Switch nears 93 million sales but Nintendo has cut its annual target
Hardware sales forecast reduced due to the effects of the semiconductor shortage
Nintendo has reported updated Switch hardware and software sales figures as part of its second quarter financial results.
The company said on Thursday that Switch had sold-in (shipped) 92.87 million units as of September 30, 2021 – up 3.83 million units since June 30.
Nintendo also confirmed that it has cut its annual Switch shipment forecast from 25.5 million units three months earlier to 24 million units “because of the change in our production plan due to the effects of the global semiconductor shortage”.
Switch launched in March 2017, Switch Lite released in September 2019, and a new Nintendo Switch OLED model launched in October 2021.
The platform is closing in on the company’s best-selling home console to date, Nintendo Wii, which ushered in an era of motion controls and family gaming when it launched in 2006 before going on to ship 101.63 million units.
While Nintendo cuts its annual hardware sales target, the company increased its Switch software forecast by 10 million units to 200 million units “based on the sales performance of the first half”.
Nintendo said its full year revenue forecast was unchanged, but the company upwardly revised its operating profit forecast by 4% and its net profit forecast by 2.9%.
It noted that the March 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons “prompted a significant increase” in hardware and software sales during the first half of its previous fiscal year. This resulted in notable year-over-year declines for the first six months of the current business year.
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“So compared to the same period of last year, unit sales have declined for both hardware and software. As a result, hardware sales totaled 8.28 million units (a decrease of 34.0% year-on-year), and software sales totaled 93.89 million units (a decrease of 6.3% year-on-year).”
The company has also updated its list of Switch’s best-selling games. They are Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (38.74 million), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (34.85 million), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (25.71 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (24.13 million), Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield (22.64 million), Super Mario Odyssey (21.95 million), Super Mario Party (16.48 million), Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu And Eevee (13.83 million), Splatoon 2 (12.68 million), and Ring Fit Adventure (12.21 million).
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is now also the series’ best-selling entry ever, having surpassed Mario Kart Wii’s previous franchise record of 37.38 million.
