Profits on the up at Nintendo as the Switch nears 85 million lifetime sales

Net sales and profits have increased at Nintendo thanks to bumper Switch hardware and software sales. 

According to the company's fiscal results for the full-year ended March 31, 2021, net sales increased by 34.4 percent year-on-year to 1.75 trillion yen ($16.2 billion) and profit rose by 85.7 percent to 480.3 billion yen ($4.4 billion) over that same period. 

Switch hardware sales increased by 37.1 percent year on year to 28.83 million units, pushing the console to 84.59 million lifetime sales. That upswing was driven by "strong" Switch software sales which reached 230.8 million units for the full-year -- an increase of 36.8 percent year-on-year.

Digging into those numbers, Nintendo revealed that 8.51 million of those hardware sales were attributable to the Switch Lite, with the remaining 20.32 million resulting from sales of the original Nintendo Switch. 

In terms of software, digital sales accounted for 42.8 percent of all software sales -- an increase of 8.8 percent year-on-year. The company explained that sales of download-only titles and sales related to Nintendo Switch Online were also "steady," helping to bring digital sales revenue to 344.1 billion yen ($3.1 billion) -- an increase of 68.5 percent year-on-year. 

Titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons (20.85 million sales during FY21), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (10.63 million sales during FY21), and Ring Fit Adventure (7.38 million sales during FY21), were some of the biggest sellers during the fiscal year. 

Turning to Nintendo's mobile business, the company said mobile and IP-related income rose by 11.3 percent year-on-year to 57 billion yen ($521.8 million), and noted "many consumers continue to enjoy playing our mobile applications."

Looking ahead, Nintendo is forecasting net sales of 1.6 trillion yen ($14.6 billion) and profit of 340 billion yen ($3.1 billion) for the end of the next fiscal year on March 31, 2022. The company said its ultimate goal moving forward is to "continue to convey the appeal of the hardware and software and maintain sales momentum at a high level."