Mario Kart 8 Deluxe dethrones MK Wii as Nintendo releases its Q2 earnings

Welcome to the Q2 Nintendo Earnings Release article! I’m back after missing the last one, and there’s an interesting set of numbers to go over, as always.

During the second quarter of Nintendo’s 2021/2022 financial year, the company sold 3.83 million Switch consoles, 3.1m of which were the flagship (dockable) console, about 730k of which were for the Lite. We won’t have complete figures for the Nintendo Switch OLED until next quarter’s release, as it launched just after this reporting period, which ended on September 30, but since these numbers are units shipped rather than sold through to customers, some of the 3.83m reported for the Switch will be OLEDs. We just don’t know exactly how much, and it’s possible Nintendo doesn’t intend to split it up in the future either. Time will show one way or another.

The big story, of course, is that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has dethroned Mario Kart Wii as the top-selling title in the series, coming in at a mind-boggling 38.74m units, meaning roughly 40% of all Switch owners have the game, compared to the 37.38m units of Mario Kart Wii sold in its lifetime. Animal Crossing has crept up another almost 1 million in this reporting period, coming in 34.85m units sold — a massively respectable number, but not quite enough to take over MK8D, which seems pretty much unstoppable.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has had a fairly strong start, too, with 3.6m units sold in its first quarter on sale, which is big for both a remaster, and for a Zelda game, so good work from Aussie studio Tantalus on that one. Sadly, WarioWare: Get It Together! has not had any numbers reporting, likely meaning it sold under 1m units in its first 20 days on sale.

Of course, numbers are down YoY from last year, which is to be expected given there’s no big pandemic (read: Animal Crossing) boost, but we can probably expect to see a better result in the coming two quarters — Q2 is always a quiet one for Nintendo. Nintendo has also reduced its forecast for Switch unit sales for this financial year, from 25.5m down to 24m, due to a global semiconductor shortage.

Here’s all the figures.

Switch Hardware Updates

Nintendo Switch total: 92.87m (Up from 89.04m)
– Nintendo Switch: 76.34m (Up from 73.2m)
– Nintendo Switch Lite: 16.53m (Up from 15.84m)

Switch Software Million Sellers Updates

2021 Titles 

• New Pokémon Snap – 2.19m (Up from 2.07m last qtr)
  • This figure only counts outside of Japan, as sales for Japan are counted under The Pokémon Company.
• Miitopia – 1.37m (Up from 1.04m last qtr)
• Mario Golf: Super Rush – 1.94m (Up from 1.34m last qtr)
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury – 7.45m (Up from 6.68m last qtr)
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD – 3.60m

Evergreen Million Sellers

– Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 34.85m (Up from 33.89m last qtr)
– Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 38.74m (up from 37.08m last qtr)
– Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 25.71m (up from 24.77m last qtr)
– The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 24.13m (up from 23.2m last qtr)
– Super Mario Odyssey – 21.95m (up from 21.4m last qtr)
– Pokemon Sword and Shield – 22.64m (up from 21.85m last qtr)
– Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee – 13.83m (up from 13.57m last qtr)
– Splatoon 2 – 12.68m (up from 12.45m last qtr)
– Super Mario Party – 16.48m (up from 15.72m last qtr)
– Ring Fit Adventure – 12.21m (up from 11.26m last qtr)

Games with no updates to sales have been omitted from our list.