The Nintendo Switch, the company"s hybrid console, has gone from strength to strength since its release, chalking up 10 million units sold in its first nine months and adding just under 10 million in the following seven months. In fact, the company believes it will be on track to sell a total of 20 million units for the current fiscal year ending March 2019. Now, Nintendo"s latest quarterly earnings have been posted, revealing a notable milestone.
Having launched in Japan back in 2001, the GameCube was Nintendo"s first officially released disc-based console, a departure from the cartridge format previously used by the Nintendo 64. Despite production of the console being suspended for around three months roughly two years into its run, the GameCube still managed to shift 21.74 million units in its six-year lifetime. Now, the Switch has surpassed this threshold, boating a total of 22.86 million units sold to date, thanks to 3.19 million consoles having been sold in the last quarter.
Global life-to-date hardware sales seem to have been supported in part by first-party software, with Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild each shifting more than ten million units each as of the most recent quarter, while Splatoon 2 managed to rack up almost 7.5 million copies sold. Of course, with the end of the year fast approaching, Nintendo"s blockbuster title, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will hit stores in time for the holiday season which may provide an added financial boost to the company"s coffers.
In terms of cold, hard financials, the gaming company posted revenues of ¥221 billion (~$1.96 billion), a slight increase of ¥1 billion compared to Q2 last year, while operating profits also saw a lift of ¥7.1 billion yen to ¥30.9 billion (~$221 million) comparing the same periods. Of course, it remains to be seen as to what else Nintendo may have up its sleeve to drive further interest in its latest console.