Profits and sales up at Nintendo as Switch continues momentum

Net sales and profits have been given a boost at Nintendo thanks to the continued success of the Switch, which has just surpassed 52 million lifetime sales. 

According to the company's financial report for the nine months ended December 31, 2019, net sales rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 1.02 trillion yen ($9.4 billion), while profits increased by 16.4 percent to 196.4 billion yen ($1.8 billion) during the same period. 

Focusing on hardware, Switch sales rose by 22.5 percent year-on-year to 17.74 million units, with Nintendo touting "significant sales growth for the entire Nintendo Switch family," which comprises the original Switch and the handheld-only Switch Lite. 

As a result of that forward momentum, lifetime Switch sales currently stand at 52.48 million units, taking it past the SNES' lifetime sales total of 49.10 million units, and more than doubling the 21.74 million sales achieved by the GameCube. 

It's a figure that means the Switch has sold around 10 million units in three months, given lifetime sales stood at 42 million units back in October 2019. 

Nintendo explains that hardware growth was helped along by the Switch's launch in China and "huge hits" like Pokemon Sword and Shield, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Super Marion Maker 2 -- with Pokemon shifting 16.06 million units and the latter two titles selling 5 million units apiece. Overall, software sales for the nine-month period increased by 30.1 percent to 123.3 million units. 

On the handheld front, 3DS sales decreased by 73 percent year-on-year to 0.62 million units, while software sales also fell by 63 percent to 4.10 million units. 

Digital sales, meanwhile, continue to grow steadily and rose by 48.3 percent year-on-year to 124.9 billion yen ($1.14 billion), with Nintendo Switch Online contributing to that upswing. It was a similar story on mobile, where sales increased by 10.6 percent to 36.9 billion yen ($338.8 million). 

Based on the sales performance for the year, Nintendo has upwardly revised its consolidated full-year forecast and now anticipates net sales of 1.25 trillion yen ($11.5 billion) and profits of 210 billion yen ($1.92 billion) by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2020.