- Nintendo raised the US price of the Switch 2 from $449.99 to $499.99, effective September 1, 2026.
- Nintendo called the cause a market change expected to last over the medium to long term. It did not call it temporary.
- Every console maker raised US prices in the last 13 months. Sony and Xbox each did it twice.
- Microsoft says memory and storage now cost more than 2.5 times what they did, and expects another doubling by fall 2027.
- Waiting is a bet that prices fall. Nothing in the last 13 months supports that bet.
- If you buy, budget for a microSD Express card. It is the one extra your Switch 2 cannot run without.
Nintendo raised the price of the Switch 2 in the United States. The console went from $449.99 to $499.99. The change took effect on September 1, 2026. That is the news. The part that actually decides what you do next is what Nintendo said about why.
Here is what you actually came for. The switch 2 price increase is not a sale you can wait out. Nintendo said the cause is expected to last over the medium to long term. That is a company telling you, politely, not to hold your breath. So the real question has changed. It is no longer when the price drops. It is which way into a Switch 2 costs you the least right now.
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What should you actually do about the price?
★ Your pick: Nintendo Switch OLED Model
A big screen and a huge game library for less, as long as you skip Switch 2 games
★ Your pick: SanDisk microSD Express Card 256GB
The only kind of card a Switch 2 accepts, so buy it with the console
👑 Our Top Pick — Best Overall Value
Nintendo Switch 2
You want to play this year, and every month of waiting has cost buyers more, not less
Opens on our Top Pick. Tap an option to see the best match for you.
What Nintendo Actually Changed on September 1
The change is narrow, and that matters. Nintendo raised the MSRP of the Switch 2 system. MSRP is just the price a maker suggests stores charge. The old number was $449.99. The new number is $499.99. Nintendo posted it on its own news page in a notice titled Price Revision for Nintendo Switch 2 System.
What did not change is just as useful to know. Nintendo said pricing for the Nintendo Switch system is not changing. Games were not part of this notice. Nintendo Switch Online was not either. So this is aimed at one product. The new console, on its own.
There is one detail in the timeline that almost nobody mentions. Nintendo held the Switch 2 at its launch price for about 15 months. Back on August 3, 2025, it raised prices across the older Switch family and some accessories. In that same Nintendo Switch pricing update, it said Switch 2 system pricing would stay unchanged “at this time.” Those three words were the tell. It took 13 months for the other shoe to drop.
Why This Price Increase Is Not a Blip You Can Wait Out
For about 40 years, consoles got cheaper as they aged. That was the deal you grew up with. You waited a year or two, and you saved real money. That deal has quietly ended, and it is not only a Nintendo story.
Count the moves. Sony raised US PS5 prices in August 2025, then raised them again worldwide in April 2026. Microsoft raised Xbox prices in October 2025, then again in August 2026. Nintendo raised the older Switch family in August 2025. Now the Switch 2. Three companies. Six increases. Thirteen months.
The cause is not a mystery, because one company said it plainly. In its Xbox console price update, Microsoft wrote that console storage and memory prices have gone up more than 2.5 times, and that it expects another doubling by fall 2027. Those memory chips are the same parts AI data centers are buying by the truckload. When the biggest buyers on earth want what you need, you pay more.
Microsoft added the piece that makes it stick. Consoles are usually sold for less than they cost to make, and the money arrives later through games. So when parts get pricier, there is no cushion to absorb it. Either the sticker moves, or the machine stops making sense to build.
That is why “wait for a price drop” stopped being a plan. It is a bet against the only direction these prices have moved in over a year. Nintendo’s own wording points the same way.
Four Ways to Handle the Switch 2 Price Increase
You have four honest choices here. Only one of them is “do nothing and hope.” Here is what each really costs you, in money and in time.
1 Buy It Now and Stop Watching the Price
This is the right call if you plan to play in the next year. You pay the new number and you get your time back. No price alerts, no refresh-the-page evenings, no second-guessing every sale week.
The math is simpler than it feels. Waiting a year to save nothing is not free, because it costs you a year of the thing you wanted. Based on the last 13 months, the honest odds are that a buyer next September pays the same or more. One small win is still on the table. Nintendo sells the console bundled with Mario Kart World, and another bundled with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, each including three months of Nintendo Switch Online. Either bundle costs less than buying the console and the game separately.
2 Wait and Hope the Price Comes Back Down
Be clear about what you are betting on. You are betting that memory and storage get cheaper, and that Nintendo passes the saving on. Microsoft’s own forecast says the first half of that goes the other way through 2027.
One version of waiting does make sense. You are not waiting for a discount, you are waiting for a better machine. A hardware revision with a nicer screen is a real reason to sit still, and we walked through that trade-off in our guide on whether a Switch 2 OLED is worth waiting for. Just do not confuse the two. Waiting for better hardware is a plan. Waiting for a lower price on the same hardware is a hope.
3 Buy a Used or Refurbished Switch 2
This option got better the day the new price landed, because used prices track the new number. Console makers treat it as a real path now. Microsoft is openly steering buyers toward certified refurbished units and trade-ins to soften its own increases.
Check three things before you pay. Test both sticks for drift, the most common fault on this family of hardware, which we cover in our guide to Switch 2 Joy-Con drift. Confirm the console powers on and connects online in front of you. And buy somewhere with buyer protection, not a cash handoff in a parking lot.
4 Buy the Older Switch Instead
The Nintendo Switch and Switch OLED are still on sale and still cheaper. The library is enormous and heavily discounted, because those games have had years to come down. For a young child, or a second console for the bedroom, this is often the smarter buy.
Two honest catches. The older Switch cannot play Switch 2 games, and that gap only grows. It is also not the bargain it once was, because Nintendo raised its price in August 2025. You are comparing two raised prices, not a raised one against an old one.
Two Reasons a Switch 2 Costs More Than the Sticker
The sticker is not the spend. Both of these surprise people at the kitchen table, and both come straight from Nintendo’s own support pages.
1 Storage Only Works With microSD Express Cards
A Switch 2 does not take the microSD cards you have in a drawer. Nintendo’s support page on microSD card compatibility is blunt about it. Only microSD Express cards work, in any size up to 2 TB. Express cards cost more than the ordinary ones, so plan for it.
There is a small setup step too. The first time you use a microSD Express card, the console needs a system update over the internet. Nice to know before you hand a wrapped console to an excited child on a day the wifi is being difficult.
2 Your Old microSD Card Will Not Carry Over
This one catches families upgrading from a Switch 1. Put your old microSD card into a Switch 2 and it will not let you save or load digital games or save data. The card is not a bridge between the two consoles.
Save data behaves differently than you might expect as well. Nintendo’s Switch 2 data management FAQ says game saves live in the system’s own memory and cannot be copied to a card at all. Screenshots and video clips can move, and downloaded software can be transferred, but your saves stay put.
The Best Switch 2 Buys Now That the Price Went Up
Three products cover every branch of this decision. One is the console at its new price. One is the cheaper Nintendo. One is the small part that stops the whole thing from being annoying.
1 Nintendo Switch 2 Is Still the Right Buy for Most People
If you want the current Nintendo console, this is the one, and the higher price does not change that. It plays the new Switch 2 library, and it is the only machine that will. Nintendo set its US price at $499.99 on September 1, 2026, and gave no sign of a rollback.
Buy it if your household will actually use it this year. The people who regret this purchase bought it for a “someday.” The people who never mention the price again played it every week.
Set your storage expectations before you open the box. System memory fills faster than most families expect once a few big downloads land. That is a planning item rather than a flaw, and it is why the card below sits in this list.
- US price: $499.99 as of September 1, 2026, per Nintendo’s own notice.
- Storage expansion: microSD Express cards only, in sizes up to 2 TB.
- Save data: stored in system memory, and it cannot be copied to a card.
- First card setup: needs one system update over the internet.
- Library: plays Switch 2 games, which no older Switch can run.
- The only console that runs the Switch 2 library, so there is no substitute if that is what you want.
- Bundles with a game usually cost less than buying the console and the game apart.
- Nintendo left games and Nintendo Switch Online prices out of this increase.
- Demand stays high, which keeps used resale value strong if you ever move it on.
- The price went up $50 and Nintendo pointed to causes it expects to last a long time.
- It needs a microSD Express card, which costs more than a regular microSD card.
- Save data cannot be parked on a card, so the system memory stays the limit.
- Discounts on a console this young are rare, so patience is unlikely to be rewarded.
Check today’s price on Amazon.
2 Nintendo Switch OLED Model Is the Cheaper Nintendo
If the new number is simply out of reach, this is the sensible landing spot. The Switch OLED has a bright 7-inch OLED screen, and it plays the entire original Switch library. That library has had years to go on sale, so the games cost a fraction of new releases.
It is a genuinely good fit for a few households. A first console for a young child. A second unit so two people can play at once. A travel machine you would rather not worry about on a plane tray.
Be honest with yourself about the limits, though. It cannot play Switch 2 games, and that list only gets longer. And its own price rose on August 3, 2025, so you are choosing between two increases, not escaping one.
- Screen: 7-inch OLED display, brighter and larger than the original Switch screen.
- Library: plays Nintendo Switch games, including years of discounted back catalogue.
- Storage: uses standard microSD cards, not the pricier Express cards.
- Pricing history: Nintendo raised its US price on August 3, 2025.
- Compatibility: does not play Nintendo Switch 2 games.
- Costs roughly a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars less than a Switch 2, which is the whole point of considering it.
- A huge back catalogue that is frequently discounted, so the running cost is low.
- Works with ordinary microSD cards you may already own.
- A lower-worry machine for kids and travel than a brand new console.
- Locked out of the Switch 2 library, and that gap widens every year.
- Its own US price already went up in August 2025.
- Older hardware, so it will lose new game support before a Switch 2 does.
- Resale value tends to soften as attention moves to the newer console.
Check today’s price on Amazon.
3 SanDisk microSD Express Card Is the Upgrade You Cannot Skip
This is the cheapest way to stop your new console from annoying you. The SanDisk microSD Express Card 256GB is a Nintendo-licensed card built to the microSD Express standard, which is the only kind a Switch 2 accepts. Buy it in the same order as the console and you will never think about it again.
Size it for how you play, not for the biggest number. A household that buys physical game cards and two or three downloads a year does fine on 256 GB. A fully digital household should look at the larger capacities instead, since Nintendo supports Express cards up to 2 TB.
One habit is worth building on day one. Move screenshots and video clips onto the card as you go, because those are the files Nintendo does let you move. Your game saves stay in system memory no matter what card you own.
- Capacity: 256 GB, with larger and smaller sizes in the same family.
- Standard: microSD Express, the only card type a Switch 2 will accept.
- Design: officially licensed Nintendo card, so compatibility is not a guessing game.
- Supported sizes: Nintendo allows Express cards up to 2 TB on Switch 2.
- Also holds: screenshots, video clips, and transferred downloadable software.
- Removes the storage problem for far less than any other Switch 2 accessory.
- Licensed for Nintendo, so you are not gambling on an unclear spec sheet.
- Small enough to buy alongside the console without changing your budget much.
- Frees system memory for the things Nintendo will not let you move.
- Express cards cost more than ordinary microSD cards, typically running two to three times the price for the same capacity.
- It cannot hold game save data, because Nintendo keeps saves in system memory.
- Needs one system update the first time you use it.
- 256 GB fills quickly if you buy most of your games digitally.
Check today’s price on Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Nintendo Switch 2 cost now?
Nintendo set the US price at $499.99, effective September 1, 2026. It was $449.99 before that. Nintendo published the change on its own news page. Stores may occasionally sell for less, but discounts on a console this new are rare.
Why did Nintendo raise the Switch 2 price?
Nintendo said the change responds to shifts in market conditions that it expects to last over the medium to long term. It did not give a detailed breakdown. Microsoft, facing the same pressure, was more specific and pointed to console storage and memory costs rising more than 2.5 times.
Will the Switch 2 price go back down?
Nothing available today suggests it will soon. Nintendo described the cause as lasting, not temporary. Microsoft expects memory and storage costs to double again by fall 2027. Waiting for a lower price on the same console is a hope rather than a plan.
Did Switch 2 game prices go up too?
No. The September 2026 notice covered the Switch 2 system only. Nintendo also confirmed that pricing for the original Nintendo Switch system is not changing. Games and Nintendo Switch Online memberships were not part of this announcement.
Is it better to buy a used Switch 2 now?
Used became more attractive the moment new prices rose, because used prices track the new number. Test both control sticks for drift before you pay, confirm the console powers on and connects online, and buy somewhere with buyer protection.
Do I need a special memory card for the Switch 2?
Yes. Nintendo’s support pages state that the Switch 2 only works with microSD Express cards, in sizes up to 2 TB. Ordinary microSD cards will not work for games, and a card used in an older Switch will not save or load digital games on a Switch 2.
About the Author
Elena Brooks
Elena Brooks writes about the buying decisions that are easy to get wrong and expensive to undo. She reads the official announcements and support pages herself, quotes them directly, and tells you plainly when the honest answer is ‘buy it now’ or ‘keep your money’.
