The holiday season typically serves as a massive sales boost for consumer goods. Shoppers get great deals on gifts, and companies get a nice profit boost to end the year (and hopefully give their employees a nice Christmas bonus). But that wasn’t the case for Nintendo. While the Switch 2 had an explosive launch period, that momentum slowed significantly in December. A new article from The Game Business goes into detail on the console’s holiday blues.
Switch 2 Sales Down Worldwide
When the original Switch launched in 2017, the holiday period was a big sales driver for the console, as to be expected. But eight years later the Switch’s successor is in a very different market. Overall, the Switch 2 sold 35% fewer units in the United States compared to the original during the holiday period.
Other regions only fared slightly better, with Europe being down 16% and the UK being the only region with an increase at 6%. Japan shows exact sales numbers, with the Switch 2 selling 1.32 million units versus the original’s 1.39 million, about a 5% difference. However, Nintendo doesn’t seem to be all that worried. Given the Switch 2’s record-setting launch this summer, the console’s overall sales increased 11% compared to the Switch 1.
What’s the Reason?
Given a hot-ticket item like the Switch didn’t meet holiday sales expectations, one might speculate that holiday sales this year were weak across the whole economy. But that’s not the case. According to Forbes, US customers spent a record-setting $257.8 billion this year across eCommerce sites. That’s an increase of 6.8% over the previous year, beating an Adobe Analytics forecast of 5.3%.
A senior Nintendo employee gave a different explanation for the slow holiday sales. According to them, the lack of a “major western game” during the end of the year may have deterred shoppers looking for a bundle. But that’s not entirely true, given that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launched on December 4th. But the title being on both the Switch 1 & 2 may have deterred some customers from committing to the new console. Many of December’s Switch 2 releases were also ports of previously launched games, with not much in terms of brand-new titles. Still given the console’s strong first year performance, this is one holiday season Nintendo can afford to miss.
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