Nintendo Switch sales plummet as gamers wait for successor

There are quite a few players who are clamoring for a successor for Switch, a clamor that has also been joined by Nintendo’s financial resultsThe Japanese company has reported a significant drop in both revenue and profit, which is a direct cause of the collapse in sales of the aforementioned console. It is also fair to add that this quarter is facing the one from a year ago, when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released and Super Mario Bros.: The Movie hit theaters.

In previous quarters, some Nintendo Switch models have fared well in comparison to the same period last year, but the latest report has seen no exceptions. Nintendo hardware sales have fallen by 46.3%, with all models, including the standard, OLED and Lite, experiencing a year-over-year decline in sales. The most notable is the Nintendo Switch OLED, which saw sales drop by 56.1%, while the standard and Lite models saw declines of 18.4% and 23.2%, respectively.

Last quarter, 2.10 million Nintendo Switch units were sold, and since its launch it has sold 143.42 million units, twice as many as the Nintendo 3DS. Only the Nintendo DS is ahead of it with 154 million units. Software sales have also not brought Nintendo any joy, having suffered a year-on-year drop of 41.3%.

“During the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, hardware and software sales were very strong for a first quarter, with Super Mario Bros.: The Movie driving our console business and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releasing alongside hardware themed to that game,” Nintendo says in its latest financial report. “In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, and with Nintendo Switch entering its eighth year since launch, year-over-year hardware and software sales decreased significantly.”

As Nintendo itself acknowledges, these results can be explained by two reasons: the long-standing Switch is in its final days and its successor will not be announced during the current fiscal year, and the first quarter’s releases have not managed to match Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which managed to sell 18.5 million units in six weeks. In addition, Super Mario Bros.: The Movie boosted sales of the console and the already available Mario titles. In the first quarter of this year, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD sold 1.76 million and 1.19 million units, respectively.

Despite all this, Nintendo is still planning to ship 13.5 million Switch consoles during the current fiscal year. Its main targets are: Emio – The Smiler: Famicom Detective Club (August 29), Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (September 26), Super Mario Party Jamboree (October 17), Mario & Luigi: Brotherly Connection (November 7) and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (January 16, 2025). A price reduction for the console could also help.

For those interested in Nintendo’s numbers, the company reported sales revenue of 246.6 billion yen (1.531 billion euros) and profit of 80.9 billion yen (502 million euros), representing a year-on-year decline of 46.5% and 55.3%, respectively.