Nintendo Switch 2 may come in 2024 as sales momentum remains strong for current Switch console
A report from Bloomberg has highlighted a very telling comment made by Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa. The executive was discussing the Switch console during an earnings call and stated, “Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle and the momentum going into this year is good”. While this might be sufficient enough to kill off further rumors about a potential Switch Pro console, it has actually offered up an idea of when a Nintendo Switch 2 console could make an appearance.
As the report mentions, the Nintendo Switch is still selling at an astonishing rate; over 103 million units of the console, which was released in 2017, have been shipped around the world. While the oft-reported component shortage and supply issues have obviously affected Switch production and sales, Nintendo still expects to sell 23 million units by the end of its fiscal year in March. The Switch also outpaced both the PS4 and Wii to become the quickest console to get to the 100-million sales mark from launch.
While Nintendo did release the Switch OLED model to complement the existing console, a much-rumored Switch Pro or Switch 4K model failed to surface last year. Considering the sales momentum of the current Switch console, Furukawa’s admission that the device has only hit the halfway point of its product life cycle, and the ongoing scarcity of chips and parts, it seems inevitable that there will be no successor planned for release in 2022 or 2023. However, 2024 might be the year of the Nintendo Switch 2.
Noted industry analyst Daniel Ahmad also states that “a Switch Pro/4K wasn’t needed in 2021”, which put with the comment made by Nintendo’s president about the Switch’s lifecycle status makes sense, as a Switch Pro would have devastated the predecessor’s sales. However, Ahmad also notes that “we do anticipate new hardware from Nintendo” that would be more than likely a “true successor” to the 2017 model. There is some expectation that Nintendo will at least announce a potential Switch 2 by 2024.
- We see demand from gamers for a Nintendo Switch that can play higher end games both on TV / the go.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 29, 2022
- Cloud is one option but ultimately we do anticipate new hardware from Nintendo.
- This may be a true successor, rather than a Pro / 4K SKU at this point.
