Nintendo Q1 2025 financial report has been released, and the hardware sales figures aren’t too surprising overall. Nintendo Switch sales have declined significantly, with 2024 being its lowest year. In this quarter of the fiscal year, they sold 2.1 million Nintendo Switches between April 1 and June 30, a significant drop of 46%.
Its total net sales fell 46.5% to 246.6 billion yen, compared to 461.3 billion yen during the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Its operating profit declined by a significant 70.6%, with ordinary profit falling 55.3%. However, this probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most people.
With the Nintendo Switch now seven years old, it’s no surprise that sales are starting to decline significantly. Both its dedicated video game platforms, mobile games, and IP-related revenue have seen severe declines. Consolidated hardware sales fell 46.4%, with mobile and other IP-related revenues falling 53.8%.
Nintendo acknowledges the overall decline in sales related to mobile devices and IP, saying it is “primarily due to decreased revenue from visual content related to the Super Mario Bros. movie.”
That said, they made a 42.8% profit on other sales, such as official Nintendo store merchandise and playing cards, which brought their sales from 1.9 billion yen to 2.8 billion yen.
All Nintendo Switch models suffered a significant hit in sales. The original Nintendo Switch suffered the least with an 18.4% drop, with Nintendo Switch Lite sales fell 56.1% and sales of the Nintendo Switch OLED model fell 46.3%
Looking at their software sales, two of their IPs were at the top for selling over a million units. These two games were Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. One other title reached a million units, but it is not disclosed in the financial report which game it is.
Sales are drastically different from the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Last year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released, which also saw special editions of the Nintendo Switch released to celebrate its release. Along with Zelda, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released, which boosted sales massively.
Overall, sell-through for this fiscal year is below the level of previous years. Despite this, sales of Princess Peach: Showtime! and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remained stable. However, these two games combined do not match the amount of sell-through sales Nintendo made with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Princess Peach: Showtime! and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door account for approximately half of the sales of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Nintendo has had a busy year of game releases, so it’s possible that the next quarter of the fiscal year will be better for them, with games like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Party Jamboree releasing.