- Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told shareholders that Western hardware sales for Nintendo Switch 2 were “slightly weaker than our expectations.”
- Furukawa says sales in Japan “exceeded our expectations” by the end of 2025
- He adds that Pokémon Legends: ZA Edition Nintendo Switch 2 and Kirby’s Air Riders It contributed to sales in Japan due to its popularity.
Nintendo has informed investors that Western hardware sales for the Nintendo Switch 2 were not as strong as they expected by the end of 2025.
“While our projected global hardware and software sales volume remains unchanged, the breakdown by region and product is based on different assumptions from the revised forecasts announced at the time of our second quarter financial results announcement,” Furukawa said (via IGN and machine translation).
“Also, as you understand, domestic hardware sales volume exceeded our expectations, while overseas sales were slightly lower than our expectations.”
According to Furukawa, one of the main factors contributing to the increase in domestic sales was the launch of Pokémon Legends: ZA Edition Nintendo Switch 2 and Kirby’s Air Riderswhich are very popular franchises in Japan.
“We believe the reason for the higher-than-expected hardware sales in Japan is that, amid continued momentum from the initial launch of Switch 2 hardware, new titles like Pokémon Legends: ZA Edition Nintendo Switch 2 and Kirby’s Air Ridersreleased during the Christmas shopping season, [leading] to a relatively high trend of existing Switch owners switching to the Switch 2 compared to abroad,” the president explained.
It seems that while Pokémon and Kirby’s Air Riders in Japan contributed greatly to positive sales due to its popularity in Japan, the same cannot be said for its influence in the West.
The Game Business reported last month that an anonymous high-level Nintendo source attributed the “complicated” economic climate and the “absence of a major Western game” during the year-end period to delayed sales in the United States and Europe.
This despite the launch of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in December 2025, which, while popular among dedicated fans, is not a hit for Nintendo like its other franchises.
Another report indicated that performance lagged in the West, with Switch 2 sales in the US over the Christmas period falling 35%, compared to what the original Switch achieved, and 16% less than what the Switch managed to achieve in the final eight weeks of 2017.
During its first year, Switch 2 sales in the UK were 6% higher than those achieved by the original Switch in its first year, which according to TGB “was also on sale for an additional 14 weeks”, but sales in France suffered the most, falling by “more than 30%” than those of Switch 1 in its first year.
In other news, we have a new Nintendo Direct to look forward to today, which has the potential to show off some of the biggest upcoming games of 2026.
The best portable game consoles for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
