Nintendo Switch With Great Achievement; Growing Player Numbers
Switch has left PlayStation 4 behind on the list of best-selling consoles ever. The number of users of the platform is going through the roof.
From a summary of the third quarter of fiscal 2023, released by Nintendo today, we learned about the brand's great successes. We can say without an ounce of doubt that the Japanese manufacturer's consoles and games are currently experiencing a golden age, but the creators are cautiously looking to the future.
Sales results of Nintendo consoles
Despite a slightly weaker year, the Switch recorde a historical achievement in the last fiscal quarter - in terms of total sales, it surpassed the PlayStation 4 and the iconic Game Boy. This was made possible by a result of 122.55 million copies sold.
In the third quarter of fiscal 2023 alone, as many as 8.22 million units were sold, beating the results achieved in 2018 and 2019. Nintendo can undoubtedly owe this to the OLED model, which has been the Switch's best-selling version in recent months.
Growing number of players
One of the Switch's most impressive achievements is its annual number of players, which continues to grow. According to Nintendo's summary of recent months in 2022, the Japanese console had as many as 112 million active users.
Popularity of Switch games
Impressive 27 Switch console games broke the threshold of one million copies sold in fiscal 2023, and 19 of them are original Nintendo titles.
Developers singled out 10 games (combining sales of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet) that sold the best between April and December 2022.
New titles (released between April and December 2022) - number of copies sold
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet - 18.2 million copies.
- Splatoon 3 - 9.4 million
- Switch Sports - 7.9 million
- Mario Strikers: Battle League Football - 1.9 million
- Xenoblade 3 - 1.5 million
Earlier titles (released before April 2022) - number of copies sold
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 6.3 million copies.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land - 3.4 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 2.9 million
- Mario Party Super Stars - 2.5 million
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 2.4 million
Continued popularity of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 2022 has contributed to the title retaining its first position in the Switch's best-selling game ranking, with an overall score of 52 million copies.
Financial results and balanced expectations for the end of the fiscal year
Although, as you can see, the third quarter of fiscal 2023 was strewn with victories for Nintendo, the company's overall profits declined compared to last year's.
Sales of consoles, games and accessories brought the Japanese studio 1.3 trillion yen (about $10 billion) in the first three quarters of fiscal 2023, down 1.9% from last year. This translated into the company's gross profit, which declined by 5% over the same period.
In light of these results, Nintendo has decided to update its sales performance forecast for the entire fiscal year 2023. The projected gross profit was reduced by 4%, from 500 billion yen to 480 billion.
However, Nintendo's financial performance is related to, among other things increasing spending by the company to develop its products. As the successes of the Switch and the games designed for it show, this loss may yet work out for the studio.
