A third-party developer for Nintendo Switch 2 has revealed to The Game Business that sales have been “below our lowest expectations,” highlighting the underwhelming performance of third-party games within the first two weeks of the Switch 2 launch.
The Switch 2 launch lineup included numerous third-party titles such as Konami’s Survival Kids, Square Enix’s Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, and CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. According to Circana data cited by The Game Business, 81% of physical game sales on the Switch 2 were from first-party titles like Mario Kart World and the Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. NielsenIQ reported Cyberpunk 2077 as the best-selling third-party game on the platform, while Circana data ranked Sega as the third-largest game publisher on Switch 2.
Circana’s Executive Director Mat Piscatella shared on Bluesky that third-party physical game sales accounted for nearly 40% of the first week’s software sales on Switch 2, almost double the proportion seen during the original Switch launch. While this marks an improvement over the original Switch’s third-party performance, The Game Business noted it is difficult to describe these figures as positive. This is understandable given that Switch 2 is one of the most successful console launches ever, yet an anonymous publisher claimed even their lowest expectations for third-party game performance on Switch 2 were overestimated.
The discussion also touched on the negative impact of Game-Key Cards, a type of physical game card that requires downloading the full game data. Kelsey Lewin, owner of Seattle game retailer Pink Gorilla Games, stated on Bluesky that sales of Game-Key Cards have been weak, confirming from experience that “nobody is buying these.”
Daniel Ahmad, Research and Insights Director at Niko Partners, expressed skepticism about the negative impact of Game-Key Cards on third-party Switch 2 sales. He tweeted that the group of people refusing to buy Switch 2 games without full data on the cartridge is now a minority and will only shrink further in the next five years.
Although third-party game performance on Switch 2 is currently lackluster, the future remains to be seen as more new titles launch on the platform in the coming months and years.
