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| A Nintendo Switch 2 console on display at a launch event as the system continues its strong early sales. |
By Jon Scarr
Nintendo has shared updated sales figures for Nintendo Switch 2, and the early numbers paint a clear picture. As of December 31, 2025, the system has sold 17.37 million units worldwide, making it the fastest-selling dedicated video game platform Nintendo has ever released.
All of that happened in less than seven months. Nintendo Switch 2 launched in early June and didn’t hit the usual post-launch slowdown once the holidays passed. You can see the same thing in the software numbers. With 37.93 million Nintendo Switch 2 games sold, this isn’t a case of people buying the system and waiting around to use it.
Strong Software Is Driving the Early Momentum
A big reason for that early momentum is Mario Kart World. The launch title has already sold 14.03 million copies, including bundled units, making it the system’s clear early favourite. Mario Kart has always been one of Nintendo’s safest bets, but hitting numbers like that this quickly still matters.
It’s not the only game pulling weight either. Donkey Kong Bananza has reached 4.25 million units, while Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition sits at 3.89 million units. Together, those games make it obvious this isn’t a one-game situation.
When you line the numbers up, the early attach rate lands a bit over two games per system. That’s not something you usually see if people are buying hardware just to park it. It points to a player base that’s already settling in.
Nintendo’s heavy use of bundles has played a role here as well. Getting a major game into people’s hands on day one lowers the barrier to actually playing, not just owning the hardware, and the software numbers suggest that approach is doing what Nintendo wants it to do.
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| Mario Kart World has been a major driver of early Nintendo Switch 2 software sales. |
Nintendo Switch 2 Sales in Nintendo Context
Another way to put those numbers in context is by looking at Nintendo’s own hardware history. Based on Nintendo’s figures, Nintendo Switch 2 has already sold more units than the Nintendo Wii U did over its entire lifetime, and it’s done that in under seven months.
That alone moves Nintendo Switch 2 past the tier of Nintendo hardware that struggled to find an audience. Clearing the Nintendo Wii U so quickly, and doing it in a fraction of the time, puts Nintendo Switch 2 on much firmer ground this early in its life.
What makes that even more interesting is how it’s happening. Nintendo hasn’t needed price cuts, hardware revisions, or course corrections to get there. This pace is coming from launch hardware, supported by software and bundles that are accelerating adoption rather than trying to rescue it.
There’s also a clear difference compared to Nintendo’s last generational shift. The original Nintendo Switch needed time to fully pull away from the Nintendo Wii U era. Nintendo Switch 2 has already done that while Nintendo Switch hardware is still on shelves and still selling.
That comparison isn’t about rewriting history so much as showing how different this launch looks. Nintendo Switch 2 didn’t need years to find its footing. It arrived with an audience already in place.
How Nintendo Is Managing the Transition
This also lines up with what Nintendo was projecting late last year. In November, the company raised its Nintendo Switch 2 forecast to 19 million units by the end of the fiscal year after an unusually strong start. With Nintendo Switch 2 already at 17.37 million sold by the end of December, it’s now within range of that target with time still left on the clock. Read our coverage from November on Nintendo’s updated Nintendo Switch 2 sales forecast.
Nintendo also says Nintendo Switch 2 is its fastest-selling platform to date based on internal sell-through estimates, which track purchases by players rather than shipments alone. Between bundles, backward compatibility with Nintendo Switch games, and a familiar hybrid setup, the move to the new system hasn’t asked players to start over.
That shows up in how Nintendo is handling the transition. Nintendo Switch hardware and software are still selling, just at a much slower pace, and many Switch games continue to be played on Nintendo Switch 2. Instead of forcing a hard cutoff, Nintendo has let the handoff happen naturally, and the sales split reflects that.
What’s also striking is how steady Nintendo sounds throughout all of this. There’s no sense of urgency or course correction in how the company is talking about Nintendo Switch 2. The focus is on keeping things moving, not scrambling to fix anything.
For now, the takeaway is pretty straightforward. Nintendo Switch 2 is selling quickly, players are buying games at a healthy pace, and the shift from one generation to the next feels deliberate rather than rushed. With more first-party releases still ahead in 2026, this feels less like a launch rush and more like Nintendo settling into its next phase.
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