Nintendo released its financial report for the fiscal year 22/23 yesterday, in which data revealed that the sales of the Switch console have been declining significantly year by year. It seems to imply that the Switch, which has been on the market for slightly more than six years, has passed its peak.
As seen from the above extract (sales unit in ten thousands), the annual sales of the Switch console seem to be declining by a trend of 20% to 25% each year. The 17.97 million units sold in FY 22/23 are also far below the official prediction of 21 million units, raising doubts as to whether the target of 15 million units for the upcoming fiscal year could be achieved.
Interestingly, Nintendo seems to release a new console every six years or so: the DS was launched in November 2004, the 3DS made its debut in February 2011, and the Switch was released in March 2017. Following this pattern, as the hype around Switch declines, gamers might hope to see the launch of a new generation Nintendo console in near future. Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa emphasized during the financial results briefing that the company would not be releasing a new console in the upcoming fiscal year, which means that fans will have to wait until after March 2024 at the earliest to see a new generation of Nintendo gaming hardware.
On the other hand, while the sales of the console may not be too optimistic, games are still selling well. Even though the game sales for FY 22/23 have slightly decreased compared to the previous two years, they still exceeded two billion, indirectly proving that there are still many active users of the Switch console.
Additionally, the official sales status of first-party games has been updated, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe taking top spot with impressive sales performance. The list of top ten Nintendo first-party game sales is as follows:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 53.79 million
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 42.21 million
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate –31.09 million
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 29.81 million
- Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield – 25.82 million
- Super Mario Odyssey – 25.76 million
- Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet – 22.10 million
- Super Mario Party – 19.14 million
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 15.41 million
- Ring Fit Adventure – 15.38 million
By the way, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is very likely to make it onto the list above after its release, will be launched in two days (May 12). Pre-orders and pre-downloads are now available, so make sure to download the game beforehand in order to dive into the game right at the time of its launch (12PM May 12, GMT+8).
Source: Nintendo Consolidated Financial Highlights (FY 22/23)，Nintendo Consolidated Financial Highlights (FY 21/22)，Nintendo Investor Relations Information
