New year, new Nintendo Direct rumours — Nintendo usually likes to hold a big presentation every February, and it appears that it's continuing that trend in 2026, as a proper Nintendo Direct (not focused on the Mario Galaxy Movie or Tomodachi Life) could be coming as soon as next week.
This rumour comes from prominent podcaster and YouTuber Nate the Hate on his podcast (via the GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit), who says he has heard from his sources that a Nintendo Direct will be airing "in the opening week of February", potentially Thursday 5th February.
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Now, before you get too excited, Nate does stress that he hasn't been able to confirm this with his best sources, but given Nintendo's history, we'd be extremely surprised if we didn't get a Direct --either a big one or a Partner Showcase — sometime next month.
We will say as we always do with stories like this, take this with a pinch of salt. Nothing is official until Nintendo says anything, so for now, we can just speculate on what exactly Nintendo might bring to the table.
2025 was obviously an outlier in terms of February Directs as the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal came in January. 2024's big February showcase was actually a Partner Direct. Prior to last year, the Japanese gaming giant hasn't missed a February since 2018.
Of course, we're getting some Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream later this week thanks to a specific Direct, but Nintendo has a busy slate for 2026. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Splatoon Raiders, and Rhythm Heaven Groove are just some of the titles we know about.
We've also got indies such as Mina the Hollower and Witchbrook awaiting brand new release dates after they were delayed out of 2026. Plus, there may well be a bunch of third-party port announcements for Switch 2 on the horizon. We'll see!
Are you excited for the first 'big' Direct of 2026? Let us know in the comments.