Nintendo Says Switch 2 Hits 19.86 Million Sales, Lowers Forecasts

A 19.86 million-unit first year would usually read like a victory lap. For Nintendo, it instead came with a warning flag: the Switch 2 has sold like a blockbuster, yet the company lowered its outlook for the next fiscal year to 16.5 million hardware units, a sign that launch heat may be giving way to a tougher stretch for pricing, supply, and software momentum.

Nintendo said the Switch 2 sold 19.86 million units and 48.71 million software units in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, with the console’s quarterly hardware tally stepping down from 7.01 million units to 5.82 million, then 4.54 million, and finally 2.49 million. The pattern still reflects a massive debut, but it also shows the first-year surge cooling from launch to a more measured pace. Nintendo’s net sales rose 98.6% to 2,313.0 billion yen, operating profit climbed 27.5% to 360.1 billion yen, and profit attributable to owners of parent increased 52.1% to 424.1 billion yen.

The company had already pushed its Switch 2 forecast higher in November 2025, when it said sales had reached 10.36 million hardware units and 20.62 million software units by Sept. 30, 2025, then lifted its full-year target to 19.0 million consoles and 48.0 million games. Hitting 19.86 million hardware units means Nintendo finished above that updated bar, but its new 2026 outlook shows a more conservative stance for the year ahead. Software is the other pressure point: Nintendo now expects 60.0 million Switch 2 software units, a sharp step up from the first-year total, and proof that the company still needs the game slate to do more of the heavy lifting.

The original Switch also remains enormous in its own right. Nintendo said the older system sold 3.80 million hardware units and 155.41 million software units in FY2026, lifting lifetime hardware sales to 155.92 million units. Even with Switch 2 now in the market, the old platform still has the scale to matter, which gives Nintendo flexibility but also adds pressure to manage two audiences at once.

That balancing act is getting harder as costs rise. Nintendo said higher component costs, especially memory, along with tariffs, were expected to add roughly 100 billion yen to costs in the current financial year. The company had already said in June 2025 that demand was exceeding supply in many countries, and president Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for shortages. After a launch that sold through at scale, the next year now looks less like a victory lap and more like a test of how much Nintendo can charge, how quickly it can ship, and how firmly it can keep players buying games on the new machine.