Nintendo Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and the successor to the Nintendo Switch, first shown in a teaser trailer on January 16, 2025 and launched worldwide on June 5, 2025.⁵¹⁰ Like its predecessor, it functions as a handheld, as a tabletop unit propped on a kickstand, or docked to output to a television, with detachable controllers on either side of the screen.¹⁴¹⁵ It carries a suggested retail price of US$449.99.²⁰

The console was Nintendo’s first dedicated gaming hardware in the eight years since the original Switch.¹⁰ Development began around 2019, when producer Kouichi Kawamoto, director Takuhiro Dohta, and technical director Tetsuya Sasaki started working together on the new hardware, though research and information-gathering on candidate technologies had begun even earlier so that a software development kit could be ready in time.¹⁰ Kawamoto, who had been general director of the original Switch, and Dohta, who had worked on every Nintendo launch title from the Nintendo DS? onward and served as technical director on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?, framed the project around a recurring frustration: there were times the team wished the original Switch’s processor were faster to enable new gameplay experiences.¹⁰ Kawamoto also served as producer, setting the overall direction and consulting with the hardware team on detailed specifications, while continuing to oversee hardware development as he had for the first Switch.¹⁰ Sasaki, from the Technology Development Division, oversaw the hardware technology, the system software that runs games, and the supporting network services.¹⁰

Design and hardware

The Switch 2 is physically larger than the original in every dimension, measuring roughly 116 mm by 272 mm by 13.9 mm with controllers attached and weighing about 534 g in that configuration.¹³²¹ Reviewers described it as noticeably bigger than the Switch OLED?, stretching just under 11 inches wide, with a grippier matte finish, larger buttons, and Nintendo’s most durable and adjustable kickstand yet.¹⁴ Its screen is a 7.9-inch capacitive touch LCD with a wide color gamut, a resolution of 1920×1080, HDR10 support, and a variable refresh rate up to 120 Hz.¹³¹⁸ Reviewers noted that Nintendo chose LCD over the OLED panel of the Switch OLED, trading deeper blacks and contrast for a sharper full-1080p handheld image.¹⁶

The new Joy-Con 2? controllers attach magnetically rather than by the sliding rail of the original, snapping into place with a firmer, wobble-free connection released by a button press, and each can be laid flat on a surface and used as an optical mouse in supported games.¹⁴¹⁶ Each controller weighs about 66–67 g, contains an accelerometer, gyroscope, and mouse sensor, and offers roughly 20 hours of battery life; the right controller adds NFC support.¹³ A new C Button on the right controller opens GameChat, a built-in service for voice, screen-sharing, and — with a compatible USB-C camera — video chat among players.¹⁵ Older Switch controllers can still be used wirelessly with the console.¹⁴ The system adds a second USB-C port at the top, alongside the bottom port used for charging and docking, and includes a built-in monaural microphone with noise and echo cancellation for voice chat.¹⁸

Internally, the Switch 2 uses a custom NVIDIA processor identified in leaks and analysis as the T239, pairing eight ARM Cortex-A78C CPU cores with an Ampere-architecture GPU of 1,536 CUDA cores.⁷ Two CPU cores and 3 GB of memory are reserved for the operating system, leaving six cores and 9 GB available to developers.⁷ It ships with 12 GB of LPDDR5X memory and 256 GB of UFS internal storage — a large increase over the original’s 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage — and accepts only microSD Express cards, up to 2 TB, for expansion.⁷¹³¹⁶ Docked, the console outputs up to 3840×2160 (4K) resolution at 60 fps using DLSS upscaling, and supports 120 fps at 1080p or 1440p; in handheld and tabletop modes the maximum is 1080p.¹⁸¹⁶ The GPU is rated at 3.072 TFLOPs docked and around 1.71 TFLOPs in mobile mode, roughly doubles its ray-tracing capability from about 10 to 20 gigarays per second when docked, and supports hardware ray tracing.⁷ The console uses Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for wireless communication and can use a wired LAN connection through the dock in TV mode.¹³¹⁸ The internal battery holds 5,220 mAh, giving an estimated two to 6.5 hours of play and charging in about three hours in sleep mode.¹³

Backward compatibility and games

A central design decision was backward compatibility: Nintendo stated that the best direction was for players to be able to keep playing their already-purchased Switch software on the successor.⁸ The Switch 2 accepts both Nintendo Switch 2 and original Nintendo Switch game cards and plays physical and digital Switch games, though Nintendo cautioned that certain titles may not be fully supported.⁸¹³ This continuity contrasted with earlier Nintendo transitions; the original Switch was not compatible with Wii U or Wii games, even though the Wii U had run Wii games and the Nintendo 3DS had run DS cartridges.⁸ Many Switch games received free updates improving resolution or frame rate, or adding features such as GameShare, while selected first-party titles were sold as paid “Nintendo Switch 2 Edition” upgrades — including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — a practice that drew criticism.¹⁷¹⁶

The launch was led by Mario Kart World, an exclusive Mario Kart entry glimpsed in the reveal trailer with 24 drivers on an open desert course, released on June 26, 2025.⁵¹⁷⁹ Other exclusives followed, including Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Mario Tennis Fever, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, alongside third-party titles such as Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster and ports of Fortnite and Resident Evil Requiem.¹⁷²⁰ Mario Kart World became the best-selling Switch 2 title, at 14.70 million copies, followed by Donkey Kong Bananza at 4.52 million and Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition at 3.94 million.⁹

Reception and sales

The original Switch had revived Nintendo’s fortunes after the commercial failure of the Wii U, which sold only 13.56 million units over its lifetime and which former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime called the company’s worst-selling platform and a “make or break product” for the company.⁶²² Against that backdrop the Switch 2 launched as, by Nintendo’s account, the fastest-selling hardware in the company’s history.¹¹

By December 31, 2025, the Switch 2 had sold 17.37 million units — surpassing the Wii U’s entire lifetime total in about nine months.⁴ A Nintendo sales graph showed the new console passing 15 million units after 30 weeks, a mark the original Switch had not reached after 45 weeks, an advantage Nintendo attributed to its large existing Switch install base, from which it could pivot customers directly.⁴¹¹ In the same results, the original Switch reached 155.37 million lifetime units, edging past the Nintendo DS? to become Nintendo’s best-selling hardware family, though it remained a few million short of the roughly 160 million lifetime units of Sony’s PlayStation 2.⁴ Nintendo reported that 129 million people played on its hardware during 2025, its second-best total ever, a slight dip it attributed to the “juncture between platform generations”.¹¹ Reporting nonetheless noted a sales slowdown in the U.S. and parts of Europe late in 2025, which one source blamed on the economic landscape and the absence of a major Western game.¹¹

Reviewers characterized the Switch 2 as a refinement rather than a reinvention — “a newer, better Nintendo Switch” — praising its performance, mouse controls, and video chat while noting the higher price of the console, its games, and storage.¹⁴¹⁶ One reviewer called the console “a generational leap,” singling out rock-solid frame rates, dramatically reduced loading times, and backward-compatible games that ran better even without official patches.¹⁶