We’re once again in the thick of the video game industry’s financial results, which as usual means a plethora of numbers and graphs as licensing waves hit many Western studios, including those that have been doing very well despite a general downward trend since the COVID years. On the side of Nintendo, one of the rare companies that does not economically dismiss its employees for poor performance, the pace is more like that of a cruise, with some notable points to develop.
With 6.84 million consoles sold this quarter, between July 1 and September 30, 2023, the Nintendo Switch reaches a total of 132.46 million consoles sold worldwide. It still remains the third best-selling console in history, behind the Nintendo DS (154 million) and the PlayStation 2 (officially more than 155 million). With rumors growing that Nintendo will release a new generation of consoles late next year, hope of selling the 20 million additional consoles to break those records is beginning to fade. However, it remains an enormous achievement that allows Nintendo to be back in the green at all levels with a turnover of almost 5 billion euros (4.99 million euros to be exact) and a net profit of 1.70 billion euros. Nintendo is taking the opportunity to revise upward its financial forecasts for game sales, a category often underestimated by the Kyoto company itself in the past.
Apparently, Super Mario Bros. The Movie will have contributed a lot to this performance and this is particularly reflected in the mobile games and derivatives sales area, which increased by 133% compared to last year, as can be seen in this graphic from Oscar Lemaire on Twitter. The film also impacts game sales, merchandising and the Super Nintendo World theme park.
Derivative product activity includes Nintendo’s revenue from mobile games, royalties from derivative products (clothing, stuffed animals, Lego, etc.), Nintendo theme parks and the Mario movie.
6 months (April – September)
Sales: €345 million (+133%) pic.twitter.com/8f13uACKRx— Oscar Lemaire (@oscarlemaire) November 7, 2023
As far as game sales go, and even if the game was released outside of that quarter, Nintendo still communicated about the game’s launch Super Mario Bros. Marvel which sold 4.3 million copies in the two weeks after its release. Important asterisk: This figure corresponds to the number of copies that went directly into the hands of consumers and not to the number of copies distributed in stores, contrary to the other figures reported below. This is the largest launch for a game in the Super Mario series (including 2D and 3D platformers) in its history and Nintendo is directly relating this achievement to the release of Super Mario Bros. The Movie Beginning of the year.
The little star of the quarter in question was good Pikmin 4which was released in July and has sold 2.61 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game in the series to date, after the previous title holder Pikmin 3 Deluxe, also on Nintendo Switch with 2.4 million copies sold. The game was praised during the investor conference, with Nintendo also linking this achievement to the numerous merchandising and cross-media efforts surrounding the series, particularly through mobile games. Pikmin Bloom.
The other chestnut trees continue to do their work, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe reached 57 million games sold worldwide as we just received the final content update for the title. Pokémon Scarlet and Purple reached 23.23 million games sold and remains on track to catch up Pokémon Sword & Shield to become the series’ second most popular episode. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reached 19.95 million, but may struggle to keep up with its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continues to sell in parallel and makes it difficult to catch up with 31.15 million. Finally, not a word about it Everyone’s 1-2 switch which, unsurprisingly, had no effect on the crowd.
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