Following industry-wide speculation and murmurs from Nintendo executives themselves, the rumors have finally come true. Nintendo is raising the price of its Switch 2 handheld by $50 from September 1, 2026 — the Switch 2 will now cost $499 in North America, the same as the Mario Kart 8 bundle did at launch. Japan will actually see price bumps in just two weeks across every Switch model, including last-gen ones.
In the States, the Switch 2 currently costs $449, and it will continue to remain at that rate for at least a few more months, so you still have time to buy one if you're interested. Similarly, in Canada, the Switch 2 costs $629.99 CAD, but it'll be going up to $679.99 CAD in September. European prices are already comparatively higher, going from €469.99 right now to €499.99, which translates to over $700 USD.
The Japanese-only model of the Switch 2 goes for ¥49,980 ($320), but it'll shoot up to ¥59,980 ($383) on May 26, 2026. The previous-gen Switch OLED model will go from ¥37,980 ($242) to ¥47,980 ($306), the Switch Lite will see its price rise from ¥21,978 ($140) to ¥29,980 ($191), and finally, the Switch V2 model that costs ¥32,978 ($210) at the moment will soon sell for ¥43,980 ($280) instead.
The prices of Nintendo Switch Online, the company's equivalent of PlayStation Plus, are also being hiked, but only in Japan and South Korea. Every tier of the subscription is getting more expensive from July 1, 2026, to "support appropriate alignment among region," implying that it was relatively cheaper in those regions up until now.
Nintendo's reasoning behind the console price hikes is the same as every other company who's done the same. The current global market conditions created by the AI boom and uncertain geopolitical rhetoric have made it difficult to source components even for large corporations. Memory and storage are significantly overpriced, while silicon in general is hurting, too.
Just last month, Meta raised the prices of its Quest 3 lineup and two days ago, Sony made refurbished PS5 Slim consoles $100 more expensive. Sony had another price increase across all its PS5 models in March of 2026. Before that, last year, the company hiked PS5 consoles by $50 already. Even laptop prices are reportedly up to 40% higher now, while companies keep pouring in more and more money into AI.
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