Nintendo Switch 2 Blows Out Launch Day Sales In Record Fashion
The Switch 2 has a very long way to go before it can become a contender for Nintendo's best-selling game console of all time (an honor that currently belongs to the Nintendo DS, followed by the original Switch family), but it's off to a hot start. How hot, exactly? Reportedly, the Switch 2 has outsold every other console—Nintendo or otherwise—in its first 24 hours, and it's not even close.
YouTuber Nintendo Prime (@NintyPrime X) states that he's heard from three different sources that the Switch 2 racked up more than 3 million unit sales in its first 24 hours on the market. To put that into perspective, Sony's PlayStation 4 previously held the record with a little over 1 million units sold in the same time frame. So the Switch 2 (see our first impressions of the console), if the reported figure is accurate, shattered the record with three times as many units sold.
24 hour launch sales:
— Nintendo Prime (@NintyPrime) June 6, 2025
I have now heard from 3 independent people that Nintendo have globally shifted over 3m Switch 2 units. This doesn’t include any additional sales made today already and over the upcoming weekend.
For perspective, no console has come close to that level of…
"The two-month total record is around 4.5 million units, held by PS5 and PS4.
Nintendo is on pace to beat that in less than a week.
Sales of this magnitude have literally never been seen in console history!," @NintyPrime writes on X.
He credits Paul Gale (@PaulGaleNetwork) for being the first of three sources to clue him in on the spectacular 24-hour sales performance, and goes on to say that the Switch 2 was the "most well-stocked console launch of all time." In other words, if you missed out on obtaining a Switch 2 on launch day (or the days since then), it's not for any artificial shortage, but the result of unprecedented demand.
This is something that Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa alluded to preparing for well ahead of the Switch 2's launch. He previously indicated that Nintendo was "making preparations" to thwart scalpers, and that one of those countermeasures was to "produce the number [of units] that can meet the customers' needs firmly." The desire to flood the market with as many Switch 2 units as possible is also one of the presumed reasons that it didn't launch sooner than it did.
It will be interesting to see where the Switch 2 goes from here. While the launch is officially a huge success, it's also not without some criticism, including the premium price (compared to the original Switch) and thin launch-day games lineup (though it is backwards compatible with a lot of Switch 1 games).
In terms of Nintendo's hardware sales to date, here's a look at the official leaderboard...
- Nintendo DS: 154.02 million units
- Nintendo Switch: 152.12 million units
- Nintendo Wii: 101.63 million units
- Game Boy: 118.69 million units
- Game Boy Advance: 81.51 million units
- NES/Family Computer: 61.91 million units
- SNES/Super Family Computer: 49.10 million units
- Nintendo 64 (N64): 32.93 million units
- GameCube: 21.74 million units
- Wii U: 13.56 million units (womp womp)
The original Switch is likely to take the top spot this year, perhaps by the conclusion of the holiday shopping season, if not sooner. But the real question is, where will the Switch 2 rank when all is said and done? Time will tell, but at least for now, it has strong momentum on its side.
