Though it was finally replaced last year by the new Switch 2, the orginal switch isn’t done just yet. Many recent Switch games (and a handful of major updates, like the one for Animal Crossing) have been released in both Switch and Switch 2 editions, and Nintendo continues to sell all editions of the original console as entry-level systems for those who can’t pay $450 for a Switch 2.
The nine-year-old Switch’s continued availability has helped it clear a milestone, according to the company’s third-quarter financial results (PDF). As of December 31, 2025, Nintendo says the Switch “has reached the highest sales volume of any Nintendo hardware” with a total of 155.37 million units sold, surpassing the original DS’s lifetime total of 154.02 million units. The console has sold 3.25 million units in Nintendo’s fiscal 2026 so far, including 1.36 million units over the holidays. Those consoles have sold despite price hikes that Nintendo introduced in August of 2025, citing “market conditions.”
That makes the Switch the second-bestselling game console of all time, just three years after it became the third-bestselling game console of all time. The only frontier left for the Switch to conquer is Sony’s PlayStation 2, which Sony says sold “over 160 million units” over its long life. At its current sales rate (Nintendo predicts it will sell roughly 750,000 Switches in the next quarter), it would take the Switch another couple of years to cross that line, but those numbers are likely to taper off as we get deeper into the Switch 2 era.
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