Switch 2 Sales Dip in Q2, Nintendo Beats Forecasts on Tariff Refunds
Nintendo's Switch 2 cumulative sales top 23 million, but quarterly sales fell 34.4% year-on-year. The company raised its profit outlook, helped by US tariff refunds, and announced price hikes for September.
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Nintendo's Switch 2 console saw a 34.4% year-on-year decline in sales during the April-to-June quarter, moving 3.82 million units. Despite that drop, cumulative sales since the console's launch on June 5, 2025, reached 23.68 million units, surpassing the lifetime sales of the GameCube and exceeding the original Switch's first 13 months on the market, which totaled 17.79 million units.
"Although Switch 2 sales volume declined... many consumers continued to adopt the system, encouraged by the release of new titles and other factors," the company said in its earnings presentation. Software sales in the quarter rose 9.2% year-on-year to 9.46 million units, bringing cumulative software sales to 58.17 million units. The best-selling title, Mario Kart World, has sold 15.39 million units, followed by Donkey Kong Bananza at 4.78 million and Pokémon Pokopia at 3.68 million overall, with 1.27 million sold in the second quarter. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream has shipped 7.96 million copies since its release.
Nintendo's financial results for the quarter beat analyst expectations. Revenue came in at 517.8 billion yen (around 2.8 billion euros), down 9.5% from 572.3 billion yen a year earlier, while operating profit surged 150.5% to 142.6 billion yen (around 770 million euros). Net income rose 53.5% to 147.4 billion yen (around 800 million euros), compared with 96 billion yen in the same period last year. Analysts had forecast net income of 78 billion yen on revenue of 445 billion yen. The bottom line was boosted by refunds of previously paid US import tariffs, after a court ruled the tariffs unlawful.
The company also factored into its cost of sales an impact of approximately 100.0 billion yen ($633 million) from rising component prices, especially memory, and tariffs. To address these costs, Nintendo will raise the Switch 2 price in the US from $450 to $500 on September 1, 2026, and in Europe from 470 to 500 euros, effective the same day. In Japan, memory prices were increased on May 25, 2026. Sales of older Switch models have been discontinued in Europe due to EU battery replacement rules.
Nintendo maintains its Switch 2 sales forecast of 16.5 million units for the fiscal year ending March 2027, after selling 19.86 million units in the previous fiscal year. Upcoming titles include Fire Emblem – Fortune's Weave, set for September 17, 2026, and Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, arriving October 22, 2026. A remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been announced for 2026, though no release date has been given.
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