Nintendo By The Numbers
Nintendo has released its latest earnings report and before you click away, it’s really interesting. Nintendo’s earnings are in a very strong position and Company President Shuntaro Furukawa stated in the earnings briefing that the Switch will be Nintendo’s main business focus moving into 2024… but conspicuously doesn’t mention much about the latter half of the year and I’m pretty sure we know why… That being said I’m not here to talk about the Switch successor, there are about 4 million other videos on YouTube that can do that for you. Instead, let’s take a look at how your favorite franchised stacked up in sales, how the hardware is performing, and what the data shows for the future of Nintendo Gamers. As always I want to hear your input so let me know your thoughts, and if I can make a shameless plug, don’t forget to like and subscribe, as it helps me out tremendously. I want to also thank Archie Blunn for his help with making sense of some of this data, couldn’t have done this article without you mate.
Starting off with Hardware:
Switch sales have reached an incredible 122 MILLION units, and despite being in its 7th year of being on the shelf, the sell-through has remained steady and more annual users are playing than ever before. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furakawa made no mention of plans to replace the aging hardware, and in a briefing to investors has stated that he wants “to maintain the momentum of the Switch business.” It makes sense and also provides the unique challenge of replacing an incredibly popular machine. I’ll cover more on that in the predictions section of the video. Now, the indications of sales show a 34.9% dip in hardware sales compared to last year, which means that the Switch market is starting to show signs of exhaustion as we reach the end of its cycle.
Software
In the interest of not dragging things out too much, I’m going to focus on 17 of the biggest-selling Switch titles. There were a total of 24 titles to make the “Million Club,” and of those, 17 were first-party titles from Nintendo. All of these figures are Lifetime Sales and global releases, and I’ve put them in order from smallest to largest. There are a lot of surprises in here, so let’s see how your favorite title stacks up!
Super Mario RPG – 3,140,000
While it may seem like a small number, this is a really promising sales target, that indicates gamers want to see more games like Mario RPG
Pikmin 4 -3,330,000
Pikmin 4 was one of the highest critically acclaimed Switch releases of 2023, and the best-selling Pikmin Title to date.
Splatoon 3 – 11,710,000
Splatoon 3 is still making an impact on Switch thanks to its constant updates after a rough server launch and continued Splatfests.
Mario Wonder – 11,960,000
This is a huge number considering the game was released less than 6 months ago. A perfect example of relaxed development and deadlines leading to better game design.
Mario Party Superstars – 12,310,000
Mario Party features twice on this list and it’s been a fan favorite since the N64 days.
Nintendo Switch Sports – 12,480,000
Wii Sports (while included in the Wii hardware) was always a fan favorite so there are no surprises here.
Mario 3d World + Bowsers Fury – 13,170,000
A great collection second only to 3D All-Stars, which according to IGN, netted almost 10 million in sales during its limited run.
Luigis Mansion – 13,980,000
A fantastic game hopefully bolstered by the Dark Moon Remake that Nintendo seems to have gone eerily quiet on.
New Mario U Deluxe – 17,200,000
Another solid 2D Mario Title, there are no surprises here.
Tears of the Kingdom – 20,280,000
A solid follow-up to Breath of the Wild that hasn’t quite hit the heights its predecessor did. I would say if we weren’t towards the end of the Consoles cycle it could have beat it.
Super Mario Party – 20,340,000
Always a fan favorite, this was the earlier Mario Party game to grace the Switch. Very fun but with limited boards.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet – 24,360,000
I can’t say I’ve heard anything good about these titles, yet it still boasts skyrocketing sales figures. Looks like I better grab a copy and give it a go.
Mario Odyssey – 27,650,000
Easily one of the best Mario titles around.
Breath of the Wild – 31,170,000
Breath of the Wild did the impossible by trumping Ocarina of Time once and for all. These sales figures are indicative of that legacy.
Smash Bros – 33,670,000
A very popular party game and it’s no surprise to see it in the 3rd position for lifetime sales.
Animal Crossing – 44,790,000
I have a huge feature article coming out about this but previous entries were around the 11 million mark, Nintendo caught lightning in a bottle here with it’s outstanding gameplay and surreal timing with the global pandemic.
Mario Kart – 60,580,000
No surprise here but these figures show nearly half the Switch gaming population owns this game.
Who missed out?
Advance Wars 1 + 2 Rebooted failed to break the 1 million in sales mark, unfortunately, and most likely fell short of Nintendo’s projections. The game was continuously delayed for around 2 years due to the ongoing conflict overseas. Whilst I completely understand the move to delay the title, I think it really hurt its sales considering Tears of the Kingdom dropped a month later. I do hope that Nintendo re-visits this franchise, but I feel like that may be a while off now. Also interesting to note how well Bowsers Fury did, I’m still a bit baffled by Nintendo’s decision to limit copies of 3D All-Stars in circulation but I can confidently say if they didn’t, we would see All-Stars much higher than Bowsers Fury on the list. 1st Pary Releases also failing to make the list include Wario Ware- Move It, Detective Pikachu Returns, and Everybody 1 2 Switch.
Predictions
I’m not going to speculate on Switch 2 hardware, but I do want to share some predictions that make sense due to this data. Nintendo now faces a unique challenge to move these 122 million users across to new hardware, something they came undone with when moving people from the Wii to the Wii U, which we all know how that went. Nintendo has previously stated that they want to adopt a similar approach to Xbox accounts where moving to new hardware doesn’t mean starting again, and I certainly think that Backwards compatibility will make a much smoother transition, as I happily upgraded my Seriex X knowing there was my entire catalog of games to tide me over.
There’s a solid lineup with 3rd party support up until July at the moment so I think it’s highly likely we can expect a Nintendo Direct this month, which may be the last Switch-specific one. We will most likely see Metroid Prime 2 & 3, I feel like 4 will hold out till the new Hardware, a few remakes like we already have, and a bigger focus on digital ports as it contributed to almost 50% of software sales. We will most likely see new hardware launch around November, or before April next year but that’s all speculation at this point.
Whatever the future holds, it’s certainly going to be exciting for Nintendo Gamers!
