Today, Nintendo publishedits financial reports for the second quarter of the fiscal year, and it’s full of surprises regarding the sales numbers of both the company’s software and hardware, withThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdombeing one of the biggest standouts.
The latest entry inThe Legend of Zeldaseries,Echoes of Wisdom, was one of the company’s best-selling titles, with more than 2.58 million units sold from its release date, September 26, to the end of the quarter a mere five days later. This means that Nintendo managed to sell almost 30 million units in less than a week, which is quite impressive for a new 2DLegend of Zeldatitle that’s not a remake of an older game.
Other notorious examples of Nintendo releases that sold remarkably well in the past few months include thePaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorremaster, which, with 1.94 million units sold, already matched and surpassedthe sales of the original GameCube release.Luigi’s Mansion 2 HDalso did quite well, with 1.57 million units, but the undisputed king of the Nintendo Switch catalog still isMario Kart 8 Deluxe, since Nintendo sold 2.31 million units within this fiscal year,and it remains as the best-selling game in the entire console.
The Nintendo Switch has seen better days (But it’s okay)
On the other hand, the shifting trends also show some surprising information regarding their recent sales. For starters, the Nintendo Switch itself had a significant decrease of 31.0% in yearly hardware sales, and a 27.6% decrease in the software equivalent.
This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. After all, the Switch has been out for over seven years, andNintendo has already stated that it plans to release its successor within this fiscal year. Most people who wanted to buy a Switch most likely already have one, and those few who still don’t have may prefer to wait for its successor.
After all, most successful video game consoles sell fewer units around the time the company’s next system is about to launch, so these numbers are not worrying at all. Nintendo still managed to sell 6.84 million Switch units in this fiscal year, meaning thatthe console has achieved 146.04 million units sold in to date. It seems it’sZeldato the rescue once again because Nintendo specifically noted that the Hyrule Edition of the Switch Lite released in September resulted in a significant increment in hardware sales during the second quarter.
Digital software did a lot better, though
The financial report also disclosed that while digital sales of games decreased by 26.5% during the first half of the fiscal year, the overall digital software sales of the Switch proportionally increased by 6.1 percentage points, up to 56.3%. According to Nintendo, there’s a good reason as to why this happened: fewer people bought DLC and add-on content. This makes a lot of sense, seeing as some of the most popular DLC packs in the console, likePokemon Scarlet & Violet’s The Hidden Treasure of Area ZeroorMario Kart 8 Deluxe’sBooster Course Pass, came out in 2023.
Nintendo also revealed that an increase in download-only games and stable sales of its Nintendo Switch Online service caused the proportion of its digital sales to increase on a yearly basis. This means that the company’s new online service, which not only lets players connect to each other to play online but also gives them access to an extensive catalog of classic NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games, has been working very efficiently. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise thatNintendo recently confirmedthat it plans to carry the service onto the Switch’s successor.
The inevitable impact of the Super Mario Bros. Movie
To no one’s surprise,The Super Mario Bros Movie(which becameone of the highest-grossing animated films of all time) energized its video game sales. It didn’t specify which games sold better because of this movie, but it likely affected titles in the Mario series, especially those the company released in 2023, likeSuper Mario Bros. Wonderand theSuper Mario RPGremake.
This means that the sequel will likely do the same,especially considering that it will premiere in 2026,when the Switch’s successor will already be available for purchase worldwide.
