Although certain Western markets are surprising for the strong performance of Nintendo Switch 2 in its first year of life despite the feeling left in the summer and autumn (as is the case in Spain, where it's selling faster than any other console ever), it is in Japan where Nintendo's latest hybrid has become an absolute phenomenon. According to the leading Japanese magazine Famitsu, the machine has already surpassed 4 million units sold.
The milestone was reached in the first week of the New Year, after falling just short in 2025 with 3.78 million and selling 10 Switch 2s for every PS5 in the Christmas week (and in similar proportions in the previous weeks). Adding up the Switch family consoles, it is Nintendo's third best year of the decade with 5.3 million, surpassed only by the two years of the pandemic. Furthermore, while in Spain it took 7 months to sell what the first Switch took 10 months to sell, in Japan it is selling at twice the speed.
With 4.09 million sold in Japan to date, Nintendo Switch 2 has also surpassed the lifetime total of the failed Gamecube (4.04 LTD) and has already reached 55.8% of the total PS5s (7.34 million shipped in five years) in half a year. In fact, Sony's console is finally managing to sell at the same rate as the first Switch, which also used to leave it far behind.
This is also reflected in the best-selling software of the year in Japan, topped by Mario Kart World and Pokémon Legends Z-A, with 2.8 and 2.6 million physical copies respectively (the latter including Switch 1), ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds for PS5, which still sits below the million mark.
Japanese Switch 2 users are eagerly awaiting releases such as Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade (already available on PS5), but also others that are coming out simultaneously on the Nintendo platform, such as Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined, Resident Evil Requiem, and Pragmata. It will be interesting to see how these two strong multi-platform bets from Capcom perform on the console that is less powerful in terms of hardware but more powerful in terms of sales at the moment.
<social>https://bsky.app/profile/pierre485.bsky.social/post/3mbwj5lp24s2o</social>