Nintendo has reported its financial results for the previous nine months, ending on December 31, 2022. While revenue has experienced a dip across the board, the Nintendo Switch has reached a new milestone. Net sales were down 2% year-on-year to $9.4 billion, while mobile and IP-related income dipped by 2.3%, earning Nintendo $295 million from that section.
During this period, Nintendo sold 5.22 million base Switch console units versus 11.79 million during the same period the previous year, a 55.7% drop year-on-year. However, sales of the Switch OLED model increased by 92.5% year-on-year, going from 3.99 million units sold the year before to 7.69 million units sold in 2022. As for the Switch Lite, it saw a 37% drop year-on-year, selling just 2 million units during this nine-month period. Combined, this accounts for 14.91 million Switch consoles sold during this window.
Nintendo is being cautious and has adjusted its expectations for 2023 after hardware sales did not perform as expected during the holiday season. Nintendo is estimating that it will sell 18 million Switch consoles and 205 million game copies during its full fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2023.
Despite the decline in sales, Nintendo did note that the “number of annual playing users is increasing,” estimating it had 122 million annual playing users from January to December 2022. The console has sold a very impressive 122.5 million units since its launch in 2017, with software sales accounting for 994.30 million copies sold. The Switch is now the third best-selling video game console of all time, trailing behind the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS family of handheld consoles.
While software sales were down 4% year-on-year, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet saw massive success upon release, with the latest mainstream Pokemon games selling 20.61 million units so far, making last year’s entry the fourth best-selling Pokemon game of all time.
Nintendo added that “unit sales of first-party software continue at the highest levels seen since the launch of Nintendo Switch” and that Nintendo Switch Online revenue increased, helping to push its digital revenue gains up to $2.3 billion, a 21.5% increase year-on-year.
