“This record may never be broken by another console”: Switch 2’s hot start boosts Nintendo

The Japanese pioneer has folded. Nintendo more than doubled its revenue (+132.1%) year-on-year in the first quarter of its staggered fiscal year, following the record start achieved by its new console, the Switch 2 , launched on June 5. The announcement was made by company executives this Friday, August 1.
During the month of June, the device sold 5.82 million units according to Nintendo, which previously announced that it had sold 3.5 million units worldwide in just four days, a record.
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" Figures from around the world show that there was unprecedented underlying demand, and this record may never be broken by another console again," said Serkan Toto of Tokyo-based Kantan Games.
However, despite the consoles selling like hotcakes, the company prefers to remain cautious. Nintendo maintained its financial forecasts and modest sales targets for the full fiscal year ending March 2026 unchanged on Friday, still counting on 15 million units. In fact, the Kyoto-based company (western Japan) can reasonably expect to sell 23.5 million units during this period, JPMorgan analysts estimated in July.
The impact of the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump's government is also a major unknown for Nintendo's annual results. According to Junko Yamamura of JPMorgan, the company is likely to choose not to pass on to its sales prices the additional costs associated with the 20% surcharge on US imports from Vietnam, where some of the Switch 2s destined for the American market are manufactured.
According to this analyst, it would thus suffer a negative impact of around 30 billion yen (174 million euros) on its operating profit for the current financial year.
The Switch 2 is also breaking records because the new console benefits from the aura of the first of its name. The hybrid console, playable on the go or on a television, was released in March 2017 and has since sold more than 153 million units. It is the third best-selling video game console of all time.
Since the launch of the Switch 2, Nintendo has seen its net profit for the full April-June quarter increase by 18.6% to 96 billion yen (558 million euros), and its operating profit increase by 4.4%.
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"Console sales volume is expected to gradually decline from 2026-2027, but remain at high levels in the long term. In contrast, game sales volume (including older titles) is expected to increase" as more "mainstream " gamers buy the console, Junko Yamamura estimated in a recent JPMorgan note.
The Switch 2 is expected to significantly boost Nintendo's results for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, even if the impact of console sales on profitability is less than that of games, on which the margin is higher, adds Nathan Baidu of Bloomberg Intelligence. And for now, major exclusives for the console are still rare. We'll therefore have to keep an eye out for release announcements, notes Yasuo Nakane of Mizuho, especially in anticipation of the holiday season, which is traditionally a good time for game sales.
Libération