During Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, Chairman Shuntaru Furukawa spoke about the various software sales for To change in North America, Europe, Japan and Asia. An investor mentioned that sales seemed to be declining in the Americas.
Furukawa acknowledged that was the case, explaining that several factors contributed “such as the lack of significant growth in sales of long-running titles, particularly during the third quarter (October-December)”. Japan got a boost with Splatoon 3 and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. In Europe, sales of Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Strikers: Battle League increased last holiday. Ultimately, Pokémon did very well in Asia.
In the Americas, software unit sales for the nine months between April and December were down 19.5% year-over-year. When you look at performance region by region, the Americas is the only region where unit sales declined year over year. During the same period last year, sales of perennial titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons were strong and, particularly in the Americas, new titles like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Mario Golf: Super Rush and Metroid Dread were also strong, driving significant growth in software sales for this region. Sales declined over the same period this fiscal year, due to factors such as the lack of significant growth in sales of evergreens, particularly during the third quarter (October-December).
In Japan, Splatoon 3 launched in September and is off to a strong start, and factors like this have helped us maintain momentum as we kick off Q3 with the holiday season. As a result, software sales continued to do well in Japan compared to other regions after the November release of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
In Europe, the situation during the third quarter was different from that of America. Titles like Nintendo Switch Sports and Mario Strikers: Battle League, both released this fiscal year, saw sales skyrocket over the holiday season, with the result that the percentage drop in unit sales of software was comparatively lower than that of hardware unit sales.
In other regions, the decline in hardware unit sales was accompanied by a decline in software unit sales, but in addition to Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet having extremely strong performance focused on Asia , Nintendo Switch Sports, and Splatoon 3 also saw steady growth, and as a result software unit sales for the third quarter were down only slightly year-over-year.