In roughly half a week, the Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 3.5 million units globally. This news comes straight from Nintendo, who was proud to declare this achievement as “the fastest-selling Nintendo hardware globally.” But, there’s a bit of humility at play here.
More than meets the eye
The impressive sales performance of the Switch 2 so far not only makes it Nintendo’s fastest-selling system in its launch week, it’s also now the “fastest selling home video game console of all time.” This milestone was confirmed by industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who broke down various sales figures on X.
According to Ahmad, the other fastest selling systems include, unsurprisingly, the PS4 and PS5. As for the PS4, that hit 2.1 million units in two weeks, and then achieved 4.2 million within six weeks. The PS5 hit the 4.4 million unit mark after seven weeks.
The kicker there was that the PS5 launched in the heat of the Covid-19 pandemic, which crippled the global supply chain to an extensive degree. Its release was also staggered by a week, which further dilutes the situation.
Meanwhile, the Switch 2 launched globally on June 5, and Nintendo stuck to its word of trying its best to maintain a steady supply of units throughout the market.
Of course, we should also bring up the original Nintendo Switch’s sales performance from its March, 2017 launch. Looking back, it sold 1.5 million units within its first week; Nintendo hoped for 2 million within just under the first month on the market. Therefore, its successor has catapulted far beyond that performance, all while being a more expensive product that’s launched in a more tumultuous economic environment.
Moving beyond
The Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal campaign was a mixed bag of highlights and confusion. Misinformation spread rampantly after the April, 2025 Nintendo Direct presentation, mostly due to the fact that the company did a poor job at squarely communicating key points like the price of the system and its marquee launch title, Mario Kart World.
Once the official price points of $450 for the system itself, $500 for the MKW bundle and $80 for MKW on its own came to light, there was a clear division in the community. Nintendo was blasted with outcry to “drop the price,” as a result.
Further confusion (and annoyance) came from the implementation of its new Game Key Card initiative, allowing publishers to release pseudo-physical versions of games, which are really just digital licenses in cartridge form.
These talking points and more drew up a lot of contention among fans and the gaming community as a whole. Some prominent figures in the industry even cast doubt on the system’s projected launch performance.
Nevertheless, given how things have ended up turning out thus far, it seems that a lot of the negativity was drawn up from a vocal minority.
Of course, time will tell just how long the Switch 2’s legs really are. But, as it stands, the market trends are currently in its favour. As Nintendo puts it at the end of its press release about its launch achievement: “Nintendo will continue its efforts to deliver unique entertainment that puts smiles on the faces of everyone Nintendo touches.”
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