Switch Sales Help Return Nintendo to Profitability
posted Saturday Jul 29, 2017 by Scott Ertz
Over the last few years, Nintendo has seen continual profit issues. The Nintendo 3DS produces mixed, but mostly positive results, but from day one, the Wii U was a sales disaster. In fact, over the 5 years the device was active, the company sold 13.5 million units. That works out to only about 225,000 units per month.
This week, the company released their quarterly earnings report, and the results have completely turned around. Since the release of the Switch in March, the company has sole 4.7 million units - 35% of the lifetime sales of the Wii U, in just 5 months. That is a good indicator for future quarters, when inventory availability is expected to raise, and with it, hopefully sales.
Hardware is not the only successful aspect of the company. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which came out a month after the Switch, has sold nearly as many copies as the console itself, at 3.54 million. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continued to be a big mover, adding 1.16 million units. Overall, Nintendo sold 8.14 million software titles for the Switch alone.
The 3DS platform sold better this year than last, selling nearly 1 million devices, coming in about 1% over this time last year. Games sold far less, though, with 5.85 million copies sold, or 31% less than last year.
Nintendo remains optimistic about the future, especially in Switch sales. While Mario might be their breadwinner, the company knows that the next quarter belongs to Splatoon 2, with the final quarter belonging to Super Mario Odyssey.
