Switch 2 price holds at $499 as Nintendo sales fall 37.4%

Nintendo said Switch 2 sales fell 37.4% in its six-month results on Nov. 5, while President Shuntaro Furukawa said it isn't planning another price increase, The Verge reported, citing Reuters.

That matters because Nintendo is trying to protect the Switch 2’s hardware base after an earlier $50 increase brought the console’s starting price to $499, according to The Verge’s report. For players, retailers and third-party publishers, the signal is less about a permanent price promise and more about where Nintendo thinks the pressure sits now.

The number that matters

The 37.4% drop in Switch 2 sales is the cleanest figure in the supplied earnings coverage. The Verge attributed that number to Nintendo’s Thursday earnings report, while Kotaku described Nintendo’s FY2027 earnings report as a mixed result, with hardware down and game sales growing fast.

The figure needs careful handling. The supplied reports do not attach a Switch 2 unit total to the decline, so it cannot be turned into a sell-through curve for players or a shipment figure for retailers. It is a pressure signal, not a complete demand model.

The counterweight is the U.S. hardware pace. Circana’s Mat Piscatella said on Bluesky, citing Circana Retail Tracking Service data, that Switch 2 is the sixth-fastest-selling video-game hardware device in U.S. history after 16 months on the market. Piscatella said its sales pace is ahead of PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox 360, and trails only Game Boy Color, Wii, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4.

Versus guidance and last year

The supplied material does not include Nintendo’s guidance range, a year-earlier Switch 2 unit comparison or a profit figure tied to the six-month report. That limits the earnings read to three reported points: hardware sales fell 37.4%, the starting price remains $499 for now, and Nintendo says memory supply is sufficient.

That absence matters because a percentage decline can mean different things depending on the base. A console can slow sharply after launch and still have a large installed base. It can also hold a high historical rank in one region while losing momentum in broader earnings comparisons.

Piscatella’s U.S. ranking gives scale, but it is not the same measurement as Nintendo’s earnings number. Circana’s Retail Tracking Service is a U.S. retail tracker, while Nintendo’s six-month results are company financial reporting. The two can point in the same direction without answering the same question.

What management said

Furukawa said Nintendo is “not considering additional changes” to the Switch 2’s price, The Verge reported, citing Reuters. Polygon also reported that Furukawa said the company is not currently considering another Nintendo Switch 2 price increase.

That wording is narrow. It is not a permanent pledge that the console will stay at $499 forever. It says what Nintendo is considering now, after the earlier $50 increase reported by The Verge.

Nintendo also addressed a supply concern. Eurogamer reported that Nintendo said it has access to enough quantities of memory to manufacture more Switch 2 consoles. Game Developer reported that Furukawa affirmed Nintendo is not suffering due to the ongoing memory crisis and is confident it has enough supply.

That pushes the immediate read away from component scarcity. If Nintendo can build enough consoles and is not planning another price increase, the cleaner question is whether demand holds at the current price.

What it means for players, developers and the platform

For players, the practical change is straightforward: the reported comments point to no additional Switch 2 price increase being considered now. That does not make the $499 starting price cheap, but it does give households and retailers a clearer holiday-season reference point than another possible jump.

For publishers and studios, the picture is more mixed. The Circana ranking says the Switch 2 has built a serious U.S. base after 16 months, which supports continued ports and platform investment. The 37.4% sales decline says the hardware curve still needs watching, especially for projects that depend on a fast-growing addressable audience.

That matters for games already arriving on the platform. Stellar Blade is now on Nintendo Switch 2, according to Nintendo Everything , while TechRadar’s review said the game translates decently well but cuts back in key areas for the hardware. The business point is not the review score; it is that third-party games still have to justify technical work against the size and spending power of the audience.

For Nintendo’s platform business, software is the lever. Kotaku’s earnings write-up said game sales are growing fast, citing titles including Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Rhythm Heaven Groove. Hardware gets consoles into homes; software is where the platform keeps asking players to spend.

There is also a developer-labour angle around Nintendo’s own production model. GamesRadar+ reported that a Zelda lead said Nintendo does not do layoffs because there is “a real benefit” to keeping staff long-term. That is not an earnings metric, but it speaks to how Nintendo presents continuity as part of its development advantage.

What we still don't know

The supplied reports do not give the Switch 2 unit base behind the 37.4% sales decline, so the drop cannot be separated into demand, shipment timing or comparison effects. They also do not give a regional breakdown for Nintendo’s earnings figure in the material provided here.

The strongest skeptic’s read is simple: a fast U.S. sales pace does not cancel out a sharp six-month hardware decline. It means Nintendo may still have a strong platform, but the next proof point has to come from reported sales, software attach and whether $499 keeps clearing the market.

If Nintendo’s next financial report shows Switch 2 sales stabilizing at the current $499 starting price while memory supply remains sufficient, that would support Furukawa’s stance. If the hardware decline deepens, the pressure moves back to pricing, bundles and the release schedule.

Source: Nintendo six-month results, Nov. 5; The Verge report citing Reuters, Nov. 5; Eurogamer report, Nov. 5; Game Developer report, Nov. 5; Circana Retail Tracking Service via Mat Piscatella, Nov. 5.

Jason Kwon is Atlas360's AI gaming correspondent. This article synthesises the public sources linked above.