According to the latest news, Nintendo has released its second quarter earnings. The figures are strong considering the slow period but revenue and profit both are down compared to a year ago. During the first wave of coronavirus, the company saw a surge in demand for video games and during the same time, it also launched one of its mega hits Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Therefore, the nominal decline in year on year profit is acceptable.
Nintendo Switch hardware sales were down 21.7 percent to 4.45 million units and software sales decreased 10.2 percent to 45.29 million units. In total, during this period, the company has sold 89.04 million Switch consoles. It is to be noted that during the same time, PS5 has hit 10 million sales.
The company’s revenue decreased 9.9 percent to 322.6 billion yen ($2.94 billion) as operating profit was only 119.6 billion yen ($1.09 billion). The operating profit figure represents a 17.3 percent year on year decline.
Unlike last year, this time, Nintendo sold more than 10 million copies of Animal Crossing to nearly double its figures from the previous quarter but during this period there were no blockbuster Switch titles. New Pokémon Snap sold 2.07 million copies outside Japan while Mario Golf: Super Rush sold 1.34 million and Animal Crossing sold 1.26 million copies.
In the current quarter, Nintendo’s biggest release is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. It was launched in the previous month. Analysts expect a boost in Switch hardware sales in the coming quarter due to the upcoming launch of the new OLED model in October.
