Nintendo Beats Pandemic Gloom With Insane 428% Q1 Profit

• Gaming giant Nintendo today released earnings results for the three months ending on June 30, 2020.
• Net profit increased by 541.3%, while operating profit jumped by 427.7%.
• Nintendo attributes the bumper quarter to strong demand for the Switch console and high software sales prompted by more people turning to gaming during government-imposed periods of lockdown.

Nintendo today released financial results for the three months running to June 30. The report reveals that the early pandemic period has been particularly successful for the Japanese gaming giant.

Net sales are up 108.1% to 358,106 million yen($3.3 billion) compared to 172.111 million yen($1.6 billion) for the same period last year.

Operating profit surged 427.7% to 144,373 million yen($1.3 billion) compared to 27,428 million yen/$260 million for the same period the previous year.

Net profit rose by 541.3% to 106,482 million yen($1.01 billion) compared to 16,604 billion yen($151 million) from April to June 2019.

In a press release accompanying the results, the company credits much of its recent success to high demand for its Switch console, sales of which hit 3,050,000 units for the period. The handheld Switch Lite sold 2,620,000 units. These results push hardware sales up 166.6% year-on-year.

Nintendo notes that despite procurement issues that led to a shortage of Switch stock at the height of lockdown measures, production has recovered to normal levels.

Nintendo also points to the continued success of flagship software releases. Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 10.63 million units in Q1 2020, bringing cumulative sales to 22.40 million units.

Video: Nintendo’s wildest expectations Animal Crossing: New Horizons have been easily surpassed

More recent releases, such as Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, performed well, selling 1.32 million and 1.03 million units, respectively, bringing the number of million-selling Switch games to nine for the period.

Overall, software sales jumped 123% compared to the same period last year, reaching 50.43 million units.

Published forecasts for the rest of the fiscal year remain conservative despite Nintendo’s stellar first quarter.

The company estimates net sales will increase by 8.3% to 1.2 trillion yen($11.4 billion), operating profit by 14.9% to 300,000 million yen($2.84 billion(, and net profit to hit 200,000 million yen($1.9 billion), a 22.7% increase compared to the previous fiscal year.