Nintendo sees record first quarter profit thanks to Zelda and the Mario movie | Engadget

Nintendo just announced its highest first quarter profit ever thanks to sales of its latest Zelda title and the Mario movie. The company earned 185.44 billion yen ($1.3 billion) on sales of 461.34 billion yen ($3.2 billion), easily battering its previous fiscal Q1 record of 144.7 billion set in 2020, the company revealed in its latest earnings report. 

The numbers on those two properties are impressive. Around the world, 168.10 million people watched the The Super Mario Bros. Movie, netting the company $1.349 billion as of July 26th — the highest ever for an original film based on a video game, and the second-highest for an animated film. 

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has sold 18.51 million since it launched in May, while Mari Kart 8 Deluxe sold 1.67 million last quarter. “Sell-through of this one title [Zelda] constitutes approximately half of the first-party software sold this fiscal year,” Nintendo said. 

Switch sales were actually up over the same quarter last year to 3.91 million in the last quarter (compared to 3.43 million units last year), with 2.83 million of those being the more expensive OLED model. That rise might be powered in part by Zelda, as buyers sought either a new or better console to play the game. At the beginning of its fiscal year, Nintendo called its sales forecast of 15 million Switch consoles “a bit of a stretch,” but is on track to achieve that number so far. 

It may be tough for Nintendo to maintain that momentum, though. Upcoming games include the sidescroller Super Mario Bros Wonder (October 20th), Detective Pikachu Returns (October 6th), WarioWare: Move It! (November 3rd) and Super Mario RPG with updated graphics on November 17th. There are no marquee games in that list like Zelda, though, and sales of that game (and movie profits) are bound to keep dropping off. 

As for the Switch, it’s now six years old, and Nintendo has yet to announce its replacement. Rumors have swirled that a next-gen Switch arrive in 2024, but none have much substance behind them.