Nintendo Switch 2 outsells Switch 1 launch by over 100% but fails to beat PS5
The Nintendo Switch 2 has already sold over 160,000 consoles in the UK and become Nintendo’s fastest selling console ever.
Although there’s still no official sales figures for the Nintendo Switch 2 everything points towards it being a massive worldwide success, selling more units in its first day than any other console.
That’d certainly be an impressive feat, but Nintendo itself has yet to substantiate these claims. Earlier today, though, additional sales data has been shared, and it at least gives an indication of how the Switch 2 has performed here in the UK.
Although no exact figures have been given, it’s said that the Switch 2 has had the best UK launch of any Nintendo console ever. Although given the company’s history in this country, it’s difficult to know exactly what that means.
The data comes courtesy of market research firm NielsenIQ, which shared its findings with The Game Business, adding that the Switch 2 outperformed the Switch 1 by more than two to one.
On top of that, it outperformed the Nintendo 3DS, which was the original record holder for the biggest Nintendo hardware launch in the UK.
For the record, the Switch 1 managed 80,000 units in the UK at launch while the 3DS sold 113,000 units. So the implication is that the Switch 2 sold over 160,000 consoles.
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The only Switch 2 figures we have so far are from Currys, which says it sold 30,000 pre-orders at its stores, which they seemed to be very happy with.
NielseinIQ adds that this only makes the Switch 2 the fourth best-selling console launch in the UK, trailing behind the Xbox Series X/S, the PlayStation 4, and especially the PlayStation 5.
Coming out in the middle of lockdown, the PlayStation 5 was a huge deal in the UK, when it launched in 2020, and went on to become the country’s best selling console in 2021.
As The Game Business points out, the original Switch and the Wii had weaker launches in the UK than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox One.
The UK has always been Nintendo’s weakest international market, which can be traced all the way back to the original NES from the 1980s.
Not only did the UK not receive the console until 1987 – four years after its initial Japanese launch and two years after the US – but it and its games were badly overpriced and little effort was made in converting it for PAL televisions.
Nintendo didn’t even have a proper UK headquarters at that time and it wasn’t until the GameCube that they started taking the region seriously, with the Wii and DS being the first time that Nintendo’s success in the UK mirrored that of the rest of the world.
The good news for Nintendo is that things have been steadily improving since then and doubling the Switch 1’s debut is quite a feat.
In the run up to the Switch 2’s release, some analysts predicted it would be the biggest console launch ever, although Nintendo is only aiming to sell slightly more than the original Switch managed in its launch period.
This more conservative outlook can likely be chalked up to Nintendo opting to play things safe due to all the uncertainty caused by US president Donald Trump’s tariffs. Plus, it looks better for them if they easily beat their goals.
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