Nintendo reports strong earnings despite COVID-19; Animal Crossing sales exceed 13 million

Nintendo posted impressive earnings Thursday morning, the report’s numbers bolstered by high demand for the Nintendo Switch console and the seemingly ubiquitous Animal Crossing: New Horizons game (even actor Elijah Wood is a regular player).

Despite the impact the Covid-19 lockdown had on its operations, the Kyoto, Japan-based gaming giant reported it built a net profit of 259 billion yen ($2.4 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March, numbers which were up 33% from the previous year. The company’s net revenue rose 9% to 1.3 trillion yen.

One of the biggest contributors to Nintendo’s earnings success was the aforementioned, insanely popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was released on March 20th and sold more than 13 million copies in the first six weeks alone. The game has been especially compelling during the coronavirus quarantine, with the main criteria of the game revolving around social interaction, customizing one’s own personal island paradise and simple pleasures such as enjoying the sunset on the beach while fishing. AC: NH has been so deeply engaging for some players that they’ve recreated Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon Gold & Silver in their entirety within the game itself.

Some other key takeaways from the Nintendo earning report:

• Nintendo has sold 55.77 million units as of March 31
• Nintendo sold 21.02 million Switches in fiscal 2019
• 14.83M base Switches were sold; 6.19M Nintendo Switch LITEs were sold
• 3.29M Switches were sold between January 1st and March 30th, 2020
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX sold 1.26M copies
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order and Astral Chain sold over 1M units respectively
• 48.5% of all Switch games were sold digitally

The top-selling title sales units (in millions) of the fiscal year:

Although the earnings success is promising, Nintendo remains cautious of the health risks the Covid-19 pandemic poses to its supply chain, sales and research and development teams.

“The situation regarding COVID19 is changing day-by-day around the world, so we will carefully monitor trends while continuing to gather information and taking the measures necessary to minimize the impact of these concerns,” Nintendo said.