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Nintendo is on the top of the world right now as it relates to its financial performance and unit sales for its marquee Switch console. The company reported earnings for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2020, and the Japanese outfit made a profit of 376.6 billion yen, which is up substantially from the profit of 196.4 billion for the same period last year. Nintendo pulled in revenue of 1.4 trillion yen for the period, compared to 1.02 trillion yen last year.
The Nintendo Switch was a very bright spot for Nintendo, selling 11.57 million units during the holiday quarter and climbing to 79.87 million units over its lifetime. As analyst Daniel Ahmad points out, over its first 46 months, the Switch is selling at a faster clip than the PS4 and the Wii, as well as the best-selling console in history, the PS2. Check out the chart below to learn more.
Another big movement for Nintendo was a further shift toward digital game sales, which make more money for Nintendo. Digital game sales grew by more than 100% during the period, while the percentage of total games sold that were digital copies reached 40.9%, up 12.3%.
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Nintendo also updated its list of first-party game sales numbers, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe leading the way with 33.4 million copies sold. It’s followed closely by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has shifted an astonishing 31.18 million copies sold in under a year. The rest of the list is populated by titles like Super Smash Bros Ultimate (22.85 million), Breath of the Wild (21.45 million), and Super Mario Odyssey (2.02 million). You can see the full chart below.
Animal Crossing is of particular note, as it represents the first console exclusive in history to reach more than 30 million units sold in its first year. “What an unbelievable juggernaut,” independent analyst Benji-Sales wrote on Twitter.
We’ll have more from Nintendo’s earnings report soon, so keep checking back for that.
