Nintendo Sees Sharp Drop in Sales, but Solid Switch and Software Sales
– 3 min read
Nintendo's sales and revenue fell sharply in the current quarter, but this is also due to the comparison with a strong previous year. However, the Switch's hardware and software are still performing solidly in its eighth year.
Nintendo has released its financial report for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, from April to June. Its sales decreased 46.5 per cent year-on-year to 246.6 billion Yen (approximately 1.53 billion Euros), ordinary income decreased 55.3 per cent year-on-year to 113.4 billion yen (704 million Euros), and net income attributable to owners of the parent decreased 55.3 per cent year-on-year to 80.9 billion yen (502 million Euros). "Overall sales declined during this period despite the continued weakness of the yen, due to a year-on-year decline in unit sales for both Nintendo Switch hardware and Software," the company states. However, the sharp year-on-year decline is also due to the fact that the previous year's quarter was very strong, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie driving sales and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom being released shortly afterwards. Nintendo: "There were no such special factors in the first quarter of this fiscal year, and with Nintendo Switch now in its eighth year since launch, unit sales of both hardware and software decreased significantly year-on-year."
Sales of the entire Nintendo Switch family fell 46.3 per cent to 2.10 million units compared with the same period last year. But sales were stable compared to the previous quarter (January to March 2024: 1.96 million units). A total of 143.42 million Switch consoles have been sold worldwide. Nintendo expects to sell 13.5 million switch units in this fiscal year.
Software sales decreased by 41.3 per cent to 30.64 million units compared to the preceding year. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (May) has sold 1.76 million units and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (June) has sold 1.19 million units. Both titles had a "good start", according to Nintendo. A total of 1,266.46 million software units have been sold worldwide. The number of users on an annual basis between July 2023 and June 2024 exceeds 128 million.
The company also confirmed that the "intra-group reorganisation" had been completed and that the sub-subsidiary Nintendo Ibérica, S.A. had been merged into Nintendo of Europe AG (currently Nintendo of Europe SE).
"Digital sales accounted for 58.9% of total software sales for our dedicated video game platform. (...) Overall software sales declined in accordance with the decrease in unit sales of packaged and downloadable versions of packaged software, but sales of download-only software and revenue related to Nintendo Switch Online remained stable, with the result that the proportion of digital sales increased year-on-year," Nintendo says. The original financial guidance published on 7 May 2024 for this financial year remains unchanged.
Nintendo is planning to release the following games in the coming months: - Emio ‒ The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club on 29 August 2024 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on 26 September 2024 - Super Mario Party Jamboree on 17 October 2024 - Mario & Luigi: Brothership on 7 November 2024 - Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on 16 January 2025
Top 10 Switch games from Nintendo 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 62.90M 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 45.85M 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 34.66M 4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 32.05M 5. Super Mario Odyssey - 28.21M 6. Pokémon Sword/Shield - 26.35M 7. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet - 25.29M 8. Super Mario Party - 20.84M 9. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 20.80M 10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 17.61M
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