The global pandemic has meant that people are spending more time at home, playing more video games. Consequently, during the past six months, Nintendo has seen its profits jump by over 240 percent.
In its six-month earning statement ending on September 30 of this year, Nintendo reported that year-on-year net sales are up 73.3 percent, while net profit reached 213 billion yen ($2 billion), an increase of 243.6 percent.
Moreover, hardware sales reached 12.53 million units worldwide during this period, which is an 80.9 percent increase year on year. Out of that number, 8.36 million were standard Switch consoles and 5.17 million were Switch Lites.
Software sales, which include the physical and digital versions, jumped from 58.49 million worldwide during the same period last year to 100.25 million. The big sellers were Animal Crossing: New Horizons at 14.27 million units, Super Mario 3D All-Stars at 5.21 million units, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at 4.21 million units, and Ring Fit Adventure at 3.11 million units. Digital sales were up by 139 percent, reaching 171.5 billion yen ($1.7 billion) during this period.
There were twenty games that sold at least a million copies released on Switch hardware. (Out of those Nintendo published 15.)
Nintendo has modified its forecast for the current financial year, expecting a 50 percent increase in net profit. Previously, Nintendo had forecasted selling 19 million Switch units, but that number has been changed to 24 million, which is higher than the 21 million sold last year. Software sales are forecasted to reach 170 million units, which is up from the previously forecasted number of 140 million units. In comparison, last year’s software sales reached 168 million units.
The current financial year ends on March 31, 2021.