Nintendo has posted revenue for a massive holiday quarter in which the Switch has sold more consoles than ever. A total of 11.57 million consoles have been moved, bringing the Switch to nearly 80 million sales since its launch in 2017. Nintendo has raised its forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 26.5 million Switch units, which is also the net profit increased 33 percent to 400 billion yen, or about $ 3.82 billion.
The Switch has now surpassed the 3DS in terms of lifetime sales, with the older handheld reaching a total of 75.94 million units before discontinuing production. Only 730,000 3DS games were shipped in the last quarter, underscoring that the platform is really dead right now.
It was also a huge quarter for Nintendo in terms of software sales, with nearly 76 million copies sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons both passed the 30 million mark for the first time, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokémon Sword / Shield have now sold more than 20 million each.
Nintendo has already raised its forecast for the fiscal year to 24 million Switch units from 19 million three months ago, citing increased demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. But with over 12 million consoles already shipped by that time of the year, it was still a fairly conservative forecast; In the holiday quarter of last year, Nintendo shipped nearly 11 million consoles.
The biggest Switch title coming in the next quarter is likely to be from Capcom Monster Hunter Rise, while the Wii U port has been expanded Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is coming later this month too. Both games will be offered as part of Switch hardware bundles, which could further boost Switch sales for the remainder of the fiscal year.