According to a report from Bloomberg, Nintendo is dramatically lowering its production plans for the Switch 2 after “weak” U.S. sales. The paper says that sales of the console over the holiday season fell short of expectations, and as a result Nintendo is slashing the number of Switch 2s it plans to build this quarter by a third, from six million to four million.
Predicting markets at the moment is closer to soothsaying than informed speculation, but Nintendo’s hopes were clearly buoyed by the extraordinary success during the Switch 2’s launch. The console sold an eye-watering 3.5 million units in its first four days on sale, and then hit 10 million over the following four months, making it the most popular console launch of all time. But then right ahead of the holiday season, console sales flatlined across the board. Having previously out-sold the original Switch beat-for-beat, the Switch 2 suddenly lagged far behind across its first Christmas, a full 35 percent lower in the U.S.
While there’s no clear explanation it’s thought likely to be a combination of a tougher economy, the significantly higher prices of consoles thanks to said economy and Trump’s tariffs, and the lack of a big new game to push Switch 2s out the door. Without a new Zelda, no mainline Pokémon, and the continued bizarre absence of a major Mario title for the device, there’s a sense that the Switch 2 is just a bit less essential.
In February Nintendo’s stock took a nosedive, despite what remained decent sales for the new console, even if they fell short of the highest expectations. At the time the 11 percent drop was pretty mysterious but attributed to fears over continued tariff idiocy and the increasing cost of RAM and GPUs. But now you might wonder if the investors could smell what was coming, with today’s news of Nintendo’s decision to manufacture a third fewer Switch 2s. After today’s reporting shares fell 6.3 percent in Tokyo.
America disappoints
It really does seem to be the U.S. that is especially hurting Nintendo. Sales in Japan are very strong, demand often exceeding supply, and while Europe isn’t over-performing it’s not particular below hopes either. But the U.S. just doesn’t seem to have the expected love for the console sequel, the PS5 continuing to out-perform the Switch 2 despite being six years old and not exactly overwhelmed by its own exclusives.
If anything, it’s Pokémon that’s preventing the situation from being any worse. Pokémon Legends: Z-A gave the console something to push toward the end of 2025, and Pokopia has performed a lot better than expected over the last month. Yet neither appears to have been enough to prop up the planned production. Bloomberg quotes strategist Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors, where he said “This hardware shortfall in its first year, during its big holiday season, is awful news,” adding, “Clearly the software lineup has been poor.”
Nintendo operates famously privately and leaks of what is being worked on are surprisingly rare. So it is that there’s no hint of exactly why the Switch 2 launched with a (completely wonderful) Donkey Kong title instead of a new Super Mario, nor any notion of how the company plans to follow The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Just knowing either was coming would surely enormously hike up interest in the hybrid console, in a situation not helped by the seeming two-year delay in the arrival of a new mainline Pokémon. It’s also odd to note just how much Mario Kart World seems to have faded into the background, with few major updates across the overly familiar game’s first year.
This is by no means a disaster, and the Switch 2 has sold extremely well. Nintendo still looks set to hit its target of 20 million sales over the first year, and its initial performance gave the company a big head-start. But right now the graphs are pointing in the wrong direction, and it feels like something needs to happen pretty soon to prevent this getting worse.
