Earlier this year Nintendo slashed its forecast for sales of the Switch to 11 million units for the year ended Mar. 31. Nintendo on Thursday said it sold 10.8 million units of the Switch in the year, just shy of its own forecast and down 31% year-on-year.

Market research firm Omdia expects Nintendo to sell 14.7 million Switch 2 units in 2025 alone, which would be about 10% ahead of the original Switch's debut year.

"Switch 2 will launch into a stronger position than its predecessor, with over 100 million active Switch users providing a strong foundation for adoption," George Jijiashvili, Omdia's senior principal analyst, told CNBC by email.