Switch sales lead Nintendo's first quarter while 3DS and mobile income stagnate

Nintendo has closed out the first quarter of its 2018 fiscal year, reporting an overall 88.4 percent increase in profit year-over-year, along with a 9 percent increase in net sales. 

For the three month period ending June 30, 2018, Nintendo reported 30.5 billion yen (~$272.8 million) in profit, up from 16.2 billion yen (~$144.9 million) reported the preceding year. Sales also saw a year-over-year increase, rising from 154 billion yen (~$1.4 billion) to 168.1 billion yen (~$1.5 billion).

While that sales figure includes all hardware and software sales across Nintendo’s different platforms, the company notes specifically that digital games and add-on content for the Switch brought in 18.5 billion yen (~$165. 5 million) on its own, a 68 percent increase year-over-year. 

This quarter saw lifetime hardware sales for the Nintendo Switch approach the 20 million mark though, compared to last year, quarterly Switch sales actually saw a 4.4 percent decrease. Instead, Nintendo says its first quarter was held up by a strong showing from Switch software sales, which showed a 120.8 percent increase year-over-year to 17.96 million units (counting both digital and physical).

The past three months saw the launch of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Switch, which sold 1.4 million units, and Mario Tennis Aces, which sold 1.38 million units. Nintendo’s craftable Nintendo Labo kits also launched during Q1 and sold 1.39 million units overall. Overall, the company notes that games released during the 2017 fiscal year also performed well and that Switch games released by third-party publishers are also “showing steady growth.”

While the Switch gave a strong showing during this quarterly report overall, sales of both 3DS hardware and software showed year-over-year declines. Nintendo says it sold roughly 360,000 devices from the 3DS family of handhelds, a 61.9 percent decrease year-over-year, and only 2.95 million software units, a 49.6 percent decrease. Moving forward, the company notes that its 3DS plans lean on “[continuing] to leverage the platform’s rich software library and its hardware install base to further expand sales of evergreen titles.”

Nintendo’s mobile efforts, meanwhile, didn’t bear any new games during this quarter but income related to previous titles like Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp came in around 9 billion yen (~$80.5 million) for the quarter, only a .4 percent increase from last year’s numbers.