During a recent investor meeting, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the topic of demand for the newly released Switch 2 console. According to Furukawa, it greatly exceeded Nintendo's internal estimates, which is why you may have had trouble finding it in stores. The president even apologized to customers for the inconvenience. Here's the quote, initially found by X user NStyles and translated into English by Nintendo Life:
Currently, in many countries, the demand for Switch 2 exceeds the supply, and we are unable to meet it. We understand that some shareholders have also been unable to obtain it. We started accepting lottery sales at My Nintendo Store in April. The response far exceeded our expectations, and I announced in my name on X that there were 2.2 million applicants, along with an apology.
Since then, we have conducted four lottery sales, but some people were not selected. We have announced that the fifth lottery will take place starting in July. Many general retailers have also conducted lottery sales. The number of stores offering in-store sales is gradually increasing. As a company, we are working to improve our production system to deliver as many units as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this initial demand, which greatly exceeded our expectations.
The Nintendo Switch 2 sold over 3.5 million units in the first four days, which is twice as fast as its predecessor in the same timeframe. Last week, DFC Intelligence raised its 2025 sales forecast for the new console from 15 to 16 million units. That estimate does include the limited supply, for without that, DFC Intelligence reckons the Switch 2 could sell 20 million units.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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