Nintendo Just Had A Record-Breaking Quarter Thanks To Tears Of The Kingdom

Anna Larison

3 Aug, 2023

Nintendo just had one of its best first quarters since the launch of the Switch in 2017, thanks in part to sales of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The company’s latest financial report reveals that Tears of the Kingdom sold 18.51 million units from its release to June 30. This led to Nintendo having the highest “global sell-through of first-party” for a first quarter since the launch of the Switch. It says sales of Tears of the Kingdom also drove hardware sales, as Nintendo sold 3.91 million units in this quarter, which ran from April 1 to June 30, 2023.

Nintendo says those 3.91 million units sold translates to unit sales for the entire Switch family of systems rising by 13.9% year-on-year, led primarily by the Switch OLED Model, which contributed 2.83 million of those sales. The standard Switch sold .64 million units and the Switch Lite sold .43 million. Software sales grew by 26.1% year-on-year to 52.21 million units during the same period. Tears of the Kingdom’s 18.51 million units is more than a third of those sales.

“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released on May 12, has made a major contribution to Q1 sales in the current environment, in which we see widespread adoption of Nintendo Switch hardware and continued play engagement by many consumers,” the financial results read. “Sell-through of this one title constitutes approximately half of the first-party software sold this fiscal year.

“Consumers who played the previous entry, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, have been the primary driver, but as the weeks have passed, we have seen that a growing percentage of purchases are being made by consumers who have not yet played that title.”

Nintendo contributes the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and related promotions to increased “solid sales” of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and other Mario games. Digital sales during this quarter increased 35.9% year-on-year to 119.6 billion yen, accounting for 47.3% of total software sales.

Overall, year-on-year, Nintendo says net sales for the first quarter of this fiscal year increased by 50% to 461.3 billion yen, with operating profit rising by 82.4% to 185.4 billion yen. Nintendo also updated its hardware and software sales list, meaning we can look at its best-selling consoles and games.