Nintendo’s profits fall 19 per cent as a Covid-19 pandemic-fuelled video gaming boom wanes

Nintendo’s fiscal half sales fell to US$5.5 billion this year, but new titles The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and Pokémon Snap have sold well

Video game sales soared while people were stuck at home during the pandemic last year, which helped turn Animal Crossing: New Horizons into a viral hit

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Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons became a hit in 2020 while people were stuck at home during the pandemic, but as the video gaming boom has worn off, the company’s profits have fallen. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:36am, 5 Nov 2021Updated: 10:36am, 5 Nov 2021

Japanese video game maker Nintendo’s profit dropped 19 per cent in the first half of its fiscal year from the previous year, when it received a big lift as people stuck at home by the coronavirus pandemic turned to its products.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co reported Thursday a 171.8 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) profit for the April-September period, down from 213 billion yen in the same period the previous year.

Fiscal half sales slipped 19 per cent to 624 billion yen (US$5.5 billion). It did not break down quarterly numbers.

Nintendo, which is behind the Super Mario and Pokémon games, was among the global companies that received a boost from the pandemic by providing at-home entertainment.

That’s why Nintendo enjoyed strong sales of its game Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the April-September period the previous year. That momentum was hard to maintain into this year, although the game was so popular that it also boosted sales of the Nintendo Switch machines.

But a shortage of computer chips caused by the pandemic is hurting production of those machines. Nintendo lowered its forecast for Switch hardware sales for the second fiscal half by 1.5 million units to 24 million.

The year-end holidays are critical for Nintendo’s sales. So far, Nintendo has sold nearly 93 million Switch machines worldwide, including the Switch Lite version.