Japanese video game pioneer Nintendo more than doubled its turnover in the first quarter of its delayed financial year after the record start of its new Switch 2 console.
The Switch 2, eagerly awaited by players after years of rumors, was marketed on June 5: it sold 5.82 million copies in the first month according to Nintendo, which had previously announced that it had sold 3.5 million units worldwide in just four days, a record.
“Figures from around the world show that there was unprecedented underlying demand, and this record may never be beaten by another console again,” said Serkan Toto of Tokyo-based Kantan Games.
Forecast unchanged
Nintendo, however, kept its financial forecasts and its modest console sales targets unchanged on Friday for the entire financial year which will end at the end of March 2026, still counting on 15 million units.
The firm based in Kyoto (western Japan) can reasonably hope to sell 23.5 million copies during this period, however, JPMorgan analysts estimated in July.
The new machine benefits from the aura of the first Switch of the name, a hybrid console playable on the go or on your television, released in March 2017 and since distributed more than 153 million copies. It is the third best-selling video game machine of all time.
Games, the sinews of war
The Switch 2 should significantly improve Nintendo’s results for the 2025/26 financial year, even if the impact of console sales on profitability is less compared to that of games, on which the margin is greater, adds Nathan Baidu, of Bloomberg Intelligence.
Nintendo has so far seen its net profit for the entire April-June quarter increase by 18.6% to 96 billion yen (558 million euros), and its operating profit increase by 4.4%.
“The volume of console sales is expected to gradually decline from 2026/27 onwards, but to remain at high levels in the long term. On the other hand, sales of games in volume (including older titles) should increase as more “mainstream” players buy the console, Junko Yamamura estimated in a recent JPMorgan note.
Still rare exclusives
Major console exclusives are still rare. The game “Mario Kart World”, available from its debut, was joined in mid-July by “Donkey Kong Bananza”, praised by critics with a score of 91 on the review aggregator Metacritic, making it one of the highest rated games of 2025.
The game is seen as a potential catalyst for sales of the Switch 2. Donkey Kong is a major franchise from Nintendo, which has dedicated an entire area to it since last fall in the Universal Studios Japan theme park.
We will now have to watch for announcements of games exclusive to the Switch 2, notes analyst Yasuo Nakane from Mizuho.
Nintendo’s schedule for such titles – capable of enticing players to buy the console – is still relatively sparse.
It includes “Kirby Air Riders”, an action and racing game planned by the end of the year, “Pokémon Legends ZA” (October) and “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond”.
The impact of customs duties, this unknown
The impact of customs duties imposed by Donald Trump’s government is also a major unknown for Nintendo’s annual results.
According to Junko Yamamura of JPMorgan, the Japanese firm should choose not to pass on in its sales prices the additional costs linked to the 20% surcharge on American imports from Vietnam, where some of the Switch 2s intended for the American market are manufactured.
According to this analyst, it would therefore suffer a negative impact of around 30 billion yen (174 million euros) on its operating profit for the current financial year.
