Nintendo has released its financial results for the last nine months (ending December 31, 2018), and everything is going swimmingly with the Switch selling 14.49 million units worldwide – an increase of 19.5 percent from the previous year during the period.
On the software side, Nintendo is celebrating “record sales” from Super Mario Party (5.3 million units), Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee (10 million), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (12.08 million). It’s worth noting that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released on December 7 but still racked up the sales numbers.
According to Nintendo, the Switch has 20 million-selling titles from first- and third-party publishers, and software sales during the nine-month period increased 100 percent.
Although Nintendo says it’s not adjusting its original fiscal forecast for the year (from April, 2018), it has adjusted its sales outlook for the Switch. President Tatsumi Kimishima set a sales goal of 20 million by March 31, 2019, but today’s financial report lists a prediction of 17 million.
[Source: Nintendo]
In regards to the Switch’s revised sales target, Game Informer senior editor Imran Khan points out that this could signal that there will be no surprise software for the system before April. The logic being that if the company had something coming out before then that could sell hardware units (other than what’s already been announced), it wouldn’t be downgrading its sales target.