Video game industry-focused research firm DFC Intelligence projects the Nintendo Switch 2 to sell over 15 to 17 million units in the following year, beating out all competition. Read on to find out more about this forecast!
Switch 2 Is The "Clear Winner"
80 Million Units By 2028
Image from Nintendo
Research firm DFC Intelligence has predicted that Nintendo’s Switch 2 will be the "clear winner" of the battle of the next-gen consoles, as declared in their 2024 Video Game Market Report and Forecast publicly released last December 17th.
Nintendo is poised to be "the console market leader," with rivals Microsoft and Sony struggling to keep up. This is largely due to a combination of earlier availability as the Switch 2 is rumored to arrive in 2025, as well as limited competition at this time. With those advantages, the newest Nintendo console is expected to do extremely well, projected to sell "15-17 million units of its new console system in 2025 and more than 80 million units by 2028." They even predicted that with the overwhelming demand, Nintendo may struggle with manufacturing enough units to keep up.
Image from Mario official Nintendo site
While Sony and Microsoft were reported to be developing their own handheld consoles, these seem to be more in a conceptual stage. DFC Intelligence noted that these two companies "should release new consoles by 2028." However, with a three-year-long gap between the Switch 2 and these consoles (unless a system makes a surprise release in 2026), the Switch 2 will likely stay at the top of its game, and the report noted that only one of the post-Switch 2 consoles will be successful. They did not specify which, but they mentioned that a hypothetical "PS6" would stand well, as PlayStation itself has the advantage of a loyal player base and strong IPs.
The popularity of Nintendo and its Switch console is at an all time high, especially with the news that the lifetime unit sales of the Switch have already surpassed the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 2 in the United States. The data is shared by American market research and technology company Circana (formerly known as NPD) executive director and analyst Mat Piscatella on their official BlueSky account.
"With its 46.6 million units sold life-to-date, Switch now ranks 2nd in all-time units sold across all video game hardware platforms in the U.S., trailing only Nintendo DS." he posted. This milestone comes in light despite the Switch reportedly decreasing in overall yearly sales by 3%.
Video Game Industry Looking Up As Growth Soars
According to their report, the future is looking bright for the industry. "Over the past three decades, the video game industry has grown more than 20x, and after two years of slumping hardware and software sales, it’s poised to resume growing at a healthy rate through the end of the decade," said David Cole, DFC Intelligence’s founder and CEO, adding that 2025 will mark the beginning of the industry’s upward trajectory.
Firstly, 2025 is "shaping up to be one of the best years ever," with new products rekindling consumer excitement and spending. Besides the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI will also be released sometime in 2025, which will surely drive up overall video game sales given the popularity of the franchise.
As the video industry thrives, the audience for video games will continue to grow, and is projected to exceed 4 billion players by 2027. The popularity of "high-end gaming-on-the-go" with portable, handheld systems makes gaming more and more accessible to a wider audience. With the proliferation of esports and gaming influencers, the firm also noted that hardware purchases have also been growing, both for PC and consoles.
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Video Game Industry Will Flourish 2025 and Beyond, But One of the Big Three Console Makers Will Struggle
Nintendo Switch 2 Is Projected to Sell Between 15 and 17 Million Units Next Year, 80 Million Units by 2028, With Little Competition From Sony and Microsoft
