Nintendo results: 122 million Switches and 1 billion games distributed

Over the first nine months of the fiscal year, Nintendo achieved a turnover of 9.1 billion euros, an operating profit of 2.9 billion euros and a net profit of 2.4 billion euros. euros. If these figures are all down compared to the previous year (up to -13% for operating profit), the manufacturer is nonetheless in sparkling form. Only the shareholders will not necessarily hear it that way, Nintendo having revised its objectives downwards for the whole of the fiscal year, mainly due to the fluctuation of the exchange rates and sales a little less good than the previous two years.

As a result, the manufacturer is betting on an annual turnover of 11.3 billion euros, an operating profit of 3.4 billion euros and a net profit of 2.6 billion euros. As you will have understood, in the upper echelons of the economic press, analysts are already having fun panicking and urging Nintendo to deploy a “Switch 2” as quickly as possible.

The Switch joins the PS2 and the DS on the podium

In the meantime, with 8.22 million consoles sold in the last quarter, the Switch reached a park of 122.55 million as of December 31, 2022, which now makes it the third best-selling console in history after the Nintendo DS ( 154 million) and the PS2 (over 155 million). The platform now leaves in its wake the PlayStation 4 (117 million) and the Game Boy (118 million). At this point in the fiscal year, Nintendo has distributed 14.91 million Switches (including 7.69 million OLED Switches), representing a year-on-year decline of 21%. The automaker points to component supply issues that impacted its production capacity until the end of last summer, but it would be equally wise to acknowledge that it is normal to see sales of a console lower at this point in the cycle.

As a result of a slightly less than expected Christmas, Nintendo is playing conservative and revising its annual target from 19 million to 18 million, which means that it only needs to deliver a little over 3 million Switches between January and March 2023 to stay on schedule. Ironically, it’s the complete opposite of Sony Interactive Entertainment, which feels its wings growing after a record year-end and believes it can distribute 19 million PS5s instead of 18 million over the year.

The billion games, that’s done

With 994 million Switch games distributed as of December 31, 2022, the 948 million Nintendo DS games are now beaten, so the Switch will become the first console in Nintendo history to surpass one billion games. It was also time for Nintendo to achieve this, Sony Interactive Entertainment having already accomplished this feat three times with the PS2, PS3 and PS4. That said, it is worth remembering that the Switch is the result of the merger between Nintendo’s home consoles and portable consoles. However, if we combine the sales of the Wii / DS generation, Nintendo then claimed 255 million consoles and 1.8 billion games distributed worldwide. Doing better than these figures promises to be quite complicated.

Best start in Nintendo history, Pokémon Purple and Pokémon Scarlet ended the year with 20.61 million copies distributed worldwide, including 18.2 million copies in consumers in the space of seven weeks. In less than two months, the duo has already established itself as the fourth best-selling Pokémon in history. Splatoon 3 (10 million) and Nintendo Switch Sports (8.6 million) are the other main successes of the fiscal year.

Which is no reason not to talk about the smaller ones, such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (1.8 million in six months) and Bayonetta 3, which won the honors of one million after three months, when its predecessor had took years to achieve. Despite these successes, Switch game sales were down 4% from the previous year. The fiscal year will end with the releases of Fire Emblem Engage (January), Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (February), and Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (March).