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Switch 2 Sales Plummet After Japan Price Rise

The sharp fall follows a wave of pre-buying ahead of Japan's May 25 MSRP increase and highlights the risk of similar demand swings before a wider September 1 price roll-out.

Overview

  • Famitsu's week-of-May 25–31 chart shows Switch 2 hardware sales in Japan fell 87% to 31,751 units after the console's Japan-only MSRP rose from ¥49,980 to ¥59,980 on May 25.
  • Weeks before the increase buyers rushed to purchase the console, pushing weekly Switch 2 sales above 200,000 in the three prior reporting periods as customers tried to avoid the higher price.
  • Nintendo reported 2.49 million Switch 2 units sold in the quarter to March 31, bringing global sold-in total to 19.86 million, and the system reached 1 million sales in the UK within 52 weeks of launch.
  • Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the price changes reflect sustained rises in memory and component costs plus foreign exchange and oil-price trends, and were needed to protect hardware profitability.
  • The Japan data left the PS5 family selling 8,373 units that week and showed new software like 007 First Light making solid retail debuts, and the September 1 price increases planned for the US, Europe and Canada could trigger similar pre-purchase spikes.