Just in case you've been living under a nice mossy rock, the Nintendo Switch 2 finally launched this time last week. Though it looks like the slightly taller, younger sibling of the original Switch, this successor boasts beefed up hardware capabilities—including a bespoke chip from Nvidia. Despite the obvious similarities at a glance and a launch lineup that didn't exactly have the wow-factor, the Switch 2's sales numbers are definitely worth a double take.
3.5 million—that's how many units the Switch 2 shifted in its first four days on sale according to Nintendo. The original Switch was a much slower burn comparatively, shifting 2.74 million units in its first month. Obviously that's still a whole lot of games consoles, and the original Switch still wears the crown for Nintendo's best-selling console, having shifted 152.12 million hardware units in total as of March 2025. Still, if it keeps up this pace, the Switch 2 could well be on its way to breaking that record all over again with swiftness.
So why, as a games and tech journalist, am I not excited about a whole new Nintendo console dropping this month—beyond the fact I write for a website called 'PC Gamer'? After setting up the Switch 2, navigating past the almost identical UI to boot up Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, a thought dawned on me, "Oh no, have I really just spent $500 on the same console I bought in 2017?"
To be clear, I know the innards are different, with that chip from Nvidia definitely giving the Switch 2 a beefier edge; even if it isn't quite as revolutionary as Jensen Huang would like you to believe, I must admit I never thought I'd see Cyberpunk 2077 running on a Nintendo console. Besides this incredibly enthusiastic teardown exploring what makes the chip tick, our James wrote an excellent deep dive comparing the Switch 2's capabilities against the Steam Deck, and it's definitely a closer competition than I was expecting. Still, I can't ignore the feeling of how 'safe' this launch feels—or the huge success it has been met with despite largely more of the same.
Still, it's hard not to feel like this remains a 'safe' showing from Nintendo, with this successor Switch proudly declaring 'If it ain't broke…!' Speaking of, the more things change, the more they stay the same, with this iFixit teardown demonstrates that Nintendo are still soldering stuff directly to the motherboard. It also turns out that the Joy-Cons remain open to the dreaded stick drift. All of that makes the Switch 2 another handheld device that's far from easy to repair, but it finds itself in a somewhat less complacent tech landscape.
I mean, the thought of mountains of e-waste still keeps me up at night but I'm personally heartened by the EU's recent efforts to shore up consumer's 'right to repair.' Before that, both Oregon and California took similar steps stateside. Even big tech behemoth Apple is noticing the sea change, with the iPhone 16 being much easier to take apart and repair than its predecessor.
Nintendo, on the other hand, is still out here gluing down the battery—the part consumers are most likely to want to try replacing themselves—so steadfastly that folks risk introducing new faults to their console if they try to pry it out themselves. From a company that has pursued hefty settlements against Switch emulator devs or otherwise made offers that they can't refuse, this level of control is unsurprising. However, Nintendo's approach results in very much consumer unfriendly splash damage in a tech landscape where the ripples are more noticeable than ever.
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