Nintendo Switch 2 Won’t Be Superior Successor — But It Still Matters

The successor to Nintendo Switch, the third bestselling gaming system of all time, obviously has big shoes to fill.

But Nintendo Switch 2, which arrives June 5, could not be dropping at a more uncertain and strenuous time for the gaming industry.

There’s no question the Switch is still a popular product. Nintendo more than doubled Xbox’s hardware sales in 2024, despite it being the Switch’s eighth year on the market, compared with a smidge more than four years for the latter and PlayStation 5, the current bestselling next-gen system.

But the overall arc of Switch sales makes it clear why Nintendo is staying the course with a typical eight-year console cycle.

Year-over-year hardware sales for the Switch are steadily declining, with post-launch-year holiday sales peaking in 2020. But the decline from the post-launch software sales peak in 2021 is much more pronounced, with holiday-quarter software sales in 2024 as much as 37% below those in 2021.

While Nintendo has never been as fidelity oriented as PlayStation and Xbox, games are taking longer to make, putting a strain on first-party output for all console players.

That’s a good excuse for Nintendo to offer a more powerful system that can run graphically complex third-party games playable on PC and other consoles.

At an event in Los Angeles last weekend, I saw a multitude of third-party games being demoed for the Switch 2, including vast open-world titles including “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Hogwarts Legacy.” While they played well on Switch 2, their frame rates were notably capped at around 30 frames per second, though such games typically struggle to hit the 60 frames-per-second standard on more powerful handheld devices like the Steam Deck.

Of greater note was Nintendo’s “Mario Kart World,” a first-party launch title that will be exclusive to Switch 2. The game ran smoothly on both the handheld system and a TV and featured a 24-player battle-royale mode called “Knockout Tour,” providing another justification for a more powerful Switch system able to handle that many online players at once.

Its execution made sense within the game, fitting the decades-old racing series’ tone. I can attest that my fellow competitors in one match were screaming as loud as possible during the very tense rounds of elimination. I did not win.

However, the game’s $80 cost is a point of controversy for consumers, as the $70 new-game standard for AAA titles was ushered in as recently as 2020, when PS5 and Xbox Series launched. Former PlayStation executive Shuyei Yoshida recently lamented Nintendo is “losing their identity” with this forward console push.

The pricing for Switch 2 games is entirely justified, as the console ecosystem hasn’t meaningfully maintained pace with inflation when it comes to new games, greatly elevating the stakes of developing AAA and flagship first-party titles. Pronounced layoffs have persisted across the industry for more than two years as publishers look to cut costs wherever possible.

Nintendo elevating the standard price for new games certainly makes it easier for Take-Two Interactive to do the same with Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto 6.” Years-long anticipation for “GTA 6” has bestowed a savior complex on the title, which is slated for fall 2025 but still lacks a release date. 

Nevertheless, Omdia projects sales of the Switch 2 will ultimately fall below those of its predecessor as soon as four years into its lifecycle, even if it is expected to have a bigger launch than the Switch in 2017. The initial $450 asking price was already seen as a preemptive response to the tariffs enacted by President Trump, and Nintendo quickly delayed pre-orders after revealing the cost, a sign the asking price could increase. Pre-orders for Switch 2 in North America are rumored to go live next week. 

Even if Nintendo Switch does end up surpassing the Nintendo DS and PS2 to become the bestselling system in history, a successor was inevitable. But this console succession is more likely to test the limits of the market as a whole instead of repeating the highs of yesteryear.