Nintendo’s stellar year—profits soar, Switch sales skyrocket

Nintendo is reaping the rewards as its Nintendo Switch console sets sales records. The company’s profits jumped 505% to 178 billion yen (roughly $1.6 billion) in the 2017 fiscal year, thanks largely to 15 million Switch sales. To date, Nintendo has sold 17.7 million Switch units (the console went on sale in March 2017, a month before Nintendo’s fiscal year began), and the company expects to sell another 20 million units in the current fiscal year. Nintendo also sold 5 million units of its Super Nintendo Classic consoles.

In March, Nintendo said the Switch had become the fastest-selling home game console in the United States, outpacing its own Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 4 in first-year sales. (Worldwide, the systems are neck-and-neck in sales since launch, Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad notes.) Nintendo will look to build on that success in 2018 with a Switch version of Super Smash Bros., a possible Pokemon game, and its wild new Labo DIY toys.