With Nintendo Switch 2 Waiting in the Wings, Sales of the Original Switch and Its Games Continue to Tumble

Nintendo has revised its hardware forecast down yet again as sales of the Switch and its games came in “below expectations.”

For the first nine months of the current financial year, sales from Nintendo’s dedicated game console business decreased by 31.7% year-on-year to 895.5 billion yen (approx. $5.7 billion) following a significant decline in sales of both the Nintendo Switch and software.

Similarly, mobile and IP related income decreased by 33.9% year-on-year to 49.7 billion yen (approx. $320 million), mainly due to the tough comparison with 2023’s blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

As a result, gross profit declined by 27.3% year-on-year to 565.5 billion yen (approx. $3.6 billion).

Nintendo has now revised down its financial forecast for the year ending March 2025, the second time in a row it’s done so. It expects to sell even less Nintendo Switch hardware than previously forecast, too, revising its Switch expectation down by 1.5 million to 11 million, and software by 10 million to 150 million.

Given the Nintendo Switch is in its eighth year, declines are expected, although they are clearly more dramatic than Nintendo predicted. Still, the Switch is now over 150 million units sold, which is an astonishing success for Nintendo. Overtaking Sony’s PlayStation 2, which has 160 million sold, to become the best-selling video game console of all-time may be beyond the Switch now, but the Nintendo DS’ 154 million is in sight.

Nintendo itself described sales of Switch and software in its third quarter ending December 31, 2024, as “stable given the fact that the platform is in its eighth year.”

Overall sales for the entire Nintendo Switch family of systems were down 30.6% year-on-year at 9.54 million units. Sales of software declined by 24.4% year-on-year to 123.98 million units. But Nintendo pointed to sales of new games The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (3.91 million), Super Mario Party Jamboree (6.17 million), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (5.38 million), and Nintendo Switch Sports (2.63 million) during the three month period. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is on 1.4 million sold.

Super Mario Party Jamboree in particular sounds like a big hit. Nintendo said that during the first 11 weeks after its release on October 17, 2024, Super Mario Party Jamboree surpassed the pace of sales for previous titles in the Mario Party series for Nintendo Switch, namely Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars.

And, perhaps more importantly for Nintendo as it prepares to release the Switch 2 later this year, more people are playing Switch now than ever before, with 129 million ‘annual playing users’ in 2024. This suggests fans are continuing to play Switch even now, nearly eight years after launch.

“Nintendo Switch unit sales declined year-on-year, but even in the eighth year since its launch in March 2017, Nintendo Switch continues to attract the interest of consumers, and sales in some weeks during the holiday season exceeded same-week sales of the previous year,” Nintendo said.

Given Nintendo’s latest financial report, investors will be keen for Nintendo Switch 2 to come out sooner rather than later. But Nintendo itself listed the OG Switch games it still has up its sleeve: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition will be released on March 20, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond are scheduled for release in 2025.

Nintendo Switch 2 even got a mention, although Nintendo did not say anything new here. “On January 16, we announced that Nintendo Switch 2, the successor to Nintendo Switch, will be released in 2025,” Nintendo said. “On the same day, we offered a first look at Nintendo Switch 2 in a video introducing the hardware.

Nintendo plans a Switch 2 Direct for April 2, where it will reveal more. Nintendo will also hold Switch 2 hands-on events in cities around the world.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.