Nintendo Switch

The Switch grew out of the commercial failure of the Wii U, which pushed Nintendo into losses. The idea began to form soon after the Wii U launched in 2012: rather than replace the 3DS or the Wii U, the company looked for a new way to play, at home and on the move. Yoshiaki Koizumi served as general producer. For the first time Nintendo used an existing chip, an Nvidia Tegra, to make ports from other studios easier. The name refers to switching between handheld and TV play.

First known by the codename NX, it was unveiled as the Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2016. On January 13, 2017, Nintendo gave its price and date at an event in Tokyo. It launched on March 3, 2017, in Japan, North America and Europe at ¥29,980 or US$299.99, in two bundles: grey Joy-Con or neon red and blue. Reviewers praised the concept, design and games, while criticising some hardware and controller issues. Nintendo announced it as its fastest-selling console.

The library leaned on first-party games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, whose success during the pandemic led Nintendo to raise production. From the start Nintendo courted independent studios and other publishers. In 2019 came the handheld-only Switch Lite and a revision with a more efficient chip. In December that year the console launched in China with Tencent. The OLED model followed in 2021.

The Switch became Nintendo's best-selling console and the second best-selling of all time, behind the PlayStation 2. In July 2024 it passed the NES as the Nintendo console on the market longest without a successor. That successor, the Switch 2, launched on June 5, 2025, and runs most of its games. In July 2026 Nintendo announced it would stop selling the Switch in Europe in February 2027; it remains available in other markets.