Switch 2 Sales Were 'Slightly Weaker Than Expectations' Outside of Japan - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 February 2026 / 2,979 Views
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa during a Q&A session with investors (via IGN) revealed sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 outside of Japan were "slightly weaker" than expectations.
"While our forecasted global hardware and software sales volume remains unchanged, the breakdown by region and product is based on different assumptions from the revised forecast announced at the time of our second-quarter financial results announcement," said Furukawa.
"Furthermore, as you understand, domestic hardware sales volume exceeded our expectations, while overseas sales were slightly weaker than our expectations."
In contrast to sales outside of Japan, sales in Japan were better than expected.
"We believe that the reason for the stronger-than-expected hardware sales in Japan is that, amid the continued momentum of the initial launch of the Switch 2 hardware, new titles such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Kirby Air Riders, released during the holiday shopping season, [leading] to a relatively high trend of existing Switch owners switching to the Switch 2 compared to overseas," said Furukawa.
Nintendo has shipped 17.37 million Switch 2 consoles as of December 31, 2025, while sell-through figures surpassed 15 million units as of the fourth week of December (Christmas week).
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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No mention of how the Switch 2 is like 300$ in Japan, and that they sell it much higher rest of the world?
Exchange rates make the Japanese only Switch 2 looks cheaper than it really is.
That's not how it works, Switch 2's cost currently feels the same way for a japanese person for the price it is as an american person will feel it at $450
The actual reason Japan occupied a bigger part of the pie than usual for the quarter was the lineup that was much more catered to Japan, Kirby Air Riders sold almost a million in Japan alone along with the fact that the console had stock issues in the country prior to that point
Buying power. You can't just convert from one currency to another and use that conversion. Have you never heard of cheap Turkish PSN accounts? They are not cheap for Turkish people.
But even the minimum wages align lol
Minimum? Try average. Japanese wages are 1.5 to 2 times less than US ones - typically. Not sure what you find so complicated to understand: different economies, different product prices. These things are pretty basic to know.
The internet makes all sorts of wacky things possible. For instance, you can find out what their minimum wage is. Then you can find out what the US's minimum wage is. Then you can convert them and see where they stack up. Right now, they're almost equal.
It's the price, the console is much less expensive in Japan...
Exchange rates make the Japanese only Switch 2 looks cheaper than it really is.
I feel that is mostly down to not having a killer app after mario kart. DK and kirby air riders are great, but they don't have the same level of broad appeal as Zelda, smash, 3d mario, animal crossing etc.
It's true that Kirby Air Riders sold more in Japan than anywhere else, but another factor is also the price of the hardware. The Japan region locked model is with 330$ by far the cheapest Switch 2 in the world.
Blame the EU.
Blame trump/price
Nah it's the EU, they can't brick the systems there
Price..
Thats it
Japanese companies are very loyal to Japanese customers hence the reason the Japanese get the product cheaper.
RAM and tariffs, that’s why.
