Nintendo Releases First Quarter Fiscal 2020 Results

Switch

by Donald Theriault - August 6, 2020, 7:29 am EDT
Total comments: 7 Source: Nintendo

Some black swan events lead to nearly holiday-level results.

Nintendo released their financial results for the first fiscal quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal year earlier today, shattering multiple records in the process.

All monetary figures reported in yen, with comparisons to the US dollar based on a market rate of $1 = ¥105.547 provided for comparison only.

Financial Results

Operating income: ¥144.737b ($1.371b), year-over-year increase ¥117.309b ($1.111b)
Ordinary income: ¥150.329b ($1.424b), YOY increase ¥128.097b ($1.213b)
Revenue: ¥358.106b ($3.393b), YOY increase ¥185.985b ($1.762b)
Digital sales: ¥101b ($956.92m), YOY increase ¥71b ($672.7m)
Mobile revenue: ¥13.2b ($125.062m), YOY increase ¥3.2b ($30.318m)

These results represent the best fiscal Q1 for Nintendo ever.

Hardware Shipments

The only system broken out separately was the Switch, which shipped 5.68m units in the quarter for a new lifetime total of 61.44m (470,000 units short of the NES). The split of systems sold was 2.62m Switch Lites, 3.06m Switches. This is the fourth best hardware shipment for a first quarter ever by Nintendo, trailing only the Nintendo DS from 2007-09.

Software Movement

A total of 50.43m units of Switch software were moved in the first quarter. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the biggest mover, shipping 10.63m units for a new life-to-date total of 22.4 million shipments in a little over three months.

Nintendo's two new software products in the quarter, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, both shipped more than a million units in the quarter. XC:DE shipped 1.32m (including 1.04m outside Japan), while Clubhouse Games shipped 1.03m units.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe shipped another 1.97m units to move to a LTD of 26.74m, and is still the best selling Switch software for now. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rose to a LTD of 19.99m with a 1.15m unit Q1, the Switch version of Breath of the Wild moved 1.19m units for a new LTD of 18.6m, and Pokemon Sword/Shield (with the first part of its two part DLC shipping in the quarter) moved 850,000 units in the quarter to round out the top 5 at 18.22m units. Ring Fit Adventure, despite significant shortages worldwide, was the final Nintendo game to ship a million copies in the quarter (1.17m) and is now at 3.9m as of June 30. As of July 31, it is over 4m copies shipped.

New Software Information

Pikmin 3 Deluxe and the rollup version of Cadence of Hyrule are both on the schedule as announced, while New Pokemon Snap is on the schedule as TBD. Bravely Default II and Paper Mario: The Origami King (already released) are the only other games on the international list.

Talkback

LemonadeAugust 06, 2020

One million sales per week since Animal Crossing launched is insane.

M.K.UltraAugust 06, 2020

Well by now the Switch has passed the NES. What hardware line is next to surpass in sales?

Luigi DudeAugust 06, 2020

Quote from: Mr.

Well by now the Switch has passed the NES. What hardware line is next to surpass in sales?

That'll be the 3DS at 75.87 million. The way the systems selling it'll probably do that by the end of the year.

Those Animal Crossing sales are beyond insane. I said back in April after the game sold over 12 million copies in a month that it should easily have the legs to pass 20 million. I was expecting it to do that in the coming year or two. Not in the very next quarter. :o

The way things are going 30 million is a pretty easy lock. You don't sell 22 million copies in 3 months and then drop of the face of the earth. I wouldn't be surprised if it hits that mark by the end of the year even. Hell, after what it just did last quarter, it's might even do that before the end of the year. Saying this game might even reach the 40 million mark is easily within the realm of possible depending on how the Switch continues to perform in the coming years.

It's really funny to think about how angry some people got when Isabelle was first revealed to be in Smash Bros Ultimate. At the rate this series continues to grow, Isabelle is going to literally become the new face of Nintendo.