Nintendo Switch 2
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released in most regions on June5, 2025. Like the original Switch, it can be used as a handheld, as a tablet, or connected via the dock to an external display. The Joy-Con2 controllers can be used while magnetically attached or detached from the console. Compared to the original Switch, the Switch 2 has a larger liquid-crystal display, more internal storage, and updated graphics, controllers, and social features. It supports 1080p resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate in handheld or tabletop mode, and 4K resolution with a 60 Hz refresh rate when docked, as well as HDR support on both the tablet and compatible external displays.
Games are available through physical game cards and Nintendo's digital eShop. Some game "key" cards contain no game content and require players to download the game via an internet connection. Select Switch games can use the improved Switch2 performance through either free or paid updates. The Switch2 retains the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, which is required for some multiplayer games and provides access to the Nintendo Classics library of older emulated games; GameCube games are exclusive to the Switch2. The GameChat feature allows players to chat remotely and share screens and webcams.
Nintendo revealed the Switch2 on January16, 2025, and announced its full specifications and release details on April2. Pre-orders in most regions began on April5. The system received praise for its social and technical improvements over its predecessor, though the increased prices of both the console and its games library were criticized. More than 3.5 million units were sold worldwide within four days of release, making the Switch 2 the fastest-selling Nintendo console. As of September 30, 2025, the Switch 2 has sold over 10.36 million units worldwide; Mario Kart World, which was optionally bundled with the console, is its best-selling game with over 9.57 million copies sold.
History
Background
Nintendo released the original Switch in March 2017, which was developed in the wake of the commercial failure of the Wii U. The Switch was promoted as a hybrid console with handheld, tabletop, and docked configurations, with Joy-Con controllers that can be separated from the main unit for the handheld or tabletop configurations. Compared to the other major consoles on the market at the timethe PlayStation 4 and Xbox Onethe Switch had less-powerful computational hardware to keep the unit's price low, but sufficient to power the type of games Nintendo typically publishes; part of the company's long-term Blue Ocean Strategy to differentiate itself from the other console manufacturers. The Switch became Nintendo's best-selling home console, and by 2023, the third best-selling gaming console overall, following the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. At the time of the Switch 2's announcement in January 2025, over 146 million Switch units had been sold worldwide.Development
Nintendo began pre-production of its next console shortly after the Switch's release, with a team reviewing the performance limitations of the Switch and identifying what hardware changes could be made to address them. This also provided enough time to plan out the hardware so as to be able to ship software development kits to game development partners. Formal development of the Switch 2 started in 2019, led by producer Kouichi Kawamoto, hardware director Takuhiro Dohta, and technical director Tetsuya Sasaki. Though past Nintendo consoles have generally featured a new type of hardware experience, such as the hybrid mode of the original Switch, the Switch 2 team found that developers had adapted to writing their games toward the Switch mode and decided it would not be helpful to introduce significant hardware changes, and instead focus on computation performance improvements to give developers more tools. Hardware components were selected to balance performance and battery life along with expanding the memory to support newer games.Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company sought to make the transition to its successor smooth for consumers, and backward compatibility was a key part of the design; Nintendo said, "Nintendo Switch is played by many consumers, and we decided that the best direction to take would be for consumers to be able to play their already purchased Nintendo Switch software on the successor to Nintendo Switch". As Nintendo prioritized improving the hardware, backward compatibility was more complex to implement than it had been for consoles such as Nintendo 3DS or Wii U, which have similar hardware to their predecessors. The Switch 2 uses a hybrid of software and hardware emulation to avoid a more taxing software-only solution. The name was partially influenced by the backward compatibility. Nintendo also considered "Super Nintendo Switch", similar to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System following the Nintendo Entertainment System, but decided this would diminish the compatibility feature.
The new Joy-Con controllers were redesigned from the ground up. With the larger screen on the console, simply scaling the older Joy-Con to match size was not sufficient as their longer size would make it more difficult to hold and trigger the shoulder buttons. As such, Nintendo included more rounding-off of the corners and extended the shoulder buttons further towards the side of the controller. The HD Rumble feature was improved and surpassed the limits of the original Joy-Con, heightening its intensity to levels that are comparable to those on GameCube controllers.
Rather than the rail system used on the original Switch, the new Joy-Con are connected using magnetic connections. Nintendo had originally explored magnetic connections for the first Switch model but the connection was determined to be too wobbly, and they altered the design to the rail approach. With the Joy-Con 2, they refined the magnetic approach, making the connection stronger and easily removed with a mechanical release system. With this new system, the Joy-Con now audibly snap when the magnetic connection is made, which Dohta said helped to symbolize the Switch branding.
The capability of the Joy-Con to be used as computer mice was an idea introduced by Kawamoto who also played games on personal computers, as mouse control would not only allow the Joy-Con to help replace the screen's touch controls when the console is docked, but also could be used to introduce new forms of gameplay. Kawamoto said this idea represented Gunpei Yokoi's concept of "lateral thinking of withered technology" that has been part of Nintendo's approach for several decades. The Pro Controller was also similarly redesigned for the Switch 2, smoothing out the motions of the joysticks, and adding an audio jack and two programmable buttons in the grips that the player can customize.
The GameChat feature, which allows players to chat, and to share screens and webcams, is a result of Nintendo developers' own frustration with existing tools they had to use in game development during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Existing software solutions allowed them to chat and use webcams but could only share one screen at a time, and they found a makeshift solution by having their webcams pointed at their screens so that all screens were visible at all times. Kawamoto said that it felt "like we were all in the same place, each bringing our own console to play the game together, which was a lot of fun", leading to the development of the GameChat feature. The GameChat feature was developed to minimize the use of system resources that would take away from game performance, and some functionality is based on the same streaming technology that was developed for the Wii U and Wii U GamePad.
Industry rumors
Industry rumors began as early as 2019 of a high-end model of the Switch, often nicknamed the "Nintendo Switch Pro" in the media; many of the speculated features became part of the OLED Switch model, released in 2021. Nintendo confirmed it was working on its next gaming system during a call with investors in October 2020. Digital Foundry said that Nintendo may have been working on a "pro" model for the Switch, but by December 2022, it appeared to have fully transitioned all development towards the Nintendo Switch successor. Court reports from the 2023 FTC v. Microsoft case, which challenged Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, included reference to Activision being briefed on the "Switch NG" in December 2022.Video Games Chronicle reported in July 2023 that Nintendo had sent out SDKs for its next console to development partners and that Nintendo wanted to avoid the shortages that the ninth generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, had suffered at launch. Nintendo showcased the Switch 2 in a private presentation during Gamescom in August; among the tech demos were a version of the Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, running at a higher frame rate and resolution, and the Unreal Engine 5 demo The Matrix Awakens.
While Nintendo officially acknowledged the development of the Switch's successor by May 2024, rumors and leaked photos of a new console persisted through 2024, as well as a data breach from Game Freak on the development of the next Pokémon game for the Switch's successor.
At the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show in early January, several third-party vendors showcased accessories scheduled for the Switch successor, leading Nintendo to issue a statement that none of the mock-ups used at the show were official. Nintendo filed a lawsuit against video game accessory company Genki in May 2025 for using detailed renders and a 3D printed model of the Switch 2 in their CES presentation; Genki settled with Nintendo in September 2025, paying an undisclosed sum and agreeing to avoid similar marketing approaches in the future.