Switch 2 over the course of this summer period. It first announced the price increase in May, 2026; however, it didn't implement it until September 1, 2026 in most of the affected regions (US, Canada, Europe). Only Japan saw a sudden price increase effective in May, 2026.
The company asks $500 for the console, an increase of $50 over its original launch price. It blamed "changes in market conditions" at the time, which is common parlance for 'memory prices are ruining everything.'
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