Nintendo beats December quarter expectations and ups forecast to 15.5M Switch units in fiscal year

Nintendo reported quarterly results on Tuesday that beat its previous forecasts and it said it now expects to sell 15.5 million Switch consoles during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024.

The Kyoto, Japan-based game company said net sales were $4 billion, down 6% from a year ago but up from $3.82 billion that analysts had expected. Net profit was $920 million, up 18% from a year ago and above expectations.

Rumors are hot that the seven-year-old Switch console will likely get a new version during the year, but Nintendo hasn’t acknowledged that it’s happening. To date, the Switch has sold 139.4 million units. If it sells 15 million more units, it will top the Nintendo DS, the best-selling Nintendo device of all time.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder sold more than 11.96 million copies since its release in October, and the Super Mario Bros. Movie is still generating box office results, helping with titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo said it sold 6.8 million copies in the quarter, with the total now at 60.58 million units.

Nintendo also raised its financial forecasts for the current fiscal year, saying it will hit 1.63 trillion yen in net sales, up from the previous forecast of 1.58 trillion. The company also expects net profit of 440 billion yen, up from 420 billion yen it had forecast.

Nintendo sold 13.74 million Switch units in the first nine months of the financial year, an 8% decline on the same period a year earlier.

Super Mario RPG debuted with a strong 3.1 million copies sold, while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has sold 20.28 million copies to date and Pikmin 4 has sold 3.3 million.