Nintendo Profits Surge as Switch Sales Skyrocket

Nintendo is the latest beneficiary of the COVID-19 lockdown: Sales of Switch hardware and software has surged during the pandemic, and Nintendo is increasing production for the rest of 2020.

Nintendo reported an operating profit of $1.37 billion on revenues of $3.9 billion for the quarter ending June 30. Both of those are massive gains over the year-ago quarter: Profits are up 428 percent, while revenues jumped 108 percent.

The trigger for all this success? The Switch portable console, of course: Nintendo sold 5.68 million units in the quarter, a gain of 167 percent year-over-year. As a result, Nintendo is increasing production and now expects to sell around 25 million units this year, up from the previous projection of 19 million units.

Also helping matters, the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a smash hit for the firm. The firm had sold over 13 million units of the title by the end of May, an astonishing tally given that it was only released in March.