Nintendo’s newest console outsold its predecessor by more than five to one across Europe in July 2026, according to fresh hardware estimates published by VGChartz. The Switch 2 moved an estimated 192,896 units across the region last month, against 37,486 units for the original Switch, a gap that also pushed the newer console’s European lifetime tally above 5.1 million units. The numbers, tracked weekly and rolled up into VGChartz’s monthly regional reports, offer one of the clearest snapshots yet of how quickly Nintendo’s console transition is reshaping the European market roughly 16 months after the Switch 2 launched.
The July 2026 figures also come with a twist: PlayStation 5 reclaimed the top spot in Europe’s monthly hardware charts, selling 301,537 units and outpacing the Switch 2 for the first time in several months. That makes July a useful checkpoint, not because Nintendo lost ground to the original Switch, but because it shows Sony’s console still setting the pace in Europe even as Nintendo’s replacement hardware buries its own predecessor.
Switch 2 vs Switch 1: the July 2026 numbers in Europe
According to VGChartz’s regional hardware estimates, Europe’s console ranking for July 2026 read as follows: PlayStation 5 first with 301,537 units, Switch 2 second with 192,896 units, Xbox Series X|S third with 38,542 units, and the original Switch fourth with 37,486 units. Dividing the two Nintendo totals gives a ratio of roughly 5.1 to 1 in favor of the newer console, a gap that has held fairly steady since the spring.
What makes the comparison notable isn’t just the monthly split, it’s that the original Switch is still selling at all. Nintendo confirmed in earlier 2026 reporting that it was winding the console down in parts of Europe after topping 155 million lifetime units worldwide, yet VGChartz’s tracking shows tens of thousands of units still moving through European retail every month. That points to leftover channel inventory, budget-focused shoppers, and markets where the original hardware remains cheaper than the Switch 2, rather than any fresh manufacturing push from Nintendo.
VGChartz’s own methodology notes are worth keeping in mind here. The firm builds its regional estimates from retail panel sampling extrapolated across countries, and it has described its figures as generally landing within about 10% of final numbers. These are not Nintendo’s own sell-through disclosures, they’re third-party modeling, which is standard practice in games industry trade reporting but still worth flagging before treating any single monthly figure as gospel.
A closer look at the weekly breakdown
VGChartz also publishes weekly regional estimates that roll up into the monthly totals, and the July weekly data shows the gap between the two consoles held consistently across the month rather than being driven by a single spike. In the week of July 11, Switch 2 sold an estimated 48,786 units in Europe against 8,748 for the original Switch. The week of July 18 saw 45,424 units for Switch 2 versus 9,159 for Switch 1. By the week of July 25, Switch 2 had climbed to 51,388 units while Switch 1 ticked up slightly to 9,706. That steady, roughly five-to-one pattern week over week is part of why the monthly total lines up so cleanly.
| Week (2026) | Switch 2 Units (Europe) | Switch 1 Units (Europe) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week of July 11 | 48,786 | 8,748 | 5.6x |
| Week of July 18 | 45,424 | 9,159 | 5.0x |
| Week of July 25 | 51,388 | 9,706 | 5.3x |
| July 2026 total (monthly) | 192,896 | 37,486 | 5.1x |
Source: VGChartz Europe Hardware Estimates for July 2026 and VGChartz’s July 2026 estimates thread.
Lifetime sales: a 39 million unit gap that’s still closing
The monthly comparison flatters the Switch 2, but the lifetime numbers tell a very different story about where each console actually stands. VGChartz’s July 2026 report puts the original Switch’s European lifetime total at approximately 39.91 million units, built up over roughly nine years on shelves. The Switch 2, by contrast, crossed 5 million lifetime units in Europe during July, reaching an estimated 5.14 million after 16 months on the market. Nintendo’s newer console still has a long way to go before it approaches its predecessor’s installed base in the region, even with monthly sales running well ahead of where the original Switch is today.
That gap matters for developers and retailers deciding where to focus. A 39 million unit head start means the original Switch’s software library, accessories ecosystem, and secondhand hardware market will keep circulating in Europe for years, even as new units taper off. Third-party publishers weighing whether to keep patching older titles for the original hardware, or peripheral makers deciding whether Joy-Con and dock accessories are still worth stocking, are working against that installed-base reality rather than the flashier monthly sales charts.
PS5 retakes the monthly lead in Europe
The headline framing from VGChartz itself was less about Nintendo’s internal transition and more about Sony reclaiming the top monthly spot. Sony’s PS5 sold 301,537 units in Europe during July 2026, according to the same report, comfortably ahead of the Switch 2’s 192,896. That’s a shift from earlier in the year: VGChartz’s May 2026 Europe estimates had Switch 2 leading with 173,785 units against PS5’s 123,693, and its June 2026 Europe estimates again showed Switch 2 finishing as the best-selling console with 229,966 units. July marks the point where PS5 pulled back ahead.
PlayStation 5’s European lifetime total sits at roughly 33.26 million units as of July 2026, still well behind the original Switch’s 39.91 million but closing that distance faster than either Nintendo console is closing in on it. Xbox Series X|S, meanwhile, remains a distant fourth in most months, with 38,542 units in July 2026, roughly on par with the aging original Switch rather than competing with the two market leaders.
Europe hardware market, July 2026 snapshot
| Console | July 2026 Units (Europe) | Lifetime Units (Europe) | Monthly Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | 301,537 | ~33,256,701 | 1st |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | 192,896 | ~5,140,000 | 2nd |
| Xbox Series X|S | 38,542 | Not disclosed in report | 3rd |
| Nintendo Switch (original) | 37,486 | ~39,910,000 | 4th |
Source: VGChartz Worldwide Hardware Estimates for July 2026.
Year-to-date momentum tells a different story than one month
Zooming out from the single-month snapshot changes the picture. VGChartz’s 2026 Europe sales comparison charts, which track January through July, show the Switch 2 at roughly 1.55 million units sold year-to-date in the region. That figure spans a stretch where Switch 2 topped the monthly European charts in both May and June before ceding first place to PS5 in July, meaning the newer Nintendo console has led the region for more months than it has trailed so far in 2026.
The original Switch’s contribution to that year-to-date total is comparatively small, sitting in the tens of thousands per month rather than hundreds of thousands. That’s the expected pattern for hardware in the final stretch of its commercial life: steady, low-volume sell-through of remaining stock rather than a console still being actively pushed as Nintendo’s flagship. The comparison isn’t really Switch 2 versus Switch 1 anymore in a competitive sense, it’s Switch 2 versus PS5, with the original Switch functioning more as a budget option still working through European retail channels.
Why VGChartz numbers get treated as an industry bellwether
VGChartz has tracked weekly and monthly hardware sales estimates for close to two decades, and its regional breakdowns are widely cited across gaming trade press even though the company is not an official retail data provider in the way Circana or GfK are for individual markets. Its Europe, Americas, and Asia hardware reports are built from a mix of retail panel sampling and historical modeling, then cross-checked against publisher and platform holder disclosures where those are available. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft each report their own hardware shipment numbers on a quarterly basis in earnings filings, but those figures are shipped-to-retail totals for entire fiscal quarters worldwide, not the granular monthly, region-specific sell-through numbers that outlets like VGChartz produce.
That distinction matters for how seriously to take the July 2026 Europe numbers. Nintendo has not published its own month-by-month, region-specific breakdown showing Switch 2 selling 192,896 units against 37,486 for the original Switch in Europe during July. What’s publicly available is VGChartz’s independent estimate, cited and republished across secondary gaming outlets such as Shattered.io, which used the same underlying VGChartz data to report Switch 2 as the second-best-selling console in Europe for July with lifetime sales above 5.1 million.
How the Switch 2’s European rollout compares with the original Switch’s launch years
Direct launch-window comparisons are harder to make than the headline ratio suggests. VGChartz’s public July 2026 reporting doesn’t include a side-by-side chart lining up Switch 2’s first 16 months against the original Switch’s first 16 months in Europe, and no explicit percentage figure for that comparison appears in the cited data. What is clear from the monthly reports across 2026 is a consistent pattern: Switch 2 has ranked first or second in Europe’s monthly hardware charts for most of the year, a stronger and more consistent showing than late-cycle Switch 1 numbers, which by 2026 were reduced to clearing remaining stock rather than driving new adoption.
The original Switch launched in March 2017 into a market with no strong incumbent handheld-hybrid competitor, giving it room to build momentum gradually before hitting its stride. Switch 2 launched into a market where Nintendo itself had already trained roughly 155 million buyers worldwide to expect hybrid console-handheld hardware, which likely explains part of why adoption in year one and into year two has looked steadier than a typical fresh-platform ramp.
What’s missing from the picture: country-level detail and pricing
Two pieces of context that would sharpen this story simply aren’t public yet. VGChartz’s July 2026 Europe articles report region-wide totals, not a country-by-country split showing how the UK, Germany, France, Spain, or Italy individually contributed to the 192,896-unit Switch 2 total or the 37,486-unit Switch 1 total. Games retailers and analysts inside individual markets may have that granularity, but it hasn’t surfaced in the publicly cited reports.
Pricing context is similarly thin in the source reporting. The July 2026 VGChartz Europe hardware articles don’t list specific EUR or GBP price points for either console, so there’s no official price-to-sales ratio to cite for the month. Broader industry coverage has tracked Switch 2 pricing increases and Switch 1’s markdown-driven end-of-life pricing across 2026, but tying a specific price change directly to July’s sales swing would go beyond what this particular dataset supports.
Market impact: what this means for publishers and retailers
For third-party publishers, the practical takeaway is that the Switch 2 has become the default target platform for new Nintendo releases in Europe, while the original Switch has shifted into a legacy-support role. A console still moving 37,000-plus units a month isn’t dead, but it’s no longer where a publisher would want to launch a flagship new title, especially with Switch 2 outselling it five to one and carrying the newer hardware’s improved specs.
For retailers, the lifetime numbers argue for a longer transition runway than the monthly charts imply. With close to 40 million original Switch units already in European homes, demand for compatible accessories, game cases, screen protectors, and secondhand cartridges isn’t going away quickly, even as new-unit sales of that hardware slow to a trickle. Retail buyers balancing shelf space between the two consoles are working with two very different demand curves: a shrinking flow of new Switch 1 sales sitting on top of a massive existing base, against a fast-growing flow of new Switch 2 sales building a much smaller base.
For Sony, July’s numbers are arguably the more interesting story. Reclaiming the top monthly spot in Europe after ceding it to Switch 2 in May and June suggests PS5 still has meaningful pull in the region, even later in its own console generation, though a single month isn’t enough to call a durable trend reversal.
Historical context: how console transitions have played out before
Nintendo has managed hardware transitions with mixed success historically. The jump from the 3DS to the Switch was relatively clean because the two devices targeted different form factors. The transition from Wii to Wii U was famously rocky, with Wii U struggling for both consumer clarity and third-party support. The Switch-to-Switch-2 transition looks closer to the smoother end of that spectrum so far: rather than confusing shoppers about what device they should buy, VGChartz’s monthly Europe data shows the older console gradually fading into budget-tier sell-through while the new one has already claimed the top or second spot in most 2026 monthly charts.
That’s a notably different pattern than, say, the PlayStation 3’s early years, when Sony’s newer console lagged well behind PS2 sell-through for an extended stretch due to pricing and software availability issues. Switch 2 never fell into that trap in Europe; VGChartz’s monthly data shows it outselling the original Switch in every month referenced across the 2026 reporting reviewed here, including a roughly five-to-one gap sustained through July.
Predictions: where the Europe hardware race goes from here
Based on the trajectory in VGChartz’s 2026 monthly reporting, a few likely developments stand out heading into the back half of the year:
- Switch 2’s monthly lead over the original Switch in Europe is likely to widen further as remaining Switch 1 retail inventory continues to thin out, rather than narrow.
- PS5 and Switch 2 will likely keep trading the top monthly spot in Europe through the rest of 2026, with neither consistently dominant, similar to the back-and-forth seen between May, June, and July.
- The original Switch’s European lifetime total will likely cross into the low 40 millions by year-end even at its reduced monthly pace, given it’s already sitting close to 39.91 million.
- Switch 2’s European lifetime total is on pace to pass 6 million units within a few months if its monthly sell-through holds anywhere close to July’s 192,896-unit pace.
- Expect more secondary outlets to continue republishing VGChartz’s regional estimates as the primary public data point for Europe, given that none of the three major platform holders publish comparably granular monthly regional breakdowns of their own.
How Switch 2’s Europe performance fits the bigger console picture
It’s worth remembering that Europe is one region among several VGChartz tracks, and the picture can look different elsewhere. The same July 2026 reporting cycle that had PS5 topping Europe also carried a global headline of PS5 outselling Switch 2 worldwide for the month, suggesting Sony’s July strength wasn’t confined to European retail. Readers tracking the fuller worldwide picture, including how Switch 2’s total lifetime sales compare against past Nintendo hardware like the GameCube, can find that context in Tech Insider’s earlier Switch 2 vs original Switch comparison, which covers pricing and storage differences the VGChartz sales data doesn’t touch.
Console pricing has also been a live issue in Europe and beyond throughout 2026. Nintendo raised Switch 2 pricing in several markets during the year, part of a broader pattern of console price increases that also touched Xbox and PlayStation hardware, driven in part by rising component costs. Anyone weighing whether to pick up a Switch 2 now versus waiting should factor those pricing shifts in alongside the sales momentum shown in VGChartz’s Europe data.
Frequently asked questions
How many Switch 2 units did Nintendo sell in Europe in July 2026?
According to VGChartz’s regional hardware estimates, Switch 2 sold approximately 192,896 units in Europe during July 2026.
How does that compare to the original Switch in the same month?
The original Switch sold an estimated 37,486 units in Europe over the same period, meaning Switch 2 outsold it by roughly 5.1 times.
Is the original Switch still available to buy new in Europe?
VGChartz’s tracking shows tens of thousands of units still selling monthly, which points to remaining retail inventory rather than an active, ongoing production push from Nintendo.
Which console led Europe’s hardware sales in July 2026?
PlayStation 5 topped the monthly chart with 301,537 units, ahead of Switch 2 in second place.
What is Switch 2’s lifetime sales total in Europe?
VGChartz’s July 2026 report puts Switch 2’s European lifetime sales at approximately 5.14 million units, crossing the 5 million mark during the month.
How does that compare to the original Switch’s European lifetime sales?
The original Switch’s European lifetime total sits at roughly 39.91 million units, nearly eight times the Switch 2’s current total after almost nine years on the market.
Are these official Nintendo sales figures?
No. These are third-party estimates from VGChartz, built from retail panel sampling and historical modeling. Nintendo has not published a matching monthly, region-specific breakdown for July 2026.
Did Switch 2 outsell the original Switch every month in 2026?
Based on the VGChartz monthly Europe reports referenced here, including May, June, and July, Switch 2 outsold the original Switch in each of those months, generally by a wide margin.