The Nintendo Switch 2 Is the Fastest Selling Video Game Console In U.S. History

By Wallace Truesdale | July 23, 2025 | 1:10pm

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Is the Fastest Selling Video Game Console In U.S. History

The Nintendo Switch 2, which was released on June 5 in the U.S., is officially the fastest selling video game console in the country’s history, according to data from Circana. This has contributed to a new all-time June record for consumer spending on videogame hardware and accessories, with hardware in particular experiencing a huge 249% year-over-year change as it saw $987 million in sales.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been largely well-received, with reviewers broadly coming to the consensus that the console, while not particularly innovative in the way many Nintendo consoles have been, is an all-around improvement from its predecessor the Nintendo Switch. Speaking of, the Nintendo Switch 2 is reportedly doing very well in Japan, selling three times faster than the first Switch.

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The console wasn’t expected to fail, but not many people guessed it would’ve done this well. The only truly new first-party titles ready at launch were Mario Kart World, which is selling incredibly well, and Nintendo Switch™ 2 Welcome Tour. This is on top of the tariff fiasco caused by President Trump’s impulse-driven approach to economics that delayed pre-orders.

However, the Switch 2 has made a lot of tantalizing promises. One of them has already been executed, as Donkey Kong Bonanza just came out to resounding praise from players and critics alike. The long-awaited Metroid Prime 4 is coming out in September, followed quickly by the latest Pokemon game Pokemon Z-A. Additionally, the Nintendo Direct in April showcased other titles that excited many players, including the damn-near mythically anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, a Kirby Air Riders game from Masahiro Sakurai, and more. Plus, enough people go gaga over Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild and Tears of the Kingdom to buy a new console that lets them play it at 60 frames per second, compared to its original 30.

What now remains to be seen is how the console will sell over its lifetime. When speaking to IGN, Circana analyst Mat Priscilla noted that “What the launch sales of Switch 2 primarily tell us is that they made a lot of Switch 2 to sell at launch. Lifetime sales and launch sales of a console often do not correlate, meaning that some consoles with small launches ended up doing incredibly well lifetime (PS2 only sold 400k in its launch month) while others with big launches ended up not doing as well lifetime.”

He goes on to briefly discuss how available launch month supply rarely meets the demand, so much of this success could be attributed to Nintendo’s confidence and readiness for the market. However, this is not meant to undermine the milestone. As he puts it, “having the biggest launch month sales for any new video game hardware platform is a helluva good start.”