Reality check: sales went off a cliff
Famitsu’s weekly numbers are brutal: between May 25 and 31 the Nintendo Switch 2 moved only 31,751 units in Japan. That’s an 87% dive compared with the 247,880 units sold the week before. lifetime sales in Japan now sit at about 5,865,213 consoles. Yes, the drop looks dramatic — and yes, there’s a sensible explanation.
Why the sudden nosedive? A classic pre-price rush
The short version: buyers panicked and bought early. Nintendo raised the Switch 2 price by 10,000 yen on May 25 (from 49,980 to 59,980), so a bunch of shoppers sprinted to stores the week before. That spike made the following week look tiny by comparison. In other words, the cliff isn’t as scary when you remember many people already bought their consoles.
Games: the weird leaderboard
The software leaderboard has some quirky entries. Tomodachi Life led the charts with 52,483 copies this week and has now cracked roughly 1.25 million lifetime sales — notable because it’s a Switch title, not a Switch 2 exclusive. Pokémon Pokopia moved about 14,122 copies and passed the one-million mark, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book did 12,701 in week two, and Mario Kart World only sold 5,865 copies this week (though it’s closing in on 3 million total in Japan).
Other hardware? Also underwhelming
It wasn’t a great week for other consoles either: the PS5 managed just 367 units, the PS5 Digital Edition about 6,527, and the whole Xbox family didn’t break 900 combined. So this wasn’t solely a Switch 2 story — hardware movement looks slow across the board.
Stock wobble and Nintendo’s outlook
Investors took notice: Nintendo’s shares slid to levels not seen since late 2023. Nintendo itself has baked a slowdown into its forecasts, projecting roughly 16.5 million Switch 2 sales for the coming fiscal year versus 19.86 million for the original Switch — a drop of about 17%. Separately, reporting suggests production plans of around 20 million units in the next fiscal period. Nintendo’s CEO has even hinted more price moves are possible if component costs don’t calm down.
Okay, so what now?
Don’t panic-buy or panic-sell. This week’s headline-grabbing plunge is mostly a timing story: lots of buyers shoved their purchases into the week before the price rise, leaving a comparative void after the increase. The bigger questions are whether prices will also jump in Europe and the U.S. later this year and how consumers react when that happens. For now, expect some volatility — and perhaps a few bargains for anyone who enjoys console hunting.
