Nintendo published its latest set of financials this morning (English language PDF link). The results look very good with profits of ¥259 billion ($2.4 billion or £1.94 billion), up 33% year-on-year. Probably more interesting to the average gamer though, is the continuing success of the Nintendo Switch console, its software titles and sales, and how the company is prospering despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Leading with the bad news, Nintendo said that due to the pandemic "production and shipments of the Nintendo Switch console, accessories like the Joy-Con controllers, and Ring Fit Adventure faced delays in some regions from February through March." However, Nintendo was glad to report that such constrictions "only had limited impact on business results for this fiscal year".
Both hardware and software sales in the fiscal year ended 31st March 2020 results eclipsed last year's already good results. Nintendo Switch sales for the year totalled 21.03 million units (a 24 per cent increase YoY), and software sales totalled 168.72 million units (42.3 per cent increase YoY). Titles Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield sold 17.37 million units, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released in March, sold 11.77 million units. The latter title's sales results have established the best ever start for a Nintendo Switch title. Over 27 titles were million-plus sellers during the most recent financial year.
The new figures bring the Nintendo Switch consoles sold total to 55.77 million. You can see how that sum compares to Nintendo's historical console sales in the chart below, via Nintendo Life.
|
Console |
Hardware Sales (Million) |
Software Sales (Million) |
|
Wii |
101.63 |
921.69 |
|
NES |
61.91 |
500.01 |
|
Nintendo Switch |
55.77 |
356.24 |
|
SNES |
49.10 |
379.06 |
|
Nintendo 64 |
32.93 |
224.97 |
|
GameCube |
21.74 |
208.57 |
|
Wii U |
13.56 |
103.10 |
From the above and with the continued demand for the Nintendo Switch it looks like it will rather easily sale past the NES to grab second place behind the Wii in the all time sales chart.
Contrasting with the clear success of the Switch, the Nintendo 3DS is fading fast. For the period of the last financial year just 0.69 million units were sold - a 73 per cent decrease YoY. Software sales of 5 million units in the same period were similarly catastrophically power - by 62 per cent YoY.
Switch Pro with Samsung SoC featuring AMD RDNA graphics?
There have been consistent rumours of a Switch Pro or similar upgrade coming along, but Nintendo told gaming industry watchers to forget about such a hardware introduction in 2020.
Currently the Switch line uses an Nvidia Maxwell-based Tegra X1 Arm SoC. However, in the wake of the latest Samsung / AMD Radeon partnership news some rumours have started to point to an updated Switch featuring one of the upcoming Samsung Exynos Arm SoCs with RDNA graphics. Pinch of salt required.
