Nintendo Switch sales top 100 million units

Jiji Press

16:06 JST, February 4, 2022

KYOTO (Jiji Press) — Japan’s Nintendo Co. said Thursday that cumulative sales of its Nintendo Switch video game console have surpassed the 100-million-unit milestone, reaching 103.54 million units.

In addition to the continued robust sales since the console was released in March 2017, the company managed to capture demand among people staying at home amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Nintendo, however, revised down its Switch sales estimate to 23 million units for the current fiscal year to March, down by one million units from its initial plan, with the company forced to cut production due to a worldwide semiconductor shortage.

The downward revision came after Nintendo lowered the annual sales projection by 1.5 million units from 25.5 million units in November last year, reflecting difficulties in procuring parts due to the semiconductor shortage.

“Switch sales remained strong during the (Christmas) holiday season last year,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an online press conference.

With the Switch entering the sixth year since its release, Furukawa said, “While (sales) would normally lose momentum little by little, we hope to break out of such a pattern.”

Cumulative sales of the Switch have surpassed those of Nintendo’s Wii console, which totaled 101.63 million units.

Also on Thursday, Nintendo revised up its consolidated net profit forecast for the current fiscal year from ¥350 billion to ¥400 billion, thanks to its efforts to beef up game software sales and the depreciation of the yen.

For April-December 2021, Nintendo suffered decreases in sales and net profit, following strong results the year before attributed to brisk sales of the “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” game title. In the first nine months of fiscal 2021, Nintendo’s sales fell 6.0% from a year earlier to ¥1,320,219 million, while net profit dropped 2.5% to ¥367,387 million.