Nintendo sold 2.67 million Switch 2 consoles in the July-to-September quarter, 41% fewer than a year earlier, the company reported on Thursday. First-half hardware sales reached 6.49 million units, down 37.4%, and lifetime sales stand at 26.35 million. Net profit fell 29% to ¥73.5 billion (about $465 million), missing estimates of roughly ¥82.2 billion.
The forecast, however, has not moved: Nintendo still expects 16.5 million units by 31 March 2027. That is where the pressure sits. A quarter at 2.67 million means the next two quarters — the holiday quarter included — have to carry a lot more.
Two price rises and one memory market
Nintendo raised the price of the Switch 2 in the US, Canada and Japan during the quarter, after an earlier increase in Japan this year. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games predicted the slowdown in June and names the core problem: "Nintendo's only real blockbuster this fiscal year is the Ocarina of Time remake. It's not enough to make investors happy, especially after the device is now as expensive as it is."
The cost pressure is imported. Memory prices have climbed hard on demand from AI data centres, and Macronix, one of Nintendo's ROM chip suppliers, stopped manufacturing ROM chips to focus capacity on NOR and NAND flash for data centres — a move that also rides the broader memory price surge. For a console whose physical games sit on exactly those chips, that is not an abstract market event.
The software gap
The decline is not only a pricing story. The Switch 2 line-up this year is thin, and the remake meant to fill the gap arrived on 6 November to a mixed reception: reviewers criticised an uncanny, photorealistic look instead of a faithful update of the original art style, and the absence of Master Quest, which veterans had expected. A remake that reads as a reskin does not move hardware.
The actual system-sellers — new Pokémon titles — are scheduled for 2027. That does little for the 2026 holiday season.
What to watch
Three numbers decide whether the forecast holds: third-quarter sell-through, the first holiday quarter at the higher price; whether Nintendo can hold the line on further price increases while securing enough memory allocation; and whether any title beyond the remake lands in the next six months. Until then, the Switch 2 is the clearest example of how the AI infrastructure build-out reaches a consumer product: not as a feature, but as a bill.
