With recent rumors of the Switch successor being released in 2025, I wanted to talk about if we should consider it a 9th or a 10th Gen system.  We don't have any concrete detail on what the Switch successor will be like (whether it's like the original Switch or something else), but it would be interesting if it would be considered the start of a new era of gaming. But of course there are also things to consider for it being just 9th gen.

So let's go over ways the Switch successor could be considered just 9th gen:

-Most likely the power would be closer to PS4/Xbox One. There have been rumors that the power of the Switch successor would be on par with last gen power, which has been a thing for Nintendo consoles since the Wii era. So that would make it being in tune with the 9th gen.

-It would most likely be a hybrid like the Switch which many consider as an 8th gen console. Being a hybrid console like the Switch would be a safe chose for Nintendo to do for their new console. So being a successor to an 8th gen console would make it 9th gen.

Now let's go over ways the Switch successor could be considered the start of the 10th generation:

-It'll probably be released close to the releases of 10th generation versions of PlayStation and Xbox. There has been speculations on when the PlayStation 6 and Xbox 10th gen console will be released, especially ever since the Sony has stated that the Playstation5 is entering it's "latter stage of its cycle." Which would make the release of the PlayStation 6 possibly around late 2026. That's not too far off from the release of the possible Nintendo Switch successor's release.

-It'll probably be just as competitive as the Switch is to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch, despite being released almost 7 years ago, is still doing pretty well. During the earlier years of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the Nintendo Switch was still able to come out on top in terms of sales. And while the PlayStation 5 is currently dominating the competition, the Nintendo Switch is right now in a not-too-far-behind 2nd place.  So with so much anticipation of the Switch successor coming, it is possible that history will repeat and it will just be as competitive as any other 10th gen consoles.

But what are your thoughts?

I think of it as 10th gen, but I dont really care anymore tbh. Whatever people think is fine.

I think this "gen" thing is not that relevant anymore. I mean, we only have Sony and Microsoft following the generations, and nobody seems to know what gen the Switch is.

Ever since Nintendo's has gotten into the game console career. They have always been some of the later consoles to be released in a generation.

1. First Gen: N/A
2. Second Gen: N/A
3. Third Gen: NES (Jul 15, 1983), Atari 7800 (May 1986), Sega Master System (Sept 1986)
4. Fourth Gen: Sega Genesis (Aug 14, 1989), NEC Turbografx-16 (Aug 29, 1989), SNK Neo Geo (Apr 26, 1990), SNES (Nov 21, 1990)
5. Fifth Gen: Playstation (Dec 3, 1994), Sega Saturn (May 11, 1995), N64 (Sept 29, 1996)
6. Sixth Gen: Sega Dreamcast (Nov 27, 1998), PS2 (Mar 4, 2000), Gamecube (Sept 14, 2001), Xbox (Nov 15, 2001)
7. Seventh Gen: Xbox 360 (Nov 22, 2005), PS3 (Nov 11, 2006), Wii (Nov 19, 2006)
8. Eight Gen: WiiU (Nov 18, 2012), PS4 (Nov 15, 2013), Xbox One (Nov 22, 2013), Switch (Mar 3, 2017)
9. Ninth Gen: Xbox Series (Nov 10, 2020), PS5 (Nov 12, 2020)
10. Tenth Gen Rumors: Xbox (Nov 2026), Microsoft Handheld (2026), PS6 (Nov 2027)

Given this information we see that since Xbox and Playstation have been "competing" against each other, whenever the New Xbox or New Playstation releases looks to be the start of the New Generation. The WiiU is a special Nintendo case, otherwise the Switch should be a Gen 9 console. The Switch released <5 years after the Wii U, and the successor of the Switch is rumored for Spring 2025. This would make it release >5 years after the Xbox Series, satisfying this "rule" to have it be a 9th gen.

I'll consider it 10th generation, but generations of gaming hardware have a lot of flaws. Atari 5200 and Colecovision should probably be a different generation, but because of the North American crash and overall failure of the 5200, they're still considered 2nd generation.
Wii didn't feel like the same generation as PS3 and Xbox 360 despite releasing around the same time, ditto Wii U with the PS4 and Xbox One. The Game Boy Color situation is a mess. It's apparently 5th generation but lumped with the sales of the Game Boy and apparently a late-life upgrade.
Switch launched a little closer to the 8th generation consoles than it did to the 9th generation consoles, but it's still been a blue ocean product during both generations.
I voted 10th generation, but there really should be a replacement for categorizing hardware cohorts than generations. Shoot, you could even have mid-gen upgrades as acceptable for a separate cohort than the base hardware.
For instance, PS4 Pro, Switch, and Xbox One X could all be lumped together as a shared cohort.

I disagree with this synopsis.  1st and 2nd gen are not N/A.

1st gen - Atari 2600, Intellivision

Then came the video game collapse of 1983....

2nd gen - NES, SMS

3rd - SNES, Genesis

etc....

Also, it was the NES that released first in the 2nd gen to lead the recovery from the '83 disaster.

I'm gonna use gens for reference. But we can use cohort too.

If we account for the cohorts and late-life upgrades we should see this:

Gen 4.5, Cohort 4: GBC (Oct 21, 1998)

Gen 8.5, Cohort 8: PS4 Pro (Nov 10, 2016), Switch (Mar 3, 2017), Xbox One X/S (Nov 7, 2017)

Gen 9.5, Cohort 9 Rumored: PS5 Pro (Nov 2024), Xbox Series Pro (Nov 2024), Nintendo Successor (Spring 2025)

Yes, I left them as N/A for Not Applicable, cause this is about Nintendo. Nintendo started the 3rd gen with the Famicom/NES in 1983.

The NES started the 2nd gen in 1983.

glad you think so