Nintendo Switch has reached 132.46 million units to date, as Nintendo revealed today during its half-year financial report.
Net sales during the reported timeframe are the largest ever since the debut of the handheld console, marking a 21.2% increase on a year-over-year basis. That's due to a combination of factors, including a rise in income from mobile games and the highly successful The Super Mario Bros. Movie, not to mention a depreciation of Japan's yen. Mobile and IP-related income jumped by 133.3% compared to last year, while the video game platform business grew by 16.7%.
On that note, hardware sales improved by 2.4% compared to 2022. 6.84 million Nintendo Switch units were sold in the first half of fiscal year 2024, the lion's share (4.69 million) of which were OLED model sales, while the basic model only sold 1.25 million units. OLED model sales were up by 32.8%, while basic model sales decreased by 44%. The remaining 0.9 million unit sales were of the Nintendo Switch Lite, which remained nearly flat compared to last year. It's worth noting that the Nintendo Switch OLED has a lower profit margin than the other models.
Software sales grew slightly (+1.8%) thanks to major releases like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which has reached 19.5 million units sold, and Pikmin 4, which sold 2.61 million units. Evergreens like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate moved another 3.22 million units and 1.35 million units, respectively. Interestingly, the ratio of digital to physical Nintendo Switch software sales decreased slightly due to 'robust sales of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom'.
Following today's earnings report, Nintendo has revised its full annual forecast upward compared to the previous one. The new forecast estimates better net sales (+9%), operating profit (+11.1%), ordinary profit (+25%), and net profit (+23.5%). Even the planned dividend is jumping from 147 yen to 181 yen (+31). There was no change to the Nintendo Switch hardware forecast, which remains at 15 million for the fiscal year 2024; however, Nintendo now plans to sell 185 million units of software (games), +2.8% compared to the previous forecast of 180 million units. They're clearly banging on a massive holiday season to achieve such a goal.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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