Did you get a Switch 2 for Christmas? If not, did you at least find the original Switch under your tree all the way back in 2017? If so, well, you're not alone. A recent report claims that the Switch 2, despite putting up a strong showing, sold 35% fewer units in the US during the last eight weeks of 2025 than the Switch did during the same time period in 2017. And while there are theories as to why this is the case, one of them claims that a difficult economic landscape, plus a lack of Western representation, may be to blame.

The Switch 2's first Christmas in America reportedly lagged behind the Switch's own

It didn't fare better elsewhere, either

The Game Business claims that a senior Nintendo employee discussed recent sales figures with them. With Christmas now behind us, Nintendo has been counting the beans to see how well its newest console did during its first-ever Christmas versus when the Switch had its own festive debut.

Unfortunately, things didn't look good for the Switch 2 in America:

The Game Business understands that Switch 2 sales in the US over the holiday period (November – December) was down by around 35% compared with what the Switch 1 delivered during the same period in 2017, which was when it launched. This follows a separate report from US data tracker Circana, which revealed that US console sales overall had their worst November since 1995. Circana’s December figures are due later in the month.

Things weren't so rosy elsewhere. France, which usually puts up a good showing, fell "over 30%" of what the Switch achieved, and ended up below the UK. And while Nintendo's home country rallied to pick up the Switch 2, it still saw 5.5% fewer sales in Japan than the original console.

The employee believes that a “complicated economic landscape” and higher prices caused the Switch 2 to lag in sales, while “the absence of a major Western game” meant that the console didn't resonate in the US and EU as it did in Japan. But honestly, trying to perform a proper post-mortem so soon after December's end is hard to do, so we'll have to wait and see if more data emerges and we see the full picture.

In fact, the Switch 2 may see a small surge in sales due to a seemingly unrelated change happening in the market. After all, Valve has just scrapped its Steam Deck OLED, which was its cheapest model. This change, some argue, makes the Switch 2 the easiest gaming handheld to recommend, by far.