Switch 2 sales slowed over Christmas, down 35% in the US compared to Switch 1 launch

Nintendo Switch 2 hardware sales slowed during the Christmas period compared to its predecessor in many Western markets, including the US and UK.

That’s according to The Game Business, which reports that, following a record-breaking launch earlier in the year, Switch 2 sales in the US over the holiday period (November – December) were down by around 35% compared with what Switch 1 managed during the same period in 2017.

It was a similar picture in the UK, where Switch 2 sales for the last eight weeks of the year were 16% lower than Switch 1 in the same period of its lifecycle, according to NielsenIQ data. However, when sales of the original Switch are included, sales of Nintendo hardware were actually up 7% compared with the same period in 2017.

In France, Switch 2 sales in 2025 were ‘over 30%’ lower than what Switch 1 achieved in its first year, according to TGB, which is a surprise for a market that’s typically one of Nintendo’s strongest in Europe.

The slowing Christmas sales come with the context that Switch 2 experienced a record-breaking launch, selling over 3.5 million units in just four days last June, and over 10 million by September. So far, the console is comfortably outselling its predecessor.

Stock has also been readily available since launch, and Switch 1’s launch year benefited from major first-party titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, which released at the end of 2017.

One senior Nintendo employee told The Game Business that a “complicated economic landscape”, higher price points, and “the absence of a major Western game” during Christmas made comparisons between Switch 1 and Switch 2’s opening Christmas periods difficult.

It was grim reading for console sales in the US overall during the historically lucrative months of November. According to Circana data, hardware and software sales in the US had the worst November since tracking began.

Last year, the average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware was $439, an all-time high (and 11% higher than last year), which was likely the main reason sales were comparatively low. In the US, Switch 2 retails for $450 without a game, or $500 in a bundle.