Nintendo Switch 2 third-party developers claim sales are “below our minimum estimate”

A third-party Nintendo Switch 2 game developer told Game business Sales figures are “below our lowest estimates”, highlighting the lukewarmness of the third-party launch champions in the first two weeks of the Switch 2's life.

The Nintendo Switch 2 launch lineup consists of healthy numbers of third-party champions, including Konami's Survival childrenSquare Enix Brave Default Flying Fairy Tale HD RepairerCD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077and more. According to Circana, the gaming business cites 81% of Nintendo Switch 2 game sales targeting first-party champions, e.g. Mario Karting World and Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Breathing in the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nielseniq reports that Cyberpunk 2077 is by far the best-selling third-party game on the Switch 2, while Circana's data shows SEGA is the third largest Switch 2 game publisher.

About Executive Director Mat Patulcher Posted in the Blues “Switch 2 had a 40% third-party unit share during Week 1, which is almost twice as much as a third-party game does when starting 1. The game business does point to improvements in performance for third-party games on the original switch, but also explains: “It’s hard to describe these statistics as positive.” “It's understandable, considering that Switch 2 is one of the most successful consoles of all time, but an anonymous publisher claims that even its lowest estimates overestimate how third-party games perform on Switch 2.

The release of this information has caused discussions about the negative impacts Game Key CardThis is a physical game cartridge that does not contain the complete data of the game and still needs to be downloaded. Kelsey Lewin, owner of Seattle game retailer Pink Gorilla Games, In Bruceky says The sales of this game key card are marked. “The expectations for carrying these in our stores are low, but it can be confirmed by anecdote: No one buys these.”

Niko Partners Research and Insights Daniel Ahmad's idea that gaming key cards have a negative impact on third-party Switch 2 sales is not optimistic. “I hate to break it down to people, but ‘I refuse to buy games for my Nintendo Switch 2, if the physical version isn’t in the crowd on the cart, today is a minority, for five years or even a minority,” he said. Posted on X.

While third-party numbers on Switch 2 aren't very promising so far, as more and more brand new games enter the platform, we'll see how these games perform in the coming months and years.