Nintendo Switch 2 faces a price increase in 2026, research firm predicts
Tariffs, increased memory costs and other economic conditions will force Nintendo’s hand, it forecasts
Nintendo will increase the Switch 2 price globally at some point this year, a research firm has predicted.
In a report detailing its 10 predictions for 2026, video game business intelligence and consumer insight firm Niko Partners says it believes a global price hike for Switch 2 will take place at some point in 2026.
“The Nintendo Switch 2 is competitively priced compared to the PS5 and Xbox Series X, after the latter consoles witnessed price hikes last year,” the report reads.
“But we believe the Switch 2 is set to follow in Sony and Microsoft’s footsteps with its own price hike driven by the impact from tariffs, increased memory costs, and broader macroeconomic conditions.
“Nintendo chose to maintain its $449 entry price last year despite the introduction of tariffs impacting production in China, Japan and Vietnam. More recently, increased demand for AI data centers has pushed RAM and storage prices up.
“While we do anticipate Nintendo to increase the price of the Switch 2, they may opt to discontinue the $449 SKU and only sell a $499 or higher bundle SKU instead.”
Last week Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company is keeping a close eye on Switch 2’s profit margin as the increase in memory prices and ongoing tariffs remain an ongoing issue in the industry.
“We procure [RAM] from suppliers based on our medium- to long-term business plans, but the current memory market is very volatile,” he told Kyoto Shimbun (via machine translation). “There is no immediate impact on earnings, but it is something we must monitor closely.”
When asked if this could lead to Nintendo increasing its prices depending on its future procurement costs, Furukawa said that was hypothetical and he couldn’t comment.
Last year, before Switch 2 launched, Nintendo held fire on pre-orders in the US due to economic uncertainty in the region, before eventually announcing that while the console itself would not see a price increase at launch, some accessories would.
“Nintendo Switch 2 accessories will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions,” it said at the time. “Other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions.”
This came to pass in August, when Nintendo announced that it was increasing the price of the original Switch console in the US due to “market conditions”, increasing the price of Switch to $339 (from $299), Switch OLED to $399 (from $349) and a Switch Lite to $229 (from $199).
