Nintendo Switch 2 hits 23.68M sales as quarterly units drop 34%

Nintendo reported its first-quarter earnings for the fiscal year ending March 2027 on 6 August 2026, revealing that the Switch 2 has now shipped 23.68 million units lifetime — while beating analyst expectations on revenue, operating profit and net profit despite a significant year-on-year decline in console sales.

The results cover the three months from 1 April to 30 June 2026. Switch 2 hardware shipments for the quarter came in at 3.82 million units, a fall of 34.4% compared with the same period a year earlier, when the console was in the middle of its June 2025 launch window and riding a wave of concentrated demand. Nintendo's stock closed 2.87% higher ahead of the announcement.

The numbers behind the headline

Nintendo posted net sales of ¥517.8 billion for the quarter, down 9.5% year-on-year, but operating profit rocketed 150.5% to ¥142.5 billion and net profit climbed 53.5% to ¥147.4 billion. Both figures comfortably exceeded analyst estimates: revenue forecasts had been pegged at ¥444.96 billion, according to CNBC, while net profit expectations stood at ¥78.30 billion.

A significant contributor to the profit surge was approximately $300 million in refunds of US tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Nintendo recorded these refunds as a reduction of cost of sales. The company said the original tariff costs had been absorbed by Nintendo rather than passed on to customers through higher product prices. The refunds stem from a February 2026 US Supreme Court ruling that IEEPA tariffs were unauthorised, which triggered a Court of International Trade order requiring Customs and Border Protection to refund roughly $165 billion to importers. Nintendo is currently seeking to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit arguing it should share those refunds with customers who bought products while the tariffs were active.

Digital sales were another bright spot, totalling ¥132.7 billion — up 90.0% year-on-year — largely driven by increased purchases of downloadable versions of packaged software. IP-related business sales reached ¥34.8 billion, up 107.4%, with Nintendo crediting strong audience engagement with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which has generated more than $1 billion in global box office revenue since its 1 April release, making it the second-highest grossing film ever based on a video game.

Switch 2 still Nintendo's fastest-ever seller

Despite the quarterly dip, the cumulative picture remains impressive. At 23.68 million units shipped in roughly 14 months, Switch 2 sits more than four million units ahead of where the original Switch stood at a comparable point in its lifecycle. The closest comparison at this stage is the Nintendo Wii, which had reached 20.13 million units by the end of its fifth fiscal quarter. No other Nintendo system has sold faster.

Regional lifetime shipments as of 30 June 2026 break down as follows: 7.95 million in the Americas, 6.7 million in Japan, 5.37 million in Europe, and 3.66 million in other regions. In Q1 alone, Japan accounted for 1.04 million units and the Americas for 1.22 million.

Software holding up well

Switch 2 software sold 9.46 million units in Q1, up 9.2% year-on-year, bringing lifetime software shipments to 58.17 million units. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream led the quarter with 7.94 million units sold, while Pokémon Pokopia added 1.27 million in the period. Launch title Mario Kart World continues to dominate the lifetime chart with 15.39 million units including bundle pack-ins.

Original Switch software also performed strongly, rising 38.6% to 33.81 million units in Q1 — a sign that the back catalogue remains commercially active even as the hardware winds down. The original Switch has now sold 156.59 million units over its lifetime, with 0.66 million units shifted in the quarter, down 31.8% year-on-year.

Full-year outlook unchanged

Nintendo left its full-year forecast untouched, projecting net sales of ¥2.05 trillion and net profit of ¥310 billion through March 2027. The company expects Switch 2 hardware to reach 16.5 million units for the full fiscal year — a roughly 17% retreat from the prior year's total — which would require a further 12.68 million units to be shipped across the next three quarters. Nintendo said it has factored in approximately ¥100 billion in costs from higher memory component prices and ongoing tariff measures.

What the broader market looks like

Nintendo is not alone in reporting a hardware dip. All three major console makers posted unit declines for the same April–June 2026 quarter. Sony's PlayStation operating income rose 37%, while Microsoft's Xbox revenue fell across content, services and hardware alike — making Nintendo's 150.5% operating profit increase look all the more striking by comparison.

What this means for European buyers

On 6 July 2026, Nintendo confirmed that the Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED will no longer be sold to European retailers from mid-February 2027, brought about by EU battery regulations. From that point on, anyone buying a new Nintendo handheld in Europe will be buying a Switch 2. UK pricing has remained stable since launch, starting at £395.99 for the console alone and £429.99 bundled with a Mario Kart World download code — and Nintendo's confirmation that it bore the US tariff costs itself means British consumers were never directly exposed to that pricing pressure.