Nintendo has released its financial report for the 2023 financial year, highlighting mobile gaming’s space in the company’s portfolio.
Nintendo has long been one of the biggest names in the games industry, and arguably has the greatest mobile presence of the three major console developers. However, while Microsoft and Sony have both made numerous moves to gain greater footholds on the platform, Nintendo is seemingly less concerned with its mobile portfolio, with a spokesperson in December stating that the company sees mobile gaming as a marketing strategy as opposed to a revenue generator in its own right.
Nintendo generated 1,601,677 million yen ($11.9 billion) in the 2023 financial year, with the bulk of the company’s revenue coming from the Nintendo Switch. Mobile and IP related income accounted for a relatively small amount of 51,067 million ($380 million).
Overall revenue fell 5.5%, with the company generating 1,695,344 million yen ($12.6 million) in 2022. Mobile and IP related income saw a fall of 4.2% compared to 53,342 million yen ($396.6 million) in 2022.
A winning strategy?
Nintendo is seemingly content with its current place in the mobile games space, with Super Mario Run director Shigeru Miyamoto stating last month that, despite the success of the Mario franchise, mobile will “not be the primary path” for future games in the franchise. However, it’s notable that while Nintendo saw declines across most of its portfolio over the previous year, mobile proved comparatively resilient despite the shuttering of several games.
It’s also worth considering where in the revenue came from, which highlights one notable boon for Nintendo’s mobile games – namely, their success in Japan. The spiritual home of the games industry has long been somewhat slow to adapt to phones as a gaming platform, however the country generated 18,746 million yen ($139.2 million) in revenue in 2023, making it the second largest market after The Americas, which generated 26,385 million yen ($195 million).
We listed Nintendo as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
