Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Nintendo Switch price gouging is rampant on Amazon

While Nintendo Switches may not be medically essential items during the coronavirus pandemic, they certainly are a choice way to keep people occupied as they wait out the disease cooped up in their homes — and price gougers have noticed.

Opportunistic sellers on Amazon have jacked up prices for Nintendo’s hit console by more than 52 percent since March 13, when shutdowns over the coronavirus pandemic began to hit the U.S., according to data-gathering site Thinknum.

The average price now on Amazon — one of the few places left on the internet where a stuck-at-home person can still buy a Switch — is now $452, far exceeding Nintendo’s $299 retail price. Several retailers even list the gaming device for $482 or more, according to the data.

“Amazon’s third-party marketplace allows people to do this,” Thinknum editor-in-chief Joshua Fruhlinger told Digital Trends.

The price gouging wasn’t limited to just one-off anonymous sellers who were listing the Switch and opportunistically jacking up the price, he added. Some of the predatory sellers had thousands of reviews or were listed as “Amazon bestsellers” or even Prime vendors.

The Switch is currently sold on out Nintendo’s official site, as well as other common electronics and game retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Gamestop.

Prices have held steady at $299 at these retailers, but they lack any supply. Listings on eBay appeared to average even higher, with many devices selling for $500 or more.

Amazon has seen a similar kind of price gouging before — though not to the same degree — when it came to sales of N95 face masks last December and January as coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, spread. In February, Amazon reportedly shut down over 1 million listings over price hiking in response to coronavirus fears, according to a report from ZDNet.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Digital Trends in an email, “Sellers set their own product prices in our store and we have policies to help ensure sellers are pricing their products competitively. We actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policies. We have implemented additional measures to keep prices low and our global teams are working 24/7 to monitor prices in our store.”

Editors' Recommendations

Maya Shwayder
I'm a multimedia journalist currently based in New England. I previously worked for DW News/Deutsche Welle as an anchor and…
All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
Two squads of heroes clash in an Overwatch 2 trailer.

Cross-platform support is becoming more important in the world of video games. Multiplayer hits like Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite have pushed crossplay into the limelight, and now most AAA multiplayer games release with at least partial cross-platform support. Finding every cross-platform game is no easy feat, though, so we did the hard work to bring you a comprehensive list of games that support crossplay.

Unfortunately, there aren't any rules when it comes to crossplay, so each game handles the feature a little differently. To make matters more confusing, certain backward-compatible games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X still support crossplay on the most recent hardware, even if there isn't an official release for that hardware.

Read more
Take a quick break from Octopath Traveler 2 with this absurd Switch RPG
A stick figure fishes off a pier in Shadows Over Loathing.

Just recently, I decided to start playing Octopath Traveler 2 on my Nintendo Switch. Within a few hours, I could already see why it’s currently one of the best-reviewed games of the year. It has deep RPG systems, gorgeous HD-2D graphics, and a complex narrative that weaves together eight dramatic stories across its overworld. So it’s a little funny that I paused my journey six hours in to switch to a stick-figure RPG that deliberately contains none of that.

Shadows Over Loathing - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch

Read more
Everything announced at Nintendo’s April 2023 Indie World showcase
A still from Rift of the Necrodancer's trailer.

Today, Nintendo held another Indie World showcase, where it showed off a lot of neat-looking indie games coming to Nintendo Switch over the next several months. This April 19 showcase didn't have any shocking announcements, but some successors to enjoyable indie games like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Blasphemous were revealed, and multiple games were shadow-dropped. If you're looking for a roundup of everything that was shown off, we have that right here for you.
Rift of the Necrodancer was announced
Rift of the NecroDancer Reveal Trailer
Brace Yourself Games is one of the premier rhythm game developers thanks to titles like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule, and it announced a new game today. Titled Rift of the Necrodancer, this is a lane-based game where players rhythmically attack the monsters that come down each lane. The game also features minigames that more closely resemble the Rhythm Heaven series. Rift of the Necrodancer will be released later this year.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach and more get shadow-dropped
Indie World Showcase 4.19.2023 - Nintendo Switch
As is to be expected with any Nintendo presentation, some games were shadow-dropped today. The most notable of these games was a port of the popular horror game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, but that wasn't the only game released today. Magnetism platformers Telsagrad Remastered and Teslagrad 2, as well as supernatural comedy RPG Shadows of Loathing, are also available today.
Blasphemous 2 was revealed
Blasphemous 2 - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
The Game Kitchen's Blasphemous made a name for itself as one of the most brutal Metroidvania's of the last decade, both in visual style and gameplay. During today's Indie World, the team revealed that is are at work on a sequel where players explore a place cursed by something ironically called The Miracle. When it comes to gameplay, players can expect three new weapons and will encounter weapon memories that expand their moveset. Blasphemous 2 will be released this summer.
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals gets a release date
OXENFREE II: Lost Signals - Release Date Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Night School Studios and Netflix's horror-adventure game Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals has been in the works for quite a while, and it finally got a release date during today's Indie World showcase. We learned that Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, which takes place five years after the events of the original and follows a woman named Camena investigating mysterious radio signals, will come out on July 12. This release date also applies to the PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PS5, and mobile versions of the game. 
Everything else

Mineko's Night Market launches on September 26.
Pathea Games showed off My Time at Sandrock, a desert-themed sequel to farming sim My Time at Portia that is coming out sometime this summer.
Overcooked-like PlateUp! launches this October.
Digital board game Quilts & Cats of Calico launches this fall.
A Little to the Left: Cupboards & Drawers DLC launches in June.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon's free DLC Puzzle Pack comes out this spring. 
Cult of the Lamb's Relics of the Old Faith update will be released on April 24.
Animal Well is coming to Nintendo Switch in early 2024.
Time-bending crime puzzle game Crime O'Clock comes out on June 30.
Paper Trail launches this August.
Little Kitty, Big City will be released in 2024. 
Chants of Sennaar got a September 5 release date.
Brotato will be released sometime in 2023.
Escape Academy: The Complete Edition comes to Switch this fall.
Jet Set Radio spiritual successor Bomb Rush Cyberfunk finally got a firm release date: August 18. 

Read more