Nintendo has today released its financial results for Q1 of the fiscal year ending March 2021. In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, Nintendo has managed to clock up some incredibly impressive sales numbers with games like Animal Crossing and Ring Fit Adventure the big winners.
Most impressively, this year's biggest hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now sold over 22 million copies and sits second in the all-time best selling Nintendo Switch software chart. Those results are astonishing for a game that has only been out for just over four months. The 22 million units sold means that Animal Crossing has now outsold most of Nintendo's biggest franchises on the Switch, including the likes of Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. With the game receiving regular updates, don't be surprised to see these numbers continue to rise.
Over the three month period reported (April through June) Nintendo had seven games sell over a million copies - Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ring Fit Adventure, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics.
The latest results detail the top 10 selling Switch titles, which look like this:
Mario Kart 8 - 26.74 million units
Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 22.40 million units
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 19.99 million units
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 18.60 million units
Pokemon Sword/Shield - 18.22 million units
Super Mario Odyssey - 18.06 million units
Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee - 12.20 million units
Super Mario Party - 10.94 million units
Splatoon 2 - 10.71 million units
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 7.44 million units
Overall Nintendo's software sales for this period are up 140% year-on-year and their digital sales increased by a whopping 230% YOY. Interestingly Nintendo's mobile income also grew 32.7% YOY - this is despite the fact that the company have said they are winding down their mobile operations.
As for the Switch itself, despite some major production and stock issues, lifetime sales have hit 61.44 million. This equated to a total of 5.68 million units sold between April and June, which is a 166% increase on this time last year. That figure breaks down to a total of 3.05 million units of the standard Nintendo Switch and 2.62 million units of the Nintendo Switch Lite being sold. Comparatively the PS4 sold 1.9 million units over the same period.
Although it comes as no great surprise, in the report Nintendo also breaks down what they still have in the pipeline:
Between now and the end of this year, they have a grand total of two things dated. The Cadence of Hyrule DLC and the recently announced Pikmin 3 Deluxe. While for fans it may be concerning, I'm sure Nintendo isn't worried. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has already hit such lofty sales numbers and that's without being sold through a holiday season, which it will have a chance to do at the end of this year.
While there's no denying these numbers have received a nice boost as a result of the pandemic, Nintendo will be undoubtedly over the moon with these set of figures. Here's hoping they announced a couple more things just to give this holiday season a boost.