The Switch 2 2026 lineup could be bigger than expected

Nintendo’s 2025 was weird — mostly in a good way. The Switch 2’s launch months were filled with surprising swerves that made for a delightfully unpredictable ride. I mean, who would have expected Kirby Air Riders to exist at all, let alone be one of the system’s best early games? It’s easy to be experimental during a new console’s honeymoon period, though. If Nintendo is going to grow the Switch 2’s audience, it’s going to need to roll out the big guns eventually.

There’s good reason to think that the heavy artillery is arriving in 2026. Though the current release calendar for Switch 2 shows that the year will stay eclectic, Nintendo could be poised to push its momentum and make an early statement year for Switch 2. It will all just come down to a few big pieces falling into place.

So far, Nintendo’s 2026 looks quite a bit like its 2018. That marked the second year of the Nintendo Switch’s life, which kicked off with instant classics like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Things moved back a gear after that, with 2018 giving us B-games like Kirby Star Allies, Mario Tennis Aces, and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! Currently, 2026 looks poised to mirror that pattern perfectly with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Mario Tennis Fever, and Pokémon Pokopia as the year’s first major releases.

Beyond that, we only officially know about one potential “system seller” game slated for 2026. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave — set in the same canon as the smash hit Three Houses — is currently looking like the Switch 2’s main tentpole game, in the same way Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was at the tail end of 2018. If history were going to repeat itself, we shouldn’t be expecting too much more outside of a few announced side games (like Splatoon Raiders) still currently expecting release dates.

What’s different about 2026 as compared to 2018, though, is that Nintendo has spent the years between rebuilding its biggest franchises and establishing a larger stable of reliable studios to help make games. Very few of the cards in its deck have yet to be played on Switch 2. For instance, a 2025 leak teased the next mainline Pokémon RPGs could be right around the corner. That would make sense considering that Scarlet and Violet launched within one year of Pokémon Legends Arceus, and Pokémon Legends Z-A just launched this past October. If the Pokémon Wind and Wave rumors wind up matching reality, we could be in store for a redefining moment for the series that better realizes the open-world ambitions of Scarlet and Violet on a more technically capable console.

The rest of Nintendo’s plans are a mystery, but it doesn’t take much to become a Switch psychic. For all the swerves we saw in 2025, Nintendo tends to be a predictable publisher that has its franchises and studios on fairly consistent development timelines. That’s how you can reasonably predict that Pokémon will land in 2026, as we have never gone more than three or four years between the main installments. That’s also been true for Fire Emblem since 2012’s Awakening.

Follow that logic and you’ll find that we tend to get a big “Super Mario” game roughly every two years now: 3D World in 2013, Super Mario Maker in 2015, Odyssey in 2017, Mario Maker 2 in 2019, Bowser’s Fury in 2021, and Wonder in 2023. We’re overdue for one by that logic, and Nintendo will likely want a new Mario game to capitalize on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Super Mario Maker 3 looks like a plausible candidate considering how natural a fit it is for the Switch 2’s mouse controls.

There are plenty of other first-party wildcards to consider, but two possibilities to keep on your radar. A sequel to the smash-hit Ring Fit Adventure feels like an inevitability that should come to a head sooner rather than later in the Switch 2’s life. A follow-up to Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a realistic possibility too, and we haven’t heard much from its developer, Next Level Games, since 2022’s Mario Strikers: Battle League. (The studio has operated on a three-year release cycle since 2013.)

And don’t count out third-party support, which will likely play a key role in Nintendo’s 2026. We know that publishers like Koei Tecmo and Bandai Namco were eager to work with Nintendo during the Switch era. That already held true for the Switch 2 with Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment in 2025, and will continue this year with The Duskbloods, FromSoftware’s Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer game. Ubisoft and PlatinumGames are both X-factors heading into the Switch 2’s second year. A guy can dream of Astral Chain 2, can’t he?

If even a few of these possibilities fall into place, Nintendo could be positioned for an unexpectedly strong year. Fire Emblem, Pokémon, and Mario are sturdy enough tentpoles, and a surprise or two along the lines of Luigi’s Mansion 4 would only reinforce that. Now toss all that in with the more niche lineup of confirmed games and a big Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update? That’s bound to keep the momentum going.