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In the last few weeks, the Switch 2 has been outselling the PS5 by more than 10:1 in Japan, as consumers have rushed to beat the price hike on Nintendo’s hardware.
For those who missed the news, the flagship language-locked model of the Switch 2 went up to ¥59,980 (~$375) on 25th May, making it more expensive than the equivalent PS5’s ¥55,000 (~$344).
For the past few weeks, consumers have been buying Nintendo’s console in droves, pushing sales above 200k on a couple of occasions. But now the price increase has gone into effect, the gap between the Switch 2 and the PS5 has closed.
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According to Famitsu data for the week ending 31st May, the Switch 2 sold 31k units compared to the PS5’s 8k units. It’s still a big difference between the duo, but it’s not the blowout we’d been seeing before.
Obviously the Japanese market is extremely unique, and there’s simply no overcoming the power of Pokémon or even titles like Tomodachi Life there. But there is a small window of opportunity here if Sony can keep the PS5’s price below Nintendo’s machine.
What will be particularly interesting is if the Switch 2 slips further; obviously it’s already raced to a pretty sizable install base in Japan anyway, but there is some pressure on Nintendo right now, because it’s still trying to grow the console’s footprint at a time when component prices are through the roof.
One thing I’d also quickly like to spotlight is 007 First Light, which sold pretty well on the PS5, and was beaten at retail by only Tomodachi Life. That’s a decent result for the IOI action game.