Nintendo Downgrades Annual Forecast Amid 31% Sales Drop to $6.1 Billion

Nintendo's financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, indicate a continued slump in both hardware and software sales as the company prepares to launch the Switch 2. Key highlights include: a 31.4% year-over-year decrease in net sales to ¥956.2 billion ($6.1 billion), and a 41.9% decline in net profit to ¥237.1 billion ($1.5 billion). The company sold 9.5 million hardware units, down 30.6% from the previous year, and 123.8 million software units, representing a 24.4% decrease. Nintendo has adjusted its forecast for the fiscal year, now expecting ¥1.1 trillion ($7 billion) in sales, a 7% decrease from its previous projection, and ¥270 billion ($1.7 billion) in net profit, down 10% from the prior forecast. Dedicated platform sales fell 31.7% to ¥895.5 billion ($5.7 billion), while mobile and IP-related sales declined 33.9% to ¥49.7 billion ($320 million). The Switch, Switch Lite, and OLED model shipped 2.74 million, 1.73 million, and 5.07 million units, respectively, with the OLED model experiencing a 37.9% year-over-year decline. Despite the decline, Nintendo noted that sales have remained stable given the Switch's age. New titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Party Jamboree showed steady growth, with the latter surpassing 5.6 million units in its first eleven weeks. Digital sales decreased by 29% year-over-year to ¥245.8 billion ($1.5 billion), attributed to a drop in downloadable versions of packaged software and add-on content. Nintendo now expects to sell 11 million hardware units and 150 million software units for the fiscal year, down from its previous forecasts of 12.5 million and 160 million, respectively.