Nintendo Switch 2 Will Officially Be Backward-Compatible With Original Switch Games

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Nintendo has confirmed that the yet-to-be-announced Switch 2 will be backward-compatible with original Switch games and will feature Nintendo Switch Online.


Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa shared the news during the company's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, revealing a bit more about the successor to 2017's Nintendo Switch.

"This is Furukawa," Nintendo wrote on X/Twitter. "At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date."

We have a ton left to learn about this new Switch as we are still waiting for its actual announcement, which Nintendo has previously said will happen by the end of March 2025.

The Current State of the Nintendo Switch​

Nintendo also shared more about sales of the current Switch and its software, including that it was cutting the sales projection of its current hardware for the financial year ending March 2025 from 13.5 million units to 12.5 million units.

Nintendo had a 17% revenue drop and a 69% profit drop versus the same quarter from its last financial year, and it sold 4.72 million Switch units in the six months ending September 30. That latter figure is down from the 6.84 million units sold during the same period last year.

On the software side from April to September 2024, Nintendo said The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sales have reached 2.58 million, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's have jumped up 2.31 million, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's have climbed to 1.94 million, and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD's have scared to 1.57 million.


For context, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now crossed a whopping 64.27 million units sold and is far and beyond the best-selling Switch game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is currently in second place with 46.45 million units sold.


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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.