Nintendo Switch 2 Sales Reach 196,359 Units in April
"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.NEW RELEASES:This week's most notable new release is IO Interactive's action-adventure game "007 First Light," which releases for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/Son May 27, with a Nintendo Switch 2version slated for release later this year. Additionally, Nintendo is releasing a photo-doctoring mobile app called "Pictonico" for iOS and Android on May 28.CIRCANA:Last week, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that U.S. video game spending totaled $4.3B in April 2026, growing 3% when compared to a year ago. Year-to-date 2026 spending finished the month 5% higher than 2025, at $18.8B. Gains across content and hardware offset declines in accessories. April hardware spending increased by 34% when compared to a year ago, to $261M. Spending on Nintendo Switch 2 hardware offset declines seen across Switch, down 69% versus April 2025, Xbox Series, down 43%, and PlayStation 5, down 30%. Nintendo Switch 2 was again the best-selling hardware platform across both units and dollars for April and 2026 year-to-date, with PlayStation 5 again ranking 2nd across both measures and time periods. After 66 months in market, PlayStation 5's lifetime installed base finished April tracking 2% ahead of PlayStation 4 on a time aligned basis. Nintendo Switch 2 led the sales pace of the original Nintendo Switch by 11%. Nintendo monthly dollar share of video game hardware spending finished April 2026 at its highest point since July 2025.Content spending finished April at $3.8B, growing 2% when compared to a year ago, noted Piscatella. Year-to-date content spending was 3% ahead of 2025's pace, at $16.7B. April spending on Console content was the primary driver of overall content growth as spending increased by 21% compared to a year ago. Subscription spending grew 13% year-on-year, while PC Content was up slightly. Nintendo's "Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream" was the best-selling game of April, delivering over $41M in physical and projected digital spending. "Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream" debuted as the 9th best-selling game of 2026 year-to-date. Helped by "Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream," consumer spending on new physical software grew 44% in April when compared to a year ago, to $96M. Year-to-date spending on new physical software increased by 9%. Capcom's"Pragmata" ranked as the 2nd best-selling game of April 2026. Pragmata was the month's best-seller on PlayStation platforms, placed 2nd on the PC aggregated storefronts chart and ranked 3rd on Xbox. It was among the top 15 sellers of the month on Nintendo platforms.TAKE-TWO:Meanwhile, Take-Tworeported Q4 results last week, with net bookings for the period coming in slightly above expectations, though the company did provide conservative outlooks for Q1 and FY27. Of note, however, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the company's highly anticipated game "Grand Theft Auto VI" will release on November 19, 2026. "Our Fiscal 2026 performance was exceptional and exceeded our initial expectations at every label," Zelnick said, "We believe Fiscal 2027 will establish new record levels of operating performance driven by the November 19th launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, along with strong execution across our portfolio. We expect to sustain this higher level of scale, generate strong cash flows, and deliver long-term shareholder value as we release our robust development pipeline, continue to optimize our live services and capitalize on new business opportunities."UBISOFT RESULTS:Ubisoftalso reported Q4 results last week, with the French game maker reporting a 54% year-over-year drop in net bookings for the period. The company noted the comparison to the same period last year, during which "Assassin's Creed Shadows" released, but also confirmed its FY2026-2027 net bookings guidance for a decline in high single digits. "The Group expects a significantly stronger and diversified pipeline of content to come over FY2027-28 & FY2028-29, supported by releases across its major brands including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon as well as an acceleration of its Live services driven by Rainbow Six Siege," Ubisoft said. "In this context, the Group expects to get back to Free Cash Flow generation and positive non-IFRS EBIT in FY2027-28 and generate robust Free Cash Flow in FY2028-29, with positive cumulated Free Cash Flow during the FY2026-27 to FY2028-29 period."SWITCH 2 SALES/OUTPUT:Nintendo's Switch 2 was the top-selling gaming console in Europe in April 2026, with 196,359 units sold, bringing the console's lifetime unit sales in Europe to 4.53M, VGChartz's William D'Angelolast week, citing VGChartz estimates. Meanwhile, Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizukithat the Japanese gaming giant has asked partners and suppliers to make roughly 20M Switch 2 units in the year through March, approximately 20% more consoles than the company guided for earlier this month. The latest output plan is not final and could change based on demand, according to people familiar with the matter.BUNGIE:Sony's Bungiein a statement that it is concluding active development for "Destiny 2," which first launched in 2017 and has had regular content updates ever since. Following the news, Bloomberg's Jason Schreierthat Bungie plans to lay off a significant number of workers as it concludes active development on "Destiny 2." The company, which also released multiplayer shooter "Marathon" earlier this year, does not have a new project lined up for the development team behind "Destiny 2," and does not plan to immediately begin production on "Destiny 3," Schreier noted.MORE VIDEO GAME NEWS:Embracerannounced thethe group into two publicly listed companies, through the spin-off of Fellowship Entertainment with a listing on Nasdaq Stockholm planned for calendar year 2027Nintendo's "Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream" was the top-selling physical video game in Japan for the week of May 11-17,Microsoft's "Forza Horizon 6" has already sold 5M units,Meanwhile, Microsoft has agreed to pay $250M to settle investor litigation over its massive takeover Activision Blizzard,Hasbrohas canceled a "Dungeons & Dragons" game from independent video game maker Giant Skull,
