Nintendo sales update - Wii U near 13m, Nintendo 3DS near 59m
Posted 27 Apr 2016 at 07:58 by Ashley Jones
Nintendo's investors meeting gave us an update on the sales figures of the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS as well as software figures from the previous financial year and what to expect in the next.
To date the Wii U has now sold 12.8 million hardware units worldwide and 84.04 million software units while the Nintendo 3DS has sold 58.85 million hardware units and 274.18 million software units.
Before the end of the next financial year (i.e. March 31st 2017) Nintendo anticipate selling 5 million units of Nintendo 3DS hardware and 55 million software units. For the Wii U they anticipate selling 800,000 units and 15 million software units.
Compared to the financial year that has just ended the hardware predictions are both down. The Nintendo 3DS family sold 6.79 million units in the last financial year while the Wii U sold 3.26 million units. In terms of software the 3DS sold 48.52 million units while the Wii U sold 27.36 million units, making it clear that Nintendo anticipate Pokémon Sun and Moon will sell well this year.
Nintendo also supplied a breakdown of sales for the financial year that recently ended in comparison to the one before it. All figures are in million yen.
| Category | Year ended March 31 2015 | Year Ended March 31 2016 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handheld hardware | 149,616 | 113,239 | -36,377 |
| Home hardware | 105,548 | 102,404 | -3,144 |
| Other hardware (*1) | 38,204 | 51,986 | 13,782 |
| Hardware total | 293,370 | 267,630 | -25,740 |
| Handheld software | 149,941 | 109,179 | -40,762 |
| Home software | 84,742 | 92,345 | 7,603 |
| Other software (*2) | 20,589 | 27,992 | 7,403 |
| Software total | 255,273 | 229,517 | -25,756 |
| Smart devices, IP related income etc (*3) | - | 5,734 | 5,734 |
| Playing cards, Karuta etc | 1,137 | 1,577 | 440 |
| Total | 549,780 | 504,459 | -45,321 |
*1 includes amiibo and accessories
*2 includes download-only content
*3 includes income for smart device content and royalty income. In the previous financial year this was included in "other software".
It is clear across the board they are down, but other avenues such as amiibo and royalties have increased in the last financial year, while home and other software has also seen an increase. Plus it's nice to see they still make some money from playing cards!
In terms of regional sales, Europe has taken a slight downturn this year but only marginally (sales figures are in million yen):
| Japan | The Americas | Europe | Other | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year Ended March 31 2016 | Net Sales | 135,461 | 225,837 | 126,916 | 16,243 | 504,459 |
| Component Ratio | 26.9% | 44.8% | 25.2% | 3.1% | 100% | |
| Year Ended March 31 2015 | Net Sales | 135,049 | 241,646 | 154,338 | 18,746 | 549,780 |
| Component Ratio | 24.6% | 44% | 28.1% | 3.3% | 100% | |
Some other interest titbits from the summary:
- Number of employees has dropped slightly from 5,120 at the end of the financial year ending March 2015 to 5,064
- Research and development expenses has increased from 63,336 million yen to 69,066 million yen and are expected to decrease to 65,000 million yen next year
- Advertising expenses has decreased from 54,834 million yen to 46,636 million yen although Nintendo expect to spend 50,000 million yen on advertising by the end of March 2017
- The most popular 3DS console was the New Nintendo 3DS XL while the least popular was the Nintendo 3DS XL
- Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer has sold 3.04 million units
- Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon has sold 1.22 million units
- Splatoon has sold 4.27 million units
- Super Mario Maker has sold 3.52 million units
- Amiibo continues to do well with the figure amiibos selling approximately 24.70 million units and the card types selling approximately 28.90 million units.
All in all its a mixed bag for Nintendo. Their expanded interests have served them well and it is to be expected that the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS hardware sales would be declining. It will be interesting to see what affect the NX will have on their finances, but we'll have to wait another two years to find out as it won't be coming out until the end of this financial year.
