The Switch 2 Is Unstoppable

Despite its proven popularity, everybody—even Nintendo itself—seemed to underestimate the Switch 2. The sequel handheld console hybrid is now on pace to be the company’s fastest-selling device ever. Okay, you may be asking, so what if a multi-billion-dollar company makes more money? Nintendo is proving to the entire video game industry that the old ways still work and that developers who want to succeed need to design games with the Switch 2’s limited hardware in mind.

In its latest quarterly earnings report, Nintendo told investors it now expects to ship 19 million units before the end of March 2026, which is the end of its fiscal year. Before, the company promised to ship 15 million units worldwide. The company also expects to sell 48 million units of its software offerings, 3 million more than previous estimates. That’s indicative of how well the Switch 2 has done since launch back in June. Nintendo says it has sold a total of 10.36 million units up through Sept. 30.

There’s a small portion of gamers who buy Nintendo’s consoles to exclusively play the company’s first-party titles. Nintendo claims it sold 9.57 million copies of Mario Kart World. That game shipped alongside the Switch 2, so 8.1 million of those sales were for the $500 bundle that saved players from paying the full $80 for the game individually. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong Bananza, the company’s first major post-launch success, notched up an impressive 3.49 million total sales since July. We don’t know what the total sales were for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which launched in October, though that game seems to have already made its mark with 5.8 million units sold in its first week.

Gamers prefer physical games on Switch 2

Nintendo said that if you also accounted for third-party games, then the total software sales number equaled 20.62 million. Nintendo isn’t releasing specific numbers for how many gamers bought the Switch 2 editions of original Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, or if it counts Switch 2 upgrade packs for games like Super Mario Party Jamboree in those figures. That makes it more difficult to judge the overall scale of third-party game sales on Switch 2.

However, Nintendo dropped an interesting tidbit regarding physical games versus software sales. Digital sales for the first half of its fiscal year declined by 2.8% compared to the previous year. It seems players are more interested in buying true physical games they can actually own. Data from analyst firm Circana showed that more than 75% of the sales for Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 were for the version with a physical game card. Developers CD Projekt Red previously said the game had ranked as one of the top-selling third-party games since launch.

Judging these sales numbers compared to the competition, it’s not even a fair game. Xbox’s hardware sales have been on a steady decline over the past year, and it likely won’t change until we finally have a next-gen Xbox console in hand. Xbox raised the price of its consoles twice this year. Now, a standard Series X console with an optical disc drive costs $650, $150 more than at launch. Sony also hiked PlayStation 5 prices up to $550 for its base console. Like Nintendo, Sony’s sales numbers have been on the rise, increasing by about 2% year over year. However, the PS5 sold around 19 million units by its first anniversary in 2021 and only reached around 7.8 million units shipped after the first five months. The Switch 2 is now set to outsell the PS5, and it doesn’t even need a pandemic to keep people indoors to play its games.

Developers have a good reason to get their games on Switch 2

Compared to consoles that cost over $500, Nintendo’s Switch 2 has been explosive. Developers can’t ignore the smaller console despite its specs seeming weaker than the competition. Those who worked on the ports for Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws took the time to remove extraneous environmental detail and format their games to run well on Switch 2 despite the handheld’s low power draw. The fact that the console has access to AI upscaling through Nvidia’s DLSS has also proved a surprising boon. This allows the games to run at a lower resolution, then software recreates the scene at the native 1080p—or more when docked—while maintaining the performance.

The Switch 2 is giving the current landscape of gaming a reality check. Gearbox’s Borderlands 4, a game that ran poorly on practically every system at launch, has been indefinitely delayed on Switch 2 in order to “deliver the best possible experience.†FromSoftware also delayed Elden Ring Tarnished Edition until 2026 to “allow for performance adjustments.†That’s notable, considering that game ran poorly on handheld PCs like the Steam Deck until multiple updates made it more playable. Players don’t necessarily want the best graphics possible. They just want to play their games at a stable frame rate. If that means redesigning a game to fit the power-sipping system, then so be it.

While Xbox and PlayStation are moving toward an open landscape where exclusive titles are nothing but a memory, Nintendo is undercutting everybody with a cheaper console and games you can’t get anywhere else. Sure, Microsoft is willing to make the case that the console wars are over, but there’s a fair argument to say Nintendo is winning the battle—and may just win the war as well.