Nintendo Still Expects Big Year From Switch Despite Slight Dip In Sales

Nintendo has shared its financial earnings for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, and the Nintendo Switch continues to perform well. The company reports it has sold another 1.88 million Switch consoles worldwide during the period from April through June, bringing the system's total sales up to 19.6 million.

While that represents a slight decrease in Switch hardware sales from the same period last year (down 4.4% year-on-year), software sales grew by more than 120% year-on-year, with 17.96 million units sold during the quarter. Digital sales of packaged Switch games and DLC also grew by 68% from the same period last year.

As for specific first-party game sales, Nintendo Labo sold a combined 1.39 million units worldwide between the Robot and Variety Kits. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which originally released for Wii U back in 2014, moved 1.40 million units on Switch, while Mario Tennis Aces sold 1.38 million copies worldwide, despite launching toward the end of the fiscal quarter.

The Nintendo 3DS continued chugging along, selling another 360,000 units (down approximately 62% year-on-year). The handheld's lifetime sales now stand at 72.89 million units. Meanwhile, Nintendo's smartphone business saw a very modest increase of 0.4% year-on-year. The NES Classic Edition also returned to stores toward the end of the quarter and has already proven to be a success, selling 1.26 million units.

Despite the first half of this fiscal year being somewhat slower for Switch sales, Nintendo still expects to sell 20 million units during this fiscal year, which runs through March 2019. That may still be feasible given how much business it traditionally does during the holiday season. The company says Switch sales in every region have been "trending upward" since E3 2018, and it still has a number of big games lined up for the system through the end of the year.

In addition to the newly announced Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit, the company is releasing the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 prequel expansion, Torna: The Golden Country, in September; Super Mario Party in October; Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee in November; and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in December. Nintendo is also rolling out its premium Nintendo Switch Online service in September.