Nintendo delivers strong FY22, Pokémon sales balloon as Kirby off to a good start

Kirby and the Legendary Profits

While the last quarter of the Nintendo financial year is usually the quetiest, there’s still a lot to unpack because also the end of said year. Let’s see how Nintendo did last FY and how recent releases like Pokémon Legends Arceus and Kirby and the Forgotten Land did too.

Despite Q4 tending to be a little quieter for Nintendo, Kirby and the Forgotten Land had a very respectable opening, selling 2.65m units in just a couple of days on sale — not much compared to some other Nintendo juggernauts, but fantastic for Kirby nonetheless.

Pokémon Legends Arceus, on the other hand, did as Pokémon games do, and sold absolutely ridiculous numbers, at 12.64m units sold up to the end of March. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl increased its sales to 14.65m units, making it the best-selling remake in franchise history, while Sword and Shield bumped up almost 2m units to 24.47m, well-surpassing Gold and Silver and well on its way to the top spot. Will it get there? Probably not, with Scarlet and Violet just around the corner. But stranger things have happened, and there’s nothing to say it’s impossible.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-boot Camp and Metroid Prime 4 have a TBA beside their release date, Bayonetta 3 still has a 2022 date as well.

On the hardware side of things, Q4 brought just over 4m Switch consoles sold, bringing the total up to 107.65m units. Of those sold, 1.81m were OLED consoles, surprisingly more than the 1.77m base model consoles, with Lite bringing up the rear with 0.53m units. For the fiscal year, Nintendo sold 23.06m consoles in total, a drop from last year, but that’s to be expected given the chip shortage, waning COVID-19 restrictions, and a healthy dose of market saturation.

A little interesting tidbit for all the investor nerds out there – Nintendo will be splitting its stock at a 10:1 ratio later this year, lowering the stock price significantly but increasing the amount of shares available for trading. Unfortunately, none of us here are exactly stock market experts, but a quick google tells us this is often Good™ for companies and investors.

We’re still poring through the numbers here, but we’ll update this article with more figures and details as we find them. There should be notes from an investor meeting coming in later as well.

Switch Hardware Updates

Nintendo Switch total: 107.65m (Up from 103.54m)
– Nintendo Switch: 83.45m (Up from 81.68m)
– Nintendo Switch Lite: 18.40m (Up from 17.87m)
– Nintendo Switch OLED Model: 5.80m (Up from 3.99m)

Switch Software Million Sellers Updates

Last Quarter Additions

Pokémon Legends: Arceus – 12.64m units
Kirby and the Forgotten Land – 2.65m units
- In just two weeks on sale

Pokémon

Pokemon Sword and Shield – 24.47m (up from 22.64m last qtr)
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl – 14.65m (up from 13.97m last qtr)
- Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are now the best selling Pokemon remakes ever
Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee – 14.53m (up from 14.33m last qtr)
New Pokémon Snap – 2.4m (Up from 2.19m last qtr)
- This figure only counts outside of Japan, as sales for Japan are counted under The Pokémon Company.

Evergreen Million Sellers