Nintendo’s Q4 FY 2020/21 Numbers

As a publicly-traded company whose main business operation is videogames, Nintendo releases software and hardware sales regularly. Here is the website of the latest financial statement for the fourth quarter of the 2020/21 fiscal year. 

1st Quarter FY 2020/21
Switch Hardware: 5.68 million
Switch Software: 50.43 million 

2nd Quarter FY 2020/21
Switch Hardware: 6.85 million
Switch Software: 49.82 million 

3rd Quarter FY 2020/21
Switch Hardware: 11.57 million 
Switch Software: 75.87 million 

4th Quarter FY 2020/21
Switch Hardware: 4.73 million 
Switch Software: 54.78 million 

Lifetime to Date (LTD)
Switch Hardware: 84.6 million
Switch Software: 587.12 million 

Considering that this is the 4th year of the Nintendo Switch, being just under 85 million units sold is an incredibly impressive number. The Switch is selling faster than all Nintendo Hardware in its history except for three pieces of hardware, the Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Wii, and the Nintendo DS. The last two had their sales fall off a cliff in the fourth year, so a strong fourth year for the Nintendo Switch bodes very well compared to other Nintendo consoles. Let’s look at the lifetime sales of other Nintendo hardware to see where the Nintendo Switch compares. 

Nintendo DS: 154,020,000 LTD
Nintendo Game Boy: 118,690,000 LTD
Nintendo Wii: 100,630,000 LTD
Nintendo Switch: 84,600,000 LTD
Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 81,510,000 LTD
Nintendo 3DS: 75,870,000 LTD
Nintendo Entertainment System: 61,910,000 LTD
Super Nintendo Entertainment System: 49,100,000 LTD
Nintendo 64: 32,930,000 LTD
Nintendo GameCube: 21,750,000 LTD
Wii U: 13,560,000 LTD 

The Nintendo Switch surpassed the Nintendo 3DS in 3.75 years, which is impressive considering that it took 8 years for the 3DS to reach that number. It surpassed the GameBoy Advance by its fourth year, making it the 4th highest selling Nintendo Hardware ever. With Monster Hunter Rise and a strong 3rd party, slate means that the Switch should surpass the Nintendo Wii and get past the 100 million mark by December.

What about 2021? 

Monster Hunter Rise
Monster Hunter Rise 
The Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Series console launched in November. Predictably, the consoles had extreme shortages due to the new chip design, a raging pandemic affecting the supply chain, and the pandemic keeping people locked indoors. I stick by my statement in the previous article that Nintendo consoles have short lives in the past because they don't support the console with games as they move onto the next hardware (Zoleta, 2020). I add an amendment that increased third-party support, desirable hardware, great first-party software, and an iterative "pro" model that will also give the Nintendo Switch long shelf life. Nintendo says what they have been asserting, which is that the Nintendo Switch will have a much longer lifecycle than the typical console (Nintendo Life, 2020). It also means that the console won’t have the same issues as previous Nintendo consoles, which is waning software support later in its lifecycle. The third-party support is also accelerating greatly, not decelerating. Since my post about Q3 FY 2020/21, the number of third-party software increased significantly, even huge third-party exclusives like Monster Hunter Rise. This game selling over seven million units by the end of May, becoming the highest-selling single platform Capcom game ever, and one of Nintendo's highest-selling third-party games ever (Doolan, 2021). The Nintendo Switch will most likely end as one of the strongest selling Nintendo hardware ever with the highest selling software number.

Software

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 35.39 million LTD
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 32.63 million LTD
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 23.84 million LTD
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: 22.28 million LTD
Pokémon Sword/Shield: 21.1 million LTD
Super Mario Odyssey: 20.83 million LTD
Super Mario Party: 14.79 million LTD
Splatoon 2: 12.21 million LTD
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: 10.44 million LTD
Ring Fit Adventure: 10.11 million LTD
Luigi’s Mansion 3: 9.59 million LTD
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: 9.01 million LTD
Super Mario Maker 2: 7.15 million LTD
Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening: 5.49 million LTD
51 Worldwide Games: 3.14 million LTD
Fire Emblem: Three Houses: 3.12 million LTD
ARMS: 2.52 million LTD
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: 2.11 million LTD
Octopath Traveler (outside of Japan): 1.72 million LTD
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition: 1.48 million LTD
Astral Chain: 1.2 million LTD
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: 1.18 million LTD 

Xenoblade Definitive Edition
Xenoblade: Definitive Edition
Nintendo games have long sales legs, these sales are a shining example of it. Two games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons passed the 30 million mark worldwide. The latter being even more impressive because it sold 32.63 million LTD in 9 months. The fastest-selling exclusive game ever, but a long shot. The Nintendo Switch also had four games that surpass the 20 million mark worldwide, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Pokemon Sword/Shield,  and Super Mario Odyssey. Pokemon is especially impressive among the lineup because it is the highest-selling pokemon game in almost 2 decades. Other games also so impressively during Q3, such as Ring Fit Adventure and Pikmin 3 Deluxe. There are also some unfortunate sales, Xenoblade: Deluxe Edition only sold an additional 80,000 copies over the holiday season, even with aggressive discounts in December (where I ended up buying a copy), and 40,000 copies in Q4. The heavy discounting combined with little sales also means it will not have the long sales tail that Xenoblade 2 had. Xenoblade 2 still holds the crown as the highest-selling game by MonolithSoft, a title that will now not get disputed until Xenoblade 3 or a future game. Xenoblade 2 also received a huge sales bump from the Pyra/Mythra announcement for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Nintendo hasn't updated sales numbers but we can assume that sales increased significantly due to its high resale price and the game popping up on the e-shop rankings for several months.

References 

Doolan, L. (2021). Monster Hunter Rise has now shipped over seven million copies worldwide. Nintendo Life. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/05/monster_hunter_rise_has_now_shipped_over_seven_million_copies_worldwide

Nintendo Life. (2020). Switch Will Have A Longer Life Cycle Than Previous Consoles, Says Nintendo President. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/switch_will_have_a_longer_life_cycle_than_previous_consoles_says_nintendo_president 

Nintendo (2021). Consolidated Financial Highlights. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2021/210506e.pdf

Zoleta (2020). Nintendo’s Q3 FY 2020/21 Numbers. KrisZ on Anime, Manga, Cosplay and Video Games. https://hcoregamer00.blogspot.com/2020/11/nintendos-q2-fy-2020-numbers.html

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