Nintendo sold 6.49 million Switch 2 consoles between July and September 2026, a fall of 37.4% year over year, and Pokemon is the recovery plan.
GR StaffEditorial Team9 November 2026
Nintendo sold 6.49 million Switch 2 consoles between July and September 2026, a fall of 37.4% on the same quarter a year earlier, the company’s financial results published on 6 November confirm. The drop looks stark, but the totals behind it suggest the console is still outpacing every machine that came before it.
Lifetime Switch 2 sales now stand at 26.35 million units since the console launched in June 2025. The comparison with last year is stark because that earlier quarter, July to September 2025, was the console’s launch period: Switch 2 moved 10.36 million consoles in those three months.
A decline measured against a record
Set against its predecessors at the same age, Switch 2 remains well ahead. The original Switch had sold 19.67 million consoles by the end of its 15th month, and Sony’s PlayStation 5 stood at 19.3 million by March 2022, roughly the same point in its life. Switch 2’s 26.35 million puts it nearly seven million consoles clear of both.
The software side points the same way. Switch 2 game sales rose 18.8% year over year in the quarter, according to the same results, meaning the people who own the console are buying more for it, not less. New releases contributed: Rhythm Heaven Groove opened at 2.89 million copies, Splatoon Raiders at 2.42 million and Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave at 1.34 million.
Pokemon carries the recovery plan
Nintendo still has to answer for the hardware slide, and its plan runs through Pokemon. President Shuntaro Furukawa told the results briefing that the franchise is the console’s engine for the year ahead.
“We recognize that Pokemon: Winds / Waves, a brand-new title scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch 2 next year, will be a crucial release as the console enters its third year on the market; therefore, we intend to do our utmost to maximize its sales.”
Pokemon Pokopia, the Switch 2 exclusive released on 5 March 2026, has already carried much of the load, with more than 5 million copies sold in its first four months. Pokemon: Winds / Waves is scheduled to arrive on Switch 2 in 2027.
GR Staff
Editorial TeamArticles published under the Gamereactor byline are the work of the site’s editorial team, covering news, releases and the wider industry across Gamereactor’s European editions.Full profileGamereactor author since 1998 · 153 published articles
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