Nintendo sold (PDF) 23.06 million Switch units overall for the fiscal year ending in March 2022, over 5 million units fewer than last year’s. The gaming giant originally thought it was going to sell 25.5 million units this fiscal year, but it lowered its forecast to 24 million because the continued global chip shortage is making it difficult to procure components. In fact, the company most likely expects to continue grappling with supply chain issues, because it has lowered its forecast to 21 million units of Switch sold for the fiscal year ending in March 2023.
Nintendo’s sales were buoyed by by the pandemic over the past couple of years, with people purchasing new gaming consoles to get them through the COVID lockdowns. Switch even became the company’s best-selling home console ever after total Switch sales reached 103.54 million in the third quarter. The new total with more units sold after that announcement is 107.65 million units.
Now that the lockdowns are over and parts are getting harder and harder to get, the company’s forecast must also reflect that reality. And the trend could continue for another year: Analysts and industry execs previously expected the chip shortage to persist throughout 2023, but Intel chief Pat Gelsinger recently said that the issue could drag on until 2024.
In addition, Nintendo also expects lower net sales and lower net profit overall in the next fiscal year. For this recently finished annual period, it has reported net sales of 1,695 billion yen (US$13 billion) and an operating profit of 592 billion yen (US$4.6 billion). Next year, it expects its net sales to fall to around 1,600 billion yen (US$12.3 billion) and its annual operating profit to fall to $500 billion yen (US$3.8 billion).
Despite the lower hardware sales, Nintendo has claimed the highest annual software sales for a single hardware family. The Switch system had 39 million-seller titles for the 2022 fiscal year, led by Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with 14.65 million units sold. Pokémon Legends Arceus, which sold 6.5 million copies in seven days, sold 12.64 million units so far. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 9.94 million units, while Kirby and the Forgotten Land sold 2.1 million units in just over two weeks.