Nintendo Q1 profits decline 55% as the Switch nears the end of its lifecycle
Hardware sales were down 46.3%, while software sales decreased by 41.3%
Nintendo reported a significant decrease in sales and net profit for the first quarter of FY2025, in what marks the eighth year of the Nintendo Switch console.
The publisher saw decreases across all segments, which it attributed to Q1 2025 being relatively quiet in terms of releases compared to the same period last year, which saw the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The numbers
For three months ended June 30, 2024:
- Net sales: ¥246.6 billion ($1.6 billion), down 46.5% year-on-year
- Net profit: ¥80.9 billion ($542.9 million), down 55.3% year-on-year
- Hardware: 2.1 million units (down 46.3% year-on-year)
- Software: 30.6 million units (down 41.3% year-on-year)
The highlights
Sales on Nintendo's platforms were down 46.4% to ¥229 billion ($1.5 billion), including hardware, software, and accessories. Mobile and IP-related sales also fell by 53.8% to ¥14.7 billion ($98.6 million).
Nintendo noted that during the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, both software and hardware sales were boosted by the releases of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Super Mario Bros Movie.
It attributed the decrease in units sales of hardware and software to there being no "special factors" like this during Q1 2025, and also highlighted that the Switch is in its eighth year since launch.
Speaking of hardware, unit sales for the Switch family dropped 46.3% year-on-year to 2.1 million units.
The standard model moved 530,000 units, a decrease of 18.4% compared to the 640,000 units sold during the same period last year. The Switch Lite shipped 330,000 units, a decrease of 23.3% compared to the previous figure of 430,000 units sold in the three months ended in June 2023.
It was the OLED model that sold the most during this period at 1.24 million units, but this was down 56.1% compared to the 2.83 million units sold during Q1 2024.
As for software, unit sales declined 41.3% year-on-year to 30.64 million units compared to the 52.21 million units shipped last year.
Released in May, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door sold 1.76 million units, while Luigi's Mansion 2 HD sold 1.19 million units after its release in June.
Princess Peach: Showtime, which was released during the previous fiscal year, posted a cumulative sell-through of over 1.3 million units during this period.
Digital sales accounted for over half the total software sales on Switch during Q1 2025, but fell 32.6% year-on-year to ¥80.7 billion ($541.3 billion) compared to ¥119.6 billion the previous year.
However, Nintendo stated that sales of download-only software and Nintendo Switch Online revenue remained stable during this period, and as a result "the proportion of digital sales has increased year-on-year."
Elsewhere, Nintendo highlighted that 74.2% of sales were made overseas with 44.8% of sales made in the Americas, 25.8% in Japan, and 21.3% in Europe.
Looking ahead, the publisher said there were no changes in its expectations for the full year, which were announced during its financial report on May 7.