The Nintendo Switch and Pokémon Sun & Moon both had a big role in a rosy looking financial report for Nintendo’s fiscal year ending in March 2017. The Nintendo Switch in particular has far outstripped the expectations of both Nintendo and analysts, selling 2.74 million units – yes, sales, not units shipped – with 5.46 million games sold alongside it.
As we’ve heard previously, from the company’s NPD results for March, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had an attach rate of over 100%, and that holds true globally with 2.76 million copies sold for Nintendo Switch, making for 20,000 additional units, while the Wii U also surpassed a million copies, making for a total of 3.84 million sold. The other major launch title, 1-2-Switch, has merely been “generating buzz” in comparison.
Going forward, they’re projecting a further 10 million Switch sales in this coming fiscal year, which will see the Switch rapidly close in on the Wii U’s lifetime sales of 13.56 million – that console only sold 760k units in the last year.
At the same time, the 3DS is also motoring along nicely. A further 7.27 million sales last year pushed it to 66 million in total, and Nintendo anticipate a further 6 million units being sold in the next twelve months. Pokémon Sun & Moon performed very strongly at the end of 2016, having now sold 15.4 million copies, which is closing in on Pokémon X&Y’s 16.1 million sales, at which point it will be the best selling 3DS game.
Meanwhile, in the land of smartphones, Nintendo’s initial forays have been fairly successful with income rising year on year from 5.7 billion Yen (£39 million) to 24.2 billion Yen (£169 million), though they didn’t break that down any further. They managed to flog 9.1 million more amiibo figures as well.
All told, it’s been a positive year for Nintendo and 2017-18 is looking even better.
Avenger
Great stuff.
The Switch is one charming and powerful bit of kit. Glad to see it doing well, and I’m enjoying the console no end.