Nintendo saw huge revenue and profit gains off the back of the enormous success of Tears of the Kingdom and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold an impressive 18.51 million units as of the end of June 2023, Nintendo said. Reporting its financial results for the three months ending June 30, Nintendo said Tears of the Kingdom “got off to a good start” following its launch on May 12, “significantly” increasing overall software sales but also driving sales of the Nintendo Switch. In fact, sales of first-party software this quarter reached the highest level for a first quarter since the launch of Nintendo Switch in 2017.
“Sell-through of this one title constitutes approximately half of the first-party software sold this fiscal year,” Nintendo said. “Consumers who played the previous entry, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, have been the primary driver, but as the weeks have passed, we have seen that a growing percentage of purchases are being made by consumers who have not yet played that title.”
Zelda wasn’t the only big contributor to Nintendo’s bottom line. The April 5 release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was enormous. Nintendo said as of July 30, a whopping 168.1 million people worldwide have now seen the movie, and as of July 26, global box-office revenue hit $1.349 billion. That’s the highest ever for an original film based on a video game, and the second-highest for an animated film. “This is helping us build a lasting affection for our Super Mario IP around the world,” Nintendo said.
The success of the Mario movie had the knock-on effect of growing sales of Mario games such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario merchandise. The eternally-popular kart racer shifted another 1.67 million sales during the quarter and has now sold an eye-watering 55.46 million units.
“By expanding Nintendo IP in areas outside the dedicated video game platform we create new opportunities for consumers to encounter Nintendo IP, and this invigorates our overall business,” Nintendo said. “Based on the various effects that we have confirmed through the release of this movie, we will continue our efforts towards visual content-related initiatives.”
Nintendo Switch sales increased 13.9% year-on-year to 3.91 million units, and software unit sales increased 26.1% year-on-year to 52.21 million units. The number of Nintendo Switch annual playing users between July 2022 and June 2023 was the highest ever, exceeding 116 million users. As of June 30, Nintendo Switch now sold a total of 129.53 million units.
The end result is sales were up 50% year-on-year to 461.3 billion yen ($3.2 billion), and net profit was up 52.1% to 181 billion yen ($1.2 billion).
While the Switch enjoyed a shot in the arm thanks to Zelda, with overall sales in the decline, thoughts have now turned to its successor. This week, Nintendo was reported to be planning to release its next-gen console late 2024. While we wait for that, it’s worth considering the Nintendo Switch exclusives set to come out at the end of the console’s lifecycle.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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