- Nintendo generated ¥54.5 billion in operating profit during its Q1, down by 70.6% year-on-year
- There were few new releases to compete with last year’s hits like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Get Industry News In Your Inbox…
Sign Up Today
Nintendo’s Q1 operating profit fell by 70.6% year-on-year, down to ¥54.5 billion ($376.3 million) during the start of its fiscal year.
In the same period, sales declined by 46.5% year-on-year to ¥246.6 billion ($1.7 billion) with ¥229 billion ($1.6 billion) of that total coming from Nintendo’s video games business – also down by a near-identical 46.4%.
These falls were largely the result of declines across Switch hardware and software sales, with the company clearly focused on preparing its next new console instead.
During the quarter, Nintendo launched few first-party Switch titles and those that were released were remasters – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD.
Each sold over one million units but paled in comparison to last year’s highly anticipated Q1 release The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which sold 18.5 million units in the period.
Add in The Super Mario Bros. Movie to Nintendo’s 2023 feats, and suddenly 2024 looks relatively uneventful.
But, as usual, the exact impact of Nintendo’s mobile enterprises remain elusive, with its financial results combining mobile game earnings with other “IP related business”…
Nintendo’s mobile mystery
Like most other figures this quarter, sales in Nintendo’s mobile and IP related business have decreased, here down by 53.8% year-on-year to ¥14.7 billion ($101.6 million). This was “mainly” the result of declining income from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, in theatres a year ago with a “high level of audience engagement”, but now relegated to streaming services and Blu-ray sales.
How much of that ¥14.7 billion ($101.6 million) comes from mobile is unknown, but Nintendo attributed the decline to falling revenue “related to the movie”, indicating the success of its mobile games – however successful – has remained stable year-on-year.
Over the full 12 months of its previous fiscal year, Nintendo’s mobile and IP related business generated a total ¥92.7 billion ($600.2 million), up by 81.6% at the time. That year also saw Nintendo’s $1 billion maker Fire Emblem Heroes celebrate its seventh anniversary on mobile.
Bonus numbers
While Nintendo’s operating profit fell to ¥54.5 billion ($376.3 million) this Q1, its ordinary profit declined to ¥113.4 billion ($784.4 million) and profit attributable to owners was ¥80.9 billion ($559.6 million), both down by 55.3% year-on-year.
74.2% of its game sales took place outside of Japan, accounting for ¥183.1 billion ($1.3 billion) of total earnings for the quarter.
