Nintendo’s 2nd Quarter FY 2020 Financial Results

Nintendo has released the financial results of its second quarter of fiscal year 2020 and they show an upswing in performance across the board when compared to the prior year. For the first six months of this reporting period (April 1, 2019 – September 30, 2019) Nintendo came in with Net Sales of 443,967 million yen versus last year’s 388,905 million yen (14% increase). Gross profit was up 23% with 213,103 million yen (172,018 million yen last year). However, foreign exchange losses continue to impact the company’s profit line, which came in at 62,005 million yen versus last year’s 64,289 million yen (down 3.5%). This is an improvement over the first quarter of the year, so the exchange rate was a little kinder to Nintendo over the last three months.

During the first quarter Nintendo sold 2.13 million Switch systems and the second quarter they sold 4.8 million Switches for a total of 6.93 million for the first six months of reporting. When compared to last year, that’s a 36.7% increase. That brings the Switch’s total lifetime install base up to 41.67 million units! Breaking that data down even further reveals that the Switch Lite, which released on September 20, 2019, has sold 1.95 million in just 11 days on the market. Nintendo is still forecasting 18 million Switch systems will be sold for the fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2020.

58.49 million pieces of Switch software have been sold during the first six months of this fiscal year. That’s an increase of 38.8% over last year. Nintendo is forecasting 125 million pieces of software will be sold for the fiscal year. Over the past six months of reporting, eight first party Switch games shifted over a million units.

For this six month reporting period, Super Mario Maker 2 leads the way with 3.93 million sold. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening posts an impressive 3.13 million. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to race on with 2.32 million. Fire Emblem: Three Houses managed to shift 2.29 million. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate continues to fight its way to the top with another 1.9 million sold. My personal favorite game of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, continues to climb with 1.76 million sold. Two Mario games bring up the rear with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe shifting 1.28 million and Super Mario Party managing 1.2 million.

Like most video game companies, Nintendo has seen a huge increase in its digital business. Downloadable versions of packaged software and download-only software, as well as Nintendo Switch Online fees, contributed to digital sales reaching 71.6 billion yen (83% increase over last year). Its mobile business brought in 19.9 billion yen (a 6.4% increase over last year).

With some of its biggest games yet to release on the Switch (Luigi’s Mansion 3 comes out today, Pokémon Sword & Shield release on November 15, 2019, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons hits on March 20, 2020), it appears that Nintendo is in a fantastic position going forward. If it can maintain a steady stream of hit releases the Switch business should continue to prosper.

[Source: Nintendo]

Craig Majaski

Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.