Nintendo‘s latest handheld hybrid was off to a historic start, but that momentum doesn’t seem to be evenly spread worldwide. As of December 31, 2025, the system has sold 17.37 million units globally, but the company has admitted that Switch 2 sales are ‘slightly weaker’ than expected. Even when it delivered the fastest console launch in company history.
“As for hardware sales volume, domestic sales exceeded expectations, while overseas sales trended slightly weaker than our internal projections,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during the company’s third-quarter earnings Q&A for the fiscal year ending March 2026. It might’ve benefited from a lower retail price in Japan than in the US: 49,980 Yen (~$340) vs $449.99. Nevertheless, he then added that the sales trends for Switch 2 have remained stable and remain ‘favorable’ going into the fourth quarter.
The pace is still impressive by industry standards, however. As we previously reported, Switch 2 surpassed 10 million units sold worldwide in just four months since its June 2025 launch. Meanwhile, the original Switch took roughly nine months, and Sony’s PlayStation 5 needed around eight months to reach a similar milestone.
Nintendo also highlighted the overall success of the Switch family. Lifetime sales of the 9-year-old original Switch have now reached 155.37 million units, taking over the Nintendo DS’s 154.02 million total. That revelation officially makes Switch Nintendo’s most successful console family to date.
During the Q&A, Furukawa also addressed rising component costs, particularly memory, which is driven by the AI boom. He said Nintendo is holding long-term discussions with suppliers to ensure a stable supply. Although recent memory price increases have not ‘significantly’ impacted hardware profitability, that situation might change over time.
Furukawa warned that if storage chip prices continue rising longer than expected into future fiscal years, profitability could come under pressure. Even so, Nintendo stressed that no decisions have been made regarding sales price changes for the Switch 2. Any future changes would depend on market conditions and adoption trends, not just production costs.
“[…] We are working with suppliers from a long-term perspective to secure memory-related components stably. Therefore, the recent rise in memory prices is not expected to have a significant impact on this fiscal year’s results. […] However, if memory price increases persist longer than expected, there could be an impact on hardware profitability,” explained Furukawa.
