Nintendo continues to take the gaming world by storm. The company, which achieved great success with the Swtich it released in 2019, climbed to the top in the console wars, which it started at a disadvantage. However, it seems that the main element behind the success of the company is not the console, but the games inside. Recent financial reports have shown that Nintendo’s success comes from games like The Legend of Zelda and Mario.
Thanks to Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda and Mario
Nintendo attributed its strong financial performance in the last quarter largely to the success of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. From its release on May 12 to June 30, the game has sold 18.51 million copies.
This marks Nintendo’s highest global sales volume since its Switch launch in 2017. This success of the game also increased the sales of console and other hardware, and Nintendo sold 3.91 million products in the same quarter.
Sales of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom positively impacted all Switch family systems, resulting in a 13.9% year-on-year increase in unit sales. The OLED-screen Switch accounted for the bulk of these sales, with 2.83 million games sold on this platform. The Standard Switch and Switch Lite sold 0.64 million and 0.43 million units, respectively. But the company’s success isn’t just due to Zelda.
Besides Zelda, another major contributor to the company’s income statement was The Super Mario Bros. The movie made a huge impact when it was released. Nintendo announced that as of July 30, 168.1 million people worldwide watched the movie, and as of July 26, its global box office revenue was $1.349 billion.
This is the highest revenue for an original movie based on a video game. Nintendo has announced that they will continue their efforts towards visual content related initiatives after the success of the movie. This success of the Mario movie has increased the sales of Mario games and Mario products such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Software sales also grew, with unit sales in the quarter increasing 26.1% year on year to 52.21 million units. Tears of the Kingdom’s 18.51 million units contributed to more than a third of those sales.
Nintendo reported a significant year-on-year increase in net sales, with net sales rising to 461.3 billion yen (50%) and operating profit to 185.4 billion yen (82.4%).
The success of Tears of the Kingdom, The Super Mario Bros. Other factors contributed to Nintendo’s strong financial performance in the first quarter of the year and helped Nintendo achieve its best release since 2017.
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