Nintendo Switch 2 Has Sold 2 Million Units in the U.S., 75% Ahead of the Switch 1's Pace
Nintendo Switch 2 Has Sold 2 Million Units in the U.S., 75% Ahead of the Switch 1's Pace - IGN
That's honestly surprising to see, considering that the console launched with like... five games, none of which were even a mainline Nintendo title.
It's also surprising because I just haven't seen any hype for it. With the Switch 1, everybody I knew either got one right away, or as soon as they were restocked. I still don't know anybody who bought a Switch 2, or is even excited for it.
I think you forgot about Mario Kart World. You can't really consider Mario Kart games not mainline when you see how much they sell compared to the install base. I do think this entry is rather underwhelming, but it was still one of the main reasons to have a Switch 2.
After that, Donkey Kong Bananza was not a launch title, but close enough. Sure, Donkey Kong is not usually that strong an IP, but it's rather original and weird, and the closest thing to Super Mario Odyssey we'll have for a while. I know I was curious about it, and yeah, it's fun.
Mario Kart isn’t a mainline Nintendo game? I’d say Donkey Kong made the launch “window” too but that one is more debatable. I have no interest on spending that type of money on toys, but I understand the appeal.
I am curious to know how many went to scalpers and influencers/YouTubers. I am also interested in seeing how fast it drops off.
I don't personally know anyone that has one, and I am not seeing them out in the wild like I saw the Switch 1 just 2 months after it launched. So either all of them went to people who dont live in my area (high population West USA county) or all the people that have them never take them outside. Which is strange since I see Switch 1 consoles fairly often. Mostly Switch Lites.
Look up some scalper listings. No one's making money scalping the Switch 2. Nintendo has met the demand with supply. It's not like the XSX and PS5 where people were buying them up and selling them for twice as much. Scalpers now are just trying to break even. You might almost feel sorry for them.
You might almost feel sorry for them.
I might, but I seem to have misplaced my world's tiniest violin, unfortunately.
Switch 2 is bigger than Switch 1. I am not very comfortable taking it outside home yet, still use my old Switch 1 for that. So, this could be one of the reason.
And yeah, it would be interesting to see how long it keeps this momentum.
All the gaming YouTubers I watch bought one (aside from maybe one or two who play almost exclusively PC).
In fact, anytime I go to YouTube and see a major creator playing the Hot New Thing, it kinda kills me inside a little, because I know they're helping to perpetuate all this bullshit.
I will never buy one of these out of principle.
If Nintendo is allowed to further erode game preservation and game ownership and the right to do what I want with my machine (as the sales imply), we will never own a game again.
I love how everyone dumped on the Switch 2's pricing when it was announced (not here — this was on another site/community) but as soon as it launched, the sales numbers exceeded expectations.
Honestly Nintendo didn't price it high enough — it was clearly not priced as high as the market would bear. It's making such good sales because people consider it to be a solid value for what they expect to get out of it.
If I hadn't just gotten a Switch 1 (OLED) 9 months prior, I might have gotten one. As it is, it's a minor upgrade and I see no reason to upgrade at this point. But a lot of people are.
Fortunately, the game I play, Animal Crossing, isn't hard coded to the Switch's limitations. I think it was always meant to be used on an upgraded console. Playing it on PC/Mac, people have gotten it up to 8K without modifying the game in any way, just running it on a more capable machine. (Macs are particularly good for emulating Switch as they both use the ARM64 platform, like your phone probably does. PCs do tend to have more powerful GPUs, so they can mitigate the additional emulation, not just going from Switch to Windows, but from ARM64 to x86-64. But Macs are already halfway there.) I can't do 8K... my monitor and my MacBook both do 1440p though, which is 4X the Switch 1's native 720p. It doesn't look that much better (the textures are optimised for 720p) but it does perform better. Loading times zip by. If there's a Switch 3 and it does 4K and it still has backward compatibility to Switch 1, I imagine Animal Crossing will do similarly well on that. Though, I kind of hope they make a new Animal Crossing title entirely.
First year is always for enthusiasts and is supply constrained, not demand constrained. This price was high but within expectations, even then, I know people who only play on Switch but haven't upgraded due to this.
We will see the real effect from next year. If it keeps this momentum or significantly slows down.
You know i was looking back at the GameCube. $199 brand new and a solid $100 cheaper than any other console new at the time. Played the games locally efficiently at a lower resolution than everyone else scrunging for the best 1080i they could get that didnt work well. Games were easy to develop for it and were awesome and the thick line and simple shapes make them hold up pretty well today.
I just dont care about Nintendo going all in on the super powered hardware route. Its not like we got cool new features to take advantage of it and we have 2 games were one is just battle royal mario kart so that its at least got something to do when you are bored. I dont hear people being happy with it but saying they dont regret buying one to have it which means they had the money in the first place.
Nintendo is best when its everybody's game device. This has felt like chasing the gaming hype and i guess we will see where it goes.
Just like the 1st one, I'm not buying it until an un-patchable jailbreak has been found. Until then, its just an expensive brick, waiting to happen.
Ah yes panic buying on the backs of tariffs. Those are real numbers to be celebrated.
🤡
Which is both depressing and confusing considering the sharply increased price on games and the system itself coupled with the increase in wealth disparity. If I were a conspiracy theorist type, I would say rich people/companies are buying systems at an extreme rate in an attempt to normalize the increasing prices and further erode the middle class.
The original Switch was constantly sold out. I assume there were supply issues. It’s likely that it would have outsold the Switch 2 if they’d had the same supply.
No conspiracy. High prices are already normalized. Companies have been setting record breaking profits by just straight up increasing prices for no reason since 2019. I also wonder how this hasn't affected sales but I guess people had a lot more money then they realized. Had.
It's been going on much longer than that, it's what companies do. If they can get away with it, they increase prices.
New conspiracy theory unlocked
Not being enshittified? Game carts that are just game keys that we don’t own? Ad software being sold as an “experience”? Still using sticks that drift when the last console suffered from the same issue?
How is it confusing? It's a quality product with quality games. The numbers speak for themselves. There's a massive disconnect on forums like these about the popularity and demand for Nintendo products.