Switch 2 Expected to Beat Its Predecessor Out of the Gate
Emboldened by the success of the original Switch, Nintendo has high hopes for the first year of the Switch 2. In its latest earnings release, the company projected to sell 15 million units of the new console until March 31, 2026, which is significantly more than what the company aimed for with the original Switch in 2017 and more than it actually sold back then.
Released on March 3, 2017, Nintendo sold 2.74 million units of the Switch in just four weeks, i.e. by the end of Nintendo's fiscal year on March 31. For the next 12 months, the company projected to sell 10 more million units, which would have brought the total to 12.7 million after 13 months. With the Switch 2, Nintendo expects to sell 15 million units in just under 10 months, highlighting the level of optimism at Nintendo's headquarters.
Looking back at the original Switch's launch, the console vastly exceeded expectations right out of the gate. By the end of March 2018, Nintendo had sold 17.8 million units of the innovative device, exceeding the company's forecast by 40 percent. And still, Nintendo expects to do even better this time. Extrapolating the company's official forecast to the same number of days that the original Switch needed to sell 17.8 million units would bring the Switch 2 to almost 20 million units in the same 13-month timeframe. This would bring the Switch 2 roughly on par with the Nintendo Wii, which had sold just over 20 million units by the end of 2007, 13 month after its launch in late November (North America) and early December (Japan, Europe and Australia) 2006.
What remains to be seen is how Nintendo's fanbase will react to the new console's surprisingly large price tag. With a suggested retail price of $450 for the standalone console or $500 for the popular Mario Kart bundle, the Switch 2 is roughly the same price as PlayStation 5, putting it in direct competition with Sony's and Microsoft's flagship consoles, which is a situation that Nintendo has consciously avoided in the past.