TOKYO— Nintendo Co. said it used aircraft to ship its new Switch videogame machine in its first month on the market, an unusual and costly logistics measure responding to unexpectedly high demand.

Earlier, Nintendo said it shipped 2.74 million units of the Switch in the month after it went on sale March 3, up from an initial plan of two million.

“We carried some of the Switches by plane in March to serve our customers more promptly,” a company spokesman said. He said Nintendo switched back in April to less-expensive sea freight to replenish store shelves.

Nintendo didn’t say where the planes were used, but analysts and others briefed on the logistics said the flights took Switch machines to the U.S. and Europe from factories in China.

Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda said further use of airfreight was possible because the item remains hard to find at retailers globally. “Air is a big profit-squeezer because it could cost additional ¥5,000 per unit,” or about $45, he said.