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Nintendo Revenue Fell as the Original Switch Faded—Then Switch 2 Changed the Picture

Nintendo’s annual sales plunged as the original Switch aged, then nearly doubled in Switch 2’s launch year. The latest quarter shows why sales and profit are telling different stories.
Length4 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Nintendo’s revenue did plunge as the original Switch aged: net sales fell 30.3% in the fiscal year ended March 2025. But the next year, Switch 2’s launch drove a sharp rebound. The latest reported quarter, April–June 2026, brought a year-over-year sales decline alongside much higher operating profit—a mixed transition, not a continuing annual nosedive.

Why did Nintendo revenue fall?

The original Switch was in its tenth year when Nintendo’s fiscal 2025 ended, and the company’s annual net sales dropped to ¥1,164.9 billion from ¥1,671.9 billion the previous year. Those are Nintendo’s reported company-wide sales figures, not hardware revenue alone. The decline reflected the aging of a console generation before its successor arrived.

The headline needs a time-period correction: Nintendo’s results subsequently rebounded in Switch 2’s launch year. Its latest reported quarter shows a smaller year-over-year decline, but that comparison starts from the prior-year Switch 2 launch quarter. Annual results, launch-year results, and a launch-anniversary quarter answer different questions.

How did Nintendo’s sales change across the transition?

Reporting period Nintendo net sales What the figure shows
FY2025, year ended March 31, 2025 ¥1,164.9 billion, down 30.3% year over year Contraction as the original Switch generation aged.
FY2026, year ended March 31, 2026 ¥2,313.0 billion A near-doubling during the first fiscal year of Switch 2.
FY2027 Q1, three months ended June 30, 2026 ¥517.8 billion, down 9.5% year over year A quarterly decline against the prior-year quarter in which Switch 2 launched.

These nominal yen figures come from Nintendo’s FY2025 and FY2026 annual results and its August 6, 2026, first-quarter FY2027 results. Net sales are the company-wide measure; they should not be confused with dedicated video-game-platform sales or unit shipments.

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Is the Nintendo Switch dying?

The original Switch is declining as hardware, but it has not become irrelevant to Nintendo’s business. In FY2026, the company reported 3.80 million original Switch hardware units and 136.91 million original Switch software units. Nintendo said demand continued in the console’s tenth year, citing backward compatibility and evergreen games as support for software sales.

The successor’s arrival is also a transition within Nintendo’s platform business, not simply a replacement of every previous-generation sale. Switch 2 can play original Switch software, giving existing games a role in the new console’s library as well as keeping the older platform commercially active.

How much has Nintendo Switch 2 sold?

Nintendo reported 19.86 million Switch 2 hardware units for FY2026, above its initial forecast of 15 million and its revised forecast of 19 million. It also reported 48.71 million Switch 2 software units for that fiscal year. These are Nintendo-reported unit sales, not an independently measured count of consumer sell-through.

Nintendo defines sell-in as sales by the Nintendo group to outside entities; the measure includes sales to business partners as well as direct consumer sales and downloads. Keep that definition in mind when interpreting shipment and unit figures.

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President Shuntaro Furukawa attributed the fast first-year adoption to expanded production capacity, worldwide pre-launch experience events, and compatibility with original Switch games. He said the holiday season was strong in Japan but weaker than expected in Europe and the United States. Those are management’s explanations and assessment, rather than independent market measurements.

Why did Nintendo profit rise while revenue fell?

In FY2027 Q1, operating profit rose 150.5% year over year to ¥142.6 billion even as net sales declined. Nintendo attributed the profit increase to a larger software share of sales and U.S. IEEPA tariff refunds recorded as a reduction in cost of sales. Its first-quarter explanatory material put those refunds at approximately US$300 million.

The refunds are a period-specific factor, not evidence that the same cost benefit will recur. Nor does a single quarter establish that Nintendo’s margins have permanently improved.

What happened to Switch hardware and software in the latest quarter?

Platform and measure FY2027 Q1 units Year-over-year change
Switch 2 hardware 3.82 million Down 34.4%
Original Switch hardware 0.66 million Down 31.8%
Switch 2 software 9.46 million Up 9.2%
Original Switch software 33.81 million Up 38.6%

Nintendo reported that dedicated video-game-platform sales were ¥483.0 billion, down 13.1%, primarily because of lower hardware unit sales. The Switch 2 hardware comparison is especially demanding because the year-earlier quarter included the console’s launch; the decline is not a lifetime-sales figure or, by itself, proof of a full-year demand trend.

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Software moved the other way in the quarter. Nintendo named Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Pokémon Pokopia as contributors, reporting 7.94 million and 1.27 million units respectively. Digital sales represented 61.5% of dedicated-platform software sales for the quarter. Furukawa said Pokémon Pokopia’s contribution to hardware sales reinforced Nintendo’s view that desired software helps support the transition to Switch 2.

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Is Switch 2 selling better than the original Switch?

The available figures show a strong first fiscal year for Switch 2, but they do not provide a like-for-like, all-time comparison between the two consoles. Nintendo said the new system’s adoption pace was extremely fast even compared with the original Switch and that it saw no particular concern about momentum at the time of its May 2026 briefing. That is the company president’s assessment, not a guarantee of future sales.

For FY2027, Nintendo forecast 16.5 million Switch 2 hardware units. That forecast is distinct from the actual FY2026 total and from the single-quarter year-over-year comparison; it does not establish the eventual full-year result.

What does Nintendo expect for FY2027?

FY2027 forecast, unchanged as of August 6, 2026 Forecast Change from FY2026
Net sales ¥2,050.0 billion Down 11.4%
Operating profit ¥370.0 billion Up 2.7%

These are Nintendo’s full-year guidance figures, not reported performance. The company cautions that risks and uncertainties can make actual results materially different from its forecasts; foreign exchange, tariffs, component costs, and market conditions can all affect the outlook. Nintendo’s latest release available here is dated August 6, 2026, and covers the quarter ended June 30, 2026.

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