Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Movie propel Nintendo’s Q1 earnings

Nintendo has released its financial report for the quarter ending June 30, 2023, noting banner sales for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Mario titles.

According to figures posted for the company’s first quarter of the fiscal year 2024, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom moved 18.51 million units within two months of release, which Nintendo called “a good start.”

With Mario, thanks to the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe moved 1.67 million units, bringing cumulative sales of the title to 55.46 million units.

The film also had an impact on Nintendo’s mobile and IP-related business, noting overall sales of ¥32 billion ($224 million), an increase of 190.1% year-over-year(yoy).

Over 168 million people worldwide have seen the Super Mario Bros. Movie as of July 30, and it has earned over $1.34 billion at the box office as of July 26. According to Nintendo, the figure is the “highest ever” for an original film based on a videogame and the second-highest for an animated movie.

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During the quarter, other Nintendo titles also continued to sell steadily, with Switch software sales increasing 26.1% yoy to 52.21 million units, bringing total software sales to 1.09 billion.

As a result, hardware unit sales increased 13.9% yoy to 3.91 million units, bringing total Switch sales to 129.53 million units. The base Switch model sold approximately 64,000 units, Switch Lite sold around 43,000, and Switch OLED moved 2.83 million.

Digital sales for the quarter rose 35.9% yoy to ¥119.6 billion ($834 million), helped by sales of downloadable versions of packaged software for Nintendo Switch and increased sales related to Nintendo Switch Online.

The result is that overall sales reached ¥461 billion ($3.23 billion), up 50% yoy, with sales outside Japan of ¥369 billion ($2.6 billion) accounting for 80% of that total, with profits up 52% yoy to ¥254 billion.