Nintendo Reaps Profits from Zelda and Mario Movie in Record-Breaking First Quarter

In its latest earnings report, Nintendo revealed that it has achieved its highest first quarter profit to date, primarily driven by the successful sales of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The company earned a staggering 185.44 billion yen ($1.3 billion) from sales totaling 461.34 billion yen ($3.2 billion), surpassing its previous fiscal Q1 record of 144.7 billion yen set in 2020.

The figures for these two properties are impressive. Around the world, 168.10 million people watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie, making the company $1.349 billion as of July 26. This is the highest ever for an original film based on a video game and the second highest for an animated film.

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has sold 18.51 million copies since its release in May, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 1.67 million copies last quarter. “The cross-selling of this one title [Zelda] accounts for about half of all first-party software sold this fiscal year,” Nintendo said.

Switch sales actually increased from the same quarter last year to 3.91 million last quarter (compared to 3.43 million last year), of which 2.83 million were the more expensive OLED model. This increase may be due in part to Zelda as buyers are looking for either a new or better console to play the game on. The company has also consistently stated that its goal is to put more than one Switch in every household, and it may be starting to make that happen. At the start of the fiscal year, Nintendo called its sales forecast of 15 million Switch consoles “a bit of a stretch,” but so far is on track to meet that number.

However, it may be difficult for Nintendo to maintain this momentum. Upcoming games include the side-scrolling Super Mario Bros Wonder (October 20), Detective Pikachu Returns (October 6), WarioWare: Move It! (November 3rd) and Super Mario RPG with updated graphics on November 17th. However, marquee games like Breath of the Wild aren’t on the list, and that game’s sales (and the film’s revenue) continue to decline.

As for the Switch, it’s now six years old and Nintendo has yet to announce a replacement. Rumors have swirled that the next-gen Switch will arrive in 2024, but none have much substance behind them.