The Nintendo Switch 2 is struggling more than expected, as rising prices for consumers make buying a new console a low priority.
The Switch 2 has been a huge success for Nintendo so far. It became the fast-selling console of all-time, after its launch last June, outpacing the original Switch’s sales and seemingly setting itself up as an unqualified hit.
Its current lifetime sales of 17.37 million units are already half that of the Xbox Series X/S, which has been out for six years. However, its first Christmas in the US saw it fall behind the pace of the Switch 1 and last month Nintendo admitted that sales in the West were ‘slightly weaker’ than expected.
Now it’s reported that demand has fallen hard enough in the US for Nintendo to cut back on Switch 2 production by up to 30%.
A recent Bloomberg report spoke with people familiar with the matter, who say Nintendo plan to manufacture four million Switch 2 consoles for this quarter, instead of its original target of six million.
That is a big drop and while it’s likely to be primarily a result of underwhelming Christmas sales, rather than anything that’s happened in 2026, it’s something Nintendo will have to react to.
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The recent release of Pokémon Pokopia, which won’t yet have had time to affect hardware sales to any significant degree, will help, especially given it sold 2.2 million copies in its first four days, but the issue is bigger than any one game.
Nintendo still expects to reach its goal of 20 million console sales by the end of its financial year in March, but that no longer seems guaranteed.
The most obvious option for them is to release a Switch 2 Lite, which would have a lower price tag than the original model, but despite its inevitability Nintendo has not even hinted at its existence yet and there’s no indication that they could release it this year even if it was fast-tracked.
The fall in hardware sales could also prompt Nintendo to re-evaluate its release schedule. The Switch 2 hasn’t had as strong a debut year as its predecessor, which launched with The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and then saw a new 3D Mario game, Super Mario Odyssey, just seven months later.
By comparison, the Switch 2 had its two biggest releases in the summer: Mario Kart World at launch and then Donkey Kong Bananza only a month later. Everything else since has been decidedly more niche, with the exception of Pokémon Legends: Z-A in October, but that wasn’t an exclusive and was available on Switch 1 as well.
The refusal to host a first party Nintendo Direct showcase, that would make it clear what the major games of the year will be, seems like a particular mistake in light of the softening hardware sales, with prospective owners currently having little to look forward to.
Pokémon Pokopia may be the highest rated game of the year so far, according to Metacritic, but its reception seems to have been a surprise to Nintendo, given how quickly physical copies ran out.
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The software line-up isn’t the sole reason for slow Switch 2 sales, though. The bigger culprit is the economy. The Switch 2 may not be as expensive as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, but it’s still £395.99 in the UK and $449.99 in the US.
Combined with an ongoing cost of living crisis, and prices set to keep rising thanks to the Iran war, a new game console is not going to be on a lot of peoples’ list of shopping priorities – especially in early spring.
This is also bound to impact other console manufacturers. While Sony and Microsoft’s next consoles – the PlayStation 6 and Project Helix – are purportedly still targeting 2027 releases, both of them are expected to be expensive, with Microsoft already emphasising that the new Xbox is a ‘premium’ product.
With Valve’s Steam Machine also expected to have a higher price tag than a traditional console, the timing couldn’t be worse for a new generation of unusually expensive consoles.
Given the memory crisis, that has seen component costs rise due to the building of AI data centres, that may have been unavoidable to some degree, but Nintendo will now almost certainly be looking for a way to reduce its prices – whether that be via a Switch 2 Lite or some other new model.
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