I’ve been tracking pre-orders of the Switch 2 across the globe, and there are entire countries sold out. You can see my tracker list here. The video above covers the highlights, but here we’ll dig into the details, answering questions like:
- How many countries are selling out?
- Where?
- Is this just from supply shortages, or is there high demand?
- And, will Switch 2 be the fastest selling console ever?
Quite a few countries are selling out, and I also have a different theory about who’s buying them.
Selling Out – Where?
The Switch 2 has sold out in at least 9 countries (online retailers), and possibly 10 with Brazi with occasional restocks occurring:
- US
- UK
- Canada
- Germany
- Malaysia
- Poland
- Netherlands
- Ireland
- Japan
This is so fast, the video I made above only days ago listed 7 countries sold out. In some places you might still find stock in person, but online retailers are wiped clean. The My Nintendo stores may also have stock.
There have been other countries very low on stock, with multiple retailers selling out, including:
- Czech Republic
- Singapore
- Italy
- Spain
- Canada
Other countries have had sell outs but then been restocked. France is not sold out, but is reporting historic levels of sales, with one retailer reporting 10,000 sales in 12 hours, making it their fastest hardware pre-sale ever.
The fact that the Nintendo Switch is not only selling out, but breaking hardware sales, seems to imply that the demand is high. Add to that the restocks, and it also implies that this not a mere stock shortage, but Nintendo does have ample supply.
US & Canada Situation
The US and Canada situation has been chaos. Originally their pre-orders were delayed, watching on while the rest of the world got theirs. Then, when the doors opened on April 24, everything broke.
Websites crashing. Stock selling out. People at the check out, about to pay for their order, then having their order cancelled. People paying for their order, and then getting emails saying, somehow it failed. People waiting up to 12 hours, or even days, to get a shot, and some are still waiting.
Retailers are routinely reporting being sold out, but then some restocks are occurring. Due to the restocks, it’s too early to call the US and Canada sold out, but it seems like only a matter of time. Demand is high.
Japan’s Situation
They were so worried about the Switch 2 selling out, they did something different. You can’t pre-order the Switch 2 in Japan. You have to enter a lottery. If you win the lottery, then you can pre-order the Switch 2. That’s how crazy the situation has become.
When they first opened registrations of interest, before pre-orders even began, the Nintendo Switch eShop crashed for 5 days, because there was so much demand.
It was so bad that Nintendo offered a public apology, something Nintendo rarely do.
Then, when pre-orders finally opened in Japan — the eShop crashed again.
Nintendo are reporting over 2.2 million people registered for the lottery, just for the My Nintendo Store, hoping to get a Switch 2. And they’ve already confirmed: they won’t have enough stock for everyone at launch.
Other retailers in Japan will also be holding lotteries, and they are also experiencing high demand. This means Japan is effectively sold out, although lotteries are still being drawn.
Nintendo is also holding lotteries for Switch 2 pre-orders in other countries outside of Japan, including Australia and New Zealand, however, you can also pre-order the console as normal at many retailers in those countries.
Demand
Nintendo is rumoured to have 300,000 Switch 2 units ready for launch in France, which is 3x larger than the amount of Switch 1 and PS5 consoles available week 1 in France.
Analysts are predicting Switch 2 could move 5 million consoles in it’s first week, or possibly more, and if rumours are to be believed, there could even be up to 7-10 million available for launch, which would make it the fastest selling console of all time. For comparison, the Switch 1 sold 2.74 million in it’s first several weeks on sale, globally. With the 2.2 million people registered for the lottery in Japan, analysts expect that could mean 800,000 to 1 million Switch 2’s sold in Japan alone for launch, which is apparently unprecedented.
When you also take into account other unprecedented events, like Nintendo crashing Youtube during the Switch 2 direct, there does indeed seem to be very high demand for the Switch 2.
How Many Consoles Produced?
The key to this article is, how many consoles have Nintendo actually produced? Rumours have been swirling for a long time that Nintendo was delaying the launch of the Switch 2 to avoid the kind of stock shortage issues we got with the PS5 and Switch 1. Supposedly they delayed so that they could make enough Switch 2’s so that everyone could get one. Here’s a few things Nintendo have said about that:
“Last year and the year before, we were unable to produce sufficient quantities of Nintendo Switch hardware due to a shortage of semiconductor components, but this situation has now been resolved… At present, we do not believe that the shortage of components will have a significant impact on the production of the successor model.” – VGC
Furthermore, Nintendo were noted at a Q&A meeting saying that their goal for combatting scalpers and stock shortages was to “produce sufficient numbers to meet customer demand.”
In other words, Nintendo plans to make a lot of Switch 2 units, and are fully confident that they will be able to deliver without being affected by chip shortages.
There is suggestion that the emergence of AI could put a strain on GPU and chip supply. This seems more likely to affect future production rather than how many Switch 2’s have been produced so far, but Nintendo seem quite confident they will be able to work around it. The fact that Nintendo potentially uses a different sort of chip and GPU to the sort used to power high end AI farms could be an advantage. We won’t know for sure the outcome of this probably for another year or two.
Analysts are already predicting this could be the fastest selling console of all time – and the signs are there.
Who’s Buying Them?
Who is buying them? Are they all Switch 1 owners upgrading? What if a lot of pre-orders are from PlayStation, Xbox, or PC users buying a Switch 2 for the first time? There’s evidence to suggest this might be happening.
Switch 1 Pro controllers are compatible with Switch 2, and they’re cheaper, so places like Amazon have been selling out or low on stock.
To my thinking, if you already have a Switch 1, you surely already have an original pro controller. Why buy another? So I suspect the people buying these controllers don’t own a Switch 1. Meaning, Nintendo is potentially growing their market.
And it makes sense. Switch 2 is cheaper than PS5 and Xbox, so to them it seems like a bargain – a powerful, portable console that can play all the same games, plus Nintendo games like Breath of the Wild, which some people feel like they missed out on. That next-gen power of the Switch 2 is converting people.
Not to mention Switch 2 is getting Third Party exclusives and Xbox owners are getting fed up of losing their exclusives – that rumour about Halo going to Switch wouldn’t help. It seems like a perfect storm for Nintendo.
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