Image via Nintendo
Nintendo’s Switch has seen some faltering sales in its last quarter, dropping to 3.43 million units sold compared to 4.45 million during this period last year. Software sales also saw a fall from 45.3 million to 41.4 million. It has left Nintendo with an operating profit of 101.6 billion yen ($763 million), which was short of expected earnings.
Nintendo stated that its sales drop is a result of the chip shortage, which has also hit other tech companies for a while. Graphics cards, PlayStation, and the Steam Deck among others, have all faced similar problems with supply chains and chip shortages. It has led to rising costs and low supply in the industry.
“Hardware production was impacted by factors such as the global shortage of semiconductor components, resulting in a decrease of hardware shipments,” Nintendo said.
The OLED model was the majority of its sales for the Switch, selling about 1.52 million units.
Nintendo’s game sales have dropped as well, but it was able to boost the number of first-party games sold. It was the second best Q1 period for Nintendo in its first-party game sales, second to Q1 in 2021 that was fueled by the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Across the game industry, companies have been seeing a drop in sales. In fact, game spending has been down by 13 percent compared to 2021.
Nintendo pointed out that its games, Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers: Battle League, and Fire Emblem Warriors helped boost first-party game sales. “More than 100 million users played Nintendo Switch in the latest 12-month period.”
Nintendo is currently hoping that its next set of games will help out with its earnings for the next quarter. Particularly, they are hoping that Xenoblade Chronicles 3–which just launched–along with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass: Wave 2, Splatoon 3, Kirby’s Dream Buffet, and the OLED Switch Splatoon 3 Edition will help. The games are all set to launch in the near future, aside from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which recently launched.
Hey, thanks for reading DZSH! Check out our newsletter too so you can always stay in the loop!
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
