Nintendo profit surges over 50% on movie, console sales even as sales fall

Nintendo's first-quarter profit skyrocketed 53.5% due to the success of its Super Mario movie and strong sales of the Switch 2 gaming console. The Japanese video-game giant reported a profit of 147.4 billion yen ($933 million) for the April-June period, up from 96 billion yen in the same period last year. However, overall sales declined 9.5% to 517.8 billion yen ($3.3 billion), a factor affecting the company like many others in Japan.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, along with the rising cost of memory chips and other components, acted as a negative influence on Nintendo. For the entire fiscal year ending March 2027, Nintendo is projecting a profit of 310 billion yen ($2 billion), a near 27% drop from the previous year, as annual sales are expected to fall 11% to 2.05 trillion yen ($13 billion).

The company sold 3.82 million Switch 2 machines globally during the quarter. Despite the new machine's popularity, Nintendo's older Switch business continues to thrive with solid console and software sales. "Yoshi and the Mysterious Book," released in May, and "Pokemon Pokopia," released last year, led to a software sales total of 9.46 million units for the quarter.

Nintendo's "Super Mario Galaxy Movie" generated significant profit, primarily from overseas sales. The Switch 2 console, launched in June last year, remains in demand. Nintendo hopes to capitalize on the momentum by releasing more games, including "Splatoon Raiders" and upcoming titles such as "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time."

The company anticipates selling 16.5 million Switch 2 consoles during the fiscal year, down nearly 17% from the previous year. Nintendo expects strong game software sales of 60 million units for the year, up 23%. Nintendo's shares rose 2.9% in Tokyo trading following the earnings announcement.