it was in stock again despite cancellations

The latest Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order in the US happened at Walmart on Friday, May 30, 2025, in the late afternoon, according to our console restock tracker. It’s proof that American retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are still restocking the hard-to-find video game system at random times ahead of Nintendo’s June 5 release date.

The Shortcut’s alerts have helped 10,000 people get the sold-out console so far, and we’re tracking the next Switch 2 restocks exclusively in the United States.

The list of stores in the US that will begin selling Switch 2 is going to grow over the next few days. Walmart, GameStop, Target, and Best Buy have been the only retailers to offer pre-orders besides the official Nintendo Store. Sam’s Club, for example, will join in soon.

It seems as if stores that force Switch 2 bundles or lock the console behind a paid membership (i.e. Sam’s Club) haven’t been able to offer pre-orders. We’re coming up to your last chance to pre-order Switch 2 before the release date.

Walmart has had more Nintendo Switch 2 console inventory than any other retailer in the US, according to The Shortcut’s exclusive Switch 2 sales data. Since there’s no Amazon Switch 2 pre-order planned, it seems like Walmart has facilitated more orders on this Nintendo console than it did during the PS5 restock chaos.

Case in point, Walmart restocked the Switch 2 on Friday, May 30, 2025, at 4pm ET, though it was brief, and some (but not all) customers reported immediate cancellations after ordering the console. This news didn’t surprise us. If you look at the screenshot above, the delivery date reads “June 1” when the official Switch 2 release date is June 5. Something was off, and this Walmart page wasn’t likely supposed to go live yet.

Another thing to note: Walmart changed up its Switch 2 pre-order page for both the standalone console and the Mario Kart World bundle. Both pages now display a 404 error message, but they may come back to life (or Walmart could restock at its original pages from April 2025).

You wouldn’t have been able to find these two new pages without our help. The Shortcut detected this change and sent the proper links to our subscribers in our Substack Chat.

Walmart’s brief, but fleeting Switch 2 pre-order restock on Friday was a good sign of things to come. The retailer may have been testing a new page for June 2025.

Our expert analysis suggests that the next Walmart Switch 2 pre-order may happen on June 4 at 9am ET, or soon after that time. There’s a valid reason why our tracker will be on alert at this time: Walmart is guaranteeing Switch 2 deliveries by June 5 at 9am local time if you place an order before June 4 at 8am ET. It’s a lofty promise given how many Nintendo consoles and the best Switch 2 accessories Walmart has sold.

Therefore, it’s safe to assume that Walmart is waiting until after this time to open up new pre-orders so that it won’t be on the hook to deliver even more packages within that stringent time frame.

This is a tricky situation. Walmart sold more Switch 2 consoles than any other retailer in the US, according to The Shortcut’s exclusive data. That also means Walmart appears to be responsible for the most Switch 2 order cancellations among American retailers, just by sheer volume.

The key way to avoid Walmart cancellations is to ensure your credit card information is updated within the retailer’s payment portal. It charged customers a holding fee of $499 or $449 (depending on which console you bought) and released that payment hold within a few days. But if your billing information has changed since then, or you don’t have enough funds or credit to cover the full amount anymore, you could see an order cancellation. This happens more than you think.

Note: just because Walmart refunded your $499 (or $449) after April 24 doesn’t mean your Switch 2 pre-order has been cancelled. Walmart, like many US retailers, won’t hold your money while you wait for the console shipment date. It’s only there to ensure your credit or debit card can make the full transaction. However, you will need to ensure that you have the funds in time for around Monday, June 2. The full payment will reappear right before Walmart decides to ship your console. If you see this, that’s a good sign.

Walmart is among the best stores to pre-order from in the US for two reasons. First, it has the most Switch 2 inventory I’ve seen, so despite its appearance of cancellations, it probably has the same rate of pre-order cancellations as any other big box retailer. This is exactly what I saw when I wrote in-depth about PS5 restocks.

Second, Walmart is delivering the Switch 2 on its release date. That means, unlike Best Buy, Target, and GameStop, there’s no need to wait in a long line unless you want to. And, depending on when the next Walmart Switch 2 pre-order restock happens, there’s a chance you’ll get the console on the morning of its release date.

That said, I always tell gamers to avoid limiting themselves to just one retailer. Increase your chances by trying to pre-order at multiple retailers, as online orders from GameStop will happen on June 5 at 12am ET / June 4 at 9pm PT, and at Target on June 6, the day after launch, likely in the morning if you read into the Target Switch 2 pre-order plans. Best Buy’s Switch 2 in-store launch plans are publicly known, but the US electronics store hasn’t announced restock plans for its next online orders just yet.

The Shortcut toured the new Nintendo Store in San Francisco, and we’ve been to the decade-old NYC store several times. But we haven’t seen the Switch 2 at either yet.

It turns out you’ll need a Warp Pass to buy a Switch 2 for the first several days from June 5 onward, according to Nintendo. The reservations are “first come, first served” from June 5 to June 9 (but registration for these orders is now closed).

The Shortcut’s Switch 2 pre-order tracking will detect when the console and Warp Passes are back in stock.

Matt Swider is the Editor-in-Chief of The Shortcut, the #1 consumer tech publication on Substack. Matt, a trusted technology expert with over 25 years of journalism experience and the former US Editor-in-Chief of TechRadar, can be found on social media through X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.