A Year Later, Has The Nintendo Switch 2 Lived Up To The Hype?

On June 5th, 2025, the Switch 2 became Nintendo’s best hope for maintaining its place among the most successful companies in gaming. The Switch had proven to be a generational hit when it launched in 2017, eventually becoming one of the best-selling consoles in history. As such, expectations were considerably high for the follow-up, especially given the step forward it was taking on a technological standpoint.

A year later, it’s worth looking at the strengths of the Switch 2, as well as the challenges it’s facing in the current market. While the platform is selling at a good rate and could go on to become one of the biggest moneymakers Nintendo has ever had in the long run, supply shortages and a lack of a killer app are contributing to a slower second year. With all that in mind, has the Switch 2 lived up to the hype?

The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Doing Great — But There’s An Asterisk

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for a year now – and while the console has been a hit for the storied publisher, it hasn’t gotten the must-play library that it needs to take things to the next level. Given the ubiquity of the Switch, it was little surprise that the follow-up console was going to have a big impact on the industry. Even with those high expectations, the initial release of the platform proved to be an exciting development for Nintendo. The Switch 2 quickly outpaced the prior console, likely benefiting from the broad popularity of the mobile Nintendo console. In the first year of sales, Nintendo has sold 19.86 million Switch 2 consoles in the 2025 fiscal year, according to reporting from CNBC. That’s genuinely terrific sales numbers, all bolstered by strong-performing games like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananaza, and Pokémon Poketopia.

It’s hard not to call the console’s first year a success. However, there are some caveats to that momentum that are worth keeping in mind. For one, the global shortage of memory chips has been steadily impacting the gaming industry, including Nintendo. Due to those limitations, the console is already going through a price hike. This has impacted the company’s bottom line as well as players’ wallets, resulting in diminished sales of the console. This is a problem for the industry at large, with consoles and computers having to increase prices across the board. It’s had a notable impact on the company, with Video Game Chronicle reporting that Switch 2 hardware sales have dropped 87% following their own price increases. Coupled with expectations from Nintendo that sales will be softer for the 2026 fiscal year, the Switch 2 is still clearly a success — but it can’t escape the challenges of the modern gaming space or the fact that it still needs to get bigger games that can help transform the console from a solid success into a must-have piece of hardware.

The Switch 2 Hasn’t Quite Found Perfection — But Nintendo Is Working On It

The Switch 2 has had a solid initial year of exclusive releases, but there are still a lot of open spots in its library. Players expecting new entries in the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. franchises are still waiting for a formal announcement. There really hasn’t been a killer app for the console yet, with even Mario Kart World — the best-selling game for the platform at the time of writing — failing to match the sheer ambition and success of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when it launched on the Switch. Meanwhile, some games — like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — have also been made available on the original Switch. While rivals like the PlayStation 5 have their own strong exclusive releases, the Switch 2 still needs to be able to match some of the bigger titles that won’t be available on the Nintendo platform (with Grand Theft Auto VI being the most obvious example).

However, the success of games like Donkey Kong Bananza, Mario Kart World, and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream highlights that the Switch 2 does have a solid bench of exclusives for early adopters, with the latter’s unexpectedly fantastic sales speaking to the way Nintendo players can still turn more obscure titles into bona fide hits. The processing power of the platform and expanded gameplay options presented by the mouse controllers don’t feel like they’ve been fully utilized but still leave the door open for bigger releases down the line. A year in, the Switch 2 is still figuring out its place in the gaming ecosystem and leaving room for developers to push the boundaries. The console’s success is strong, but it doesn’t feel like it’s hit its peak yet. While the console may be facing some struggles in the near future, given the state of the industry, the Switch 2’s future is bright enough that the first twelve months feel like a fitting starting point for what could become Nintendo’s definitive console.