It's official — Nintendo Switch stock will be a nightmare this holiday season

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Buy a Nintendo Switch OLED as soon as you find one

Nintendo Switch OLED interface
(Image credit: Nintendo)

If you hope to find a Nintendo Switch OLED this holiday season among the bevy of best Black Friday deals happening right now, it's time to temper your expectations. 

Last week, reports emerged that Nintendo would not be able to ship as many Nintendo Switch units due to component shortages that continue to plague supply chains around the world. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has now confirmed that supply would be even lower than a previously amended sales target.

"We can’t produce enough to meet the demand we are expecting during the upcoming holiday season," said Furukawa during a news briefing, as reported by CNBC. He announced that the Switch's sales target is now 24 million units. According to Nikkei, this is a down significantly from the official target of 30 million set earlier this year. Nintendo lowered that target to 25.5 million, and now to 24 million, illustrating the struggle that even major companies with massive leverage are having.

"Currently there is no sign of improvement and the situation continues to be severe so I can’t say how long it will continue," Furukawa added.

The slightly updated Nintendo Switch OLED launched last month to good, if muted, reviews. Even then, demand for the unit remains high with systems hard to find. And this is considering that the Switch line of consoles have already sold 89 million units to date. 

Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy, told CNBC that he suspects new buyers aren't buying up the Switch OLED; instead, current owners are upgrading. If that's the case, some may trade in their old Switch units to stores such as GameStop or sell them used online. 

We do suspect that used standard Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite models will be available. Unfortunately, next-gen consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X look to continue to be elusive throughout the holidays.

Imad Khan
Imad Khan

Imad is currently Senior Google and Internet Culture reporter for CNET, but until recently was News Editor at Tom's Guide. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with the New York Times, the Washington Post, ESPN, Wired and Men's Health Magazine, among others. Outside of work, you can find him sitting blankly in front of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.