Lack of new major games causes Nintendo’s Q1 revenue to fall 46.5%, with Switch continuing to slide

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Financial highlights

• According to its Q1 consolidated financial report, Nintendo reached ¥246.6 billion ($1.65 billion) in revenue, down 46.5% compared to the same period last year.
• The company cited the continued weakness of the yen and decline in sales for both Nintendo Switch and games as the main reason behind the revenue drop. The first quarter of 2023 saw the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
• “There were no such special factors in the first quarter of this fiscal year, and with Nintendo Switch now in its eighth year since launch, unit sales of both hardware and software decreased significantly year-on-year,” Nintendo explained.

• Operating profit fell 70.6% year-over-year to ¥54.5 billion ($366 million), while net profit decreased by 55.3% to ¥80.9 billion ($543.5 million).
• 74.2% of all Nintendo sales came from outside of Japan. The Americas accounted for 44.3% of the total, followed by Japan (25.8%) and Europe (21.3%).
• The share of digital sales reached 58.9%, up 11.6 percentage points year-over-year. However, in yen/dollars they fell 32.6% to ¥80.7 billion ($542.2 million).
• The proportion of first-party game sales fell 15.6 points to 73.2%.

• For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Nintendo still expects declines in both revenue (-19.3%) and net profit (-38.9%). The forecast hasn’t changed since the company first announced it in May.

Hardware and game sales

• In Q1, Nintendo sold 2.1 million Nintendo Switch units, down 46.3% year-over-year. Although Switch OLED remains the best-selling version, its quarterly sales fell 56.1% to 1.24 million units.
• This brings Nintendo Switch’s lifetime sales to 141.32 million units. It remains the third best-selling game console of all time, behind only Nintendo DS (154 million) and PlayStation 2 (over 155 million).
• The number of annual playing users reached 128 million, an increase from 121 million in the same period last year and 123 million in the previous quarter. This metric refers to people who launched a game on one of the Nintendo Switch systems during the 12-month period.

• Nintendo sold 30.64 million copies of games for its consoles, down 41.3% year-over-year.
• Two first-party titles surpassed 1 million copies sold, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (1.76 million) and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (1.19 million).
• Princess Peach: Showtime!, launched at the end of the previous quarter, has now sold 1.3 million units globally. Roughly half of the total was sold during Q1 FY25.

Below are the 10 best-selling Nintendo Switch games (as of June 30, 2024):

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — 62.9 million copies (+930k since March 31, 2024);
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons — 45.85 million copies (+490k);
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 34.66 million copies (+440k);
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 32.05 million copies (+200k);
5. Super Mario Odyssey — 28.21 million copies (+250k);
6. Pokémon Sword / Shield — 26.35 million copies (+80k);
7. Pokémon Scarlet / Violet — 25.29 million copies (+370k);
8. Super Mario Party — 20.84 million copies (+180k);
9. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — 20.8 million copies (+190k);
10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe — 17.61 million copies (+160k).