Nintendo’s Profits Increase by a Whopping 500% Because of the Switch Popularity
It was just announced that Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima will be stepping down from the company. Shuntaro Furukawa, currently the director of Pokémon Co, will be taking over. In addition to this announcement, Nintendo has also revealed their latest financial reports, and with the 2017 fiscal coming to an end, it’s hard not to impressed by the numbers. What is no doubt due to the huge success of the Switch, the company has seen an increase in profits by a whopping 500%!
While it may not be that hard to imagine because of the Switch’s massive success, this is surely the best year Nintendo’s had in a while, and they should be proud of it. The company reported net sales of 1.05 trillion yen during the 2017 fiscal year that ended on March 31st. This translates to approximately $9.7 billion USD, an amount that’s up 105 percent over the previous year. And the profits have increased 505 percent, from 29.3 billion yen, or $270 million USD in 2016 to a total of 177.8 billion yen in 2017, or $1.5 billion USD.
It’s not hard to figure out where the major increases in profit have resulted from, as the Switch is one of the most successful gaming consoles to date. In fact last year it was so popular that Nintendo increased its forecast from 10 million units sold to 15 million by January of 2018. As of March 31st the beast of a system has sold 17.79 million units in its lifetime!
Digital sales were a major factor of Switch’s success, with a combined total of 60.8 billion yen, almost $5.7 million USD. And as it turns out, there were 12 games that hit the million units sold mark over the course of the fiscal, including Mario Kart Deluxe 8 at 9.2 million, Super Mario Odyssey at 10.41 million, and Splatoon 2 at 6.02 million.