Nintendo profits rise to $6.2bn ahead of quiet year

Nintendo has released its latest financial results, showing a strong year in terms of net sales and profits thanks to the success of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros Wonder and The Super Mario Bros Movie.

For the full year ended March 31, 2024, the platform holder reported net sales rose 4.4% to ¥1.7 trillion ($11 billion) and gross profit up 7.8% to ¥954.3 billion ($6.2 billion). This is despite declines in both hardware and software sales.

The company is expecting a much tougher year, forecasting a 20% drop in net sales for the twelve months ended March 31, 2025.

In a social media post released alongside these results, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the successor to the Switch will be announced "within this fiscal year."

Here's what you need to know:

The numbers

Full year ended March 31, 2024

• Net sales: ¥1.7 trillion ($11 billion, up 4.4% year-on-year)
• Operating profit: ¥528.9 billion ($3.4 billion, up 4.9%)
• Ordinary profit: ¥680.5 billion ($4.4 billion, up 13.2%)
• Gross profit: ¥954.3 billion ($6.2 billion, up 7.8%)

Forecast, year ending March 31, 2025

• Net sales: ¥1.35 trillion ($8.7 billion, down 19.3%)
• Operating profit: ¥400 billion ($2.6 billion, down 24.4%)
• Ordinary profit: ¥420 billion ($2.7 billion, down 38.3%)

The highlights

Nintendo Switch sales dipped 12.6% year-on-year, with 15.7 million units shipped to retail. The OLED model continued to make up the bulk of these at 9.32 million (up 1.1%), while the standard model shipped 3.86 million (down 37.1%).

Just shy of 200 million Switch games were sold during the financial year — 199.7 million, to be exact, down 6.7% when compared to the previous fiscal year.

Despite the dip in both hardware and software, Nintendo told investors that sales are "steady for a platform in its eighth year."

Looking specifically at the previous quarter — three months ended March 31, 2024 — Nintendo sold 1.96 million Switch units (down from 3.06 million in the same period last year), and 35.72 million games (down from 41.85 million).

Digital revenues rose 9.4% year-on-year to ¥44.3 billion ($286.6 million, up 9.4%), thanks to a rise in both sales of download games and add-ons as well as a boost in Nintendo Switch Online revenue.

The platform holder reported the Switch had 123 million annual playing users over the course of the year, up from 116 million last year.

Mobile and IP-related revenues delivered the most growth, up 81.6% year-on-year to ¥92.7 billion ($599.7 million). Nintendo said this was mostly attributed to the success of The Super Mario Bros Movie, reminding everyone that a sequel is on the way in April 2026.

The Mario movie was also cited as a factor in the performance of certain games — most notably Mario Kart 8 DX, the Switch's biggest seller, which shifted another 8.18 million units over the course of the year. It has sold 61.97 million since launching in April 2017.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the biggest seller of the year at 20.61 million units, followed Super Mario Bros Wonder at 13.44 million.

The company's two most recent releases both sold more than one million units, with March's Princess Peach: Showtime at 1.22 million and February's remake of Mario vs Donkey Kong at 1.12 million.

In total, 31 Switch titles sold more than one million units during the fiscal year, including 20 first-party titles.