Nintendo claims Switch is its ‘main business’ entering 2024, as console clears 139m

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa again declined to comment on plans for its next-generation console on Tuesday, as the company shared its latest sales results.

The exec instead insisted that the current Nintendo Switch iteration would be Nintendo’s “main business” heading into 2024. The company’s plan for the next fiscal year will be shared at its next earnings briefing in May, he said (via Bloomberg).

Switch is now approaching its seventh year on the market, and the expectation is that Nintendo will launch a successor console later this year.

The current Switch has now cleared 139.36m units, the company shared in its results for the three months ended December 31, 2023.

That means it has around 15m units to go if it’s to become Nintendo’s best-selling hardware ever, beating Nintendo DS‘s 154m. Outside of Nintendo’s consoles, only PlayStation 2 (155m) has outsold Nintendo Switch.

THE BEST-SELLING SWITCH GAMES

*As of December 31, 2023 (compared to Sep 2023)

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 60.58m (+3.57m)
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 44.79m (+1.41m)
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 33.67m (+1.23m)
4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 31.61m (+0.46m)
5. Super Mario Odyssey – 27.65m (+0.7m)
6. Pokemon Sword/Shield – 26.17m (+0.15m)
7. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – 24.36m (+1.13)
8. Super Mario Party – 20.34m (+0.68m)
9. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 20.28m (+0.78m)
10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 17.20 (+0.5m)

Dr Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based game industry consultancy Kantan Games, told VGC Switch sales continued to break convention for an ageing console.

“Has there ever been a console with stronger legs that late in the lifecycle? There have been no price cuts, only sporadic bundles or deals and not even a new Pokémon game this holiday. Yet, the device keeps on selling and selling.

“I expect the current Switch has a bit of time left in the market even after the new hardware hits, especially when Nintendo can reduce the price for late adopters.”

During the three months until December 31, Nintendo reported an operating profit of ¥184 billion yen, slightly down on the same period last year but better than many analyst estimates. The company raised its forecast for console sales (up to 15.5m from 15m) and profit for the year accordingly.

Switch console sell-in was down 7.8% year-on-year at 13.74m units. 27.21% of those hardware sales were in Japan, behind North America (35.29%), but ahead of Europe (25.9%).

This is unusually strong performance for a console reaching the end of its lifespan. However, Switch hardware sales are clearly in decline, especially in the major markets outside of Japan.

In Nintendo’s last fiscal year, Switch sales (17.97m) declined by 22% compared to the previous year, and if it reaches its current target of 15m for this year, that will represent a further decline of 13.7%.

In software, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the first entirely new instalment in the side-scrolling series in almost 11 years, saw a strong start with sales of 11.96 million units. Super Mario RPG, the Switch remake of the SNES Square Enix classic, debuted with a strong 3.14m units, meaning it’s comfortably outsold the SNES original.

Sales of older titles also grew, with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom selling 20.28 million units and Pikmin 4 selling 3.33 million units.

“In addition, the April release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie positively impacted sales of Mario related titles, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which recorded sales of 6.79 million units (for cumulative sales of 60.58 million units),” Nintendo said.

“As a result of these factors, the total number of million-seller titles during this period was 24, including titles from other software publishers.”

Commenting on the future release schedule, the company said: “Looking at software, we released Another Code: Recollection in January and plan to follow up with the release of Mario vs. Donkey Kong in February and Princess Peach: Showtime! in March. In addition, Splatoon 3: Expansion Pass – Side Order, the second wave of paid add-on content for Splatoon 3, is scheduled to arrive in February.”