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Nintendo software and hardware sales data from 1983 to present

Celine

Member
I've updated OP with the data as March 2017.

A few interesting tidbits from the past fiscal year:

- Nintendo discontinued WiiU in October 2016 therefore WiiU final hardware LTD is 13.56 million units.

- 3DS total hardware sales overtook NES total hardware sales.

- Both 3DS software and hardware sales in the past FY were up YoY which is surprising for a console in its 6th year.

- Now Nintendo has sold more than 700 million consoles in its history.

- If Nintendo's forecast for 3DS total software sales for the current fiscal year hold true then 3DS total software is poised to surpass the ones from SNES and GBA.
Due to disappointing 3DS software sales and lack of third-party support outside Japan this achievement wasn't certain in fact the main contributor is first-party software sales which are far bigger than GBA and SNES.
3DS first-party/total software sales ratio is close to 50% while GBA and SNES ones are around 23%-25%.

- If we consider that 1 2 Switch is close to 1 million then in the first month Switch first party/total software tie ratio is more than 65%.

- After 8 years New Super Mario Bros Wii has finally broke the 30M threshold.

- The only DS games to ship more units were Pokémon Diamond/Pearl and Pokémon Black/White (very small quantities though).

- NES Classic Mini shipped 2.30M units in 5 months.
It's hard to come by sales for plug & play retro consoles but from what I gathered Atari Flashback 2 was among the best selling ones with almost 1 million sales in North America.
NES Classic Mini surpassed this record (admittedly NES Classic Mini was available worldwide) in a few months and with demand still outstripping offer.
Nintendo announced to have discontinued NES Classic Mini so it's final LTD unless Nintendo resume production at a latter time.

Will Switch be place under consoles or handhelds ��
Choose to add a "Hybrid console" category because if Nintendo decide to do stationary-only or handheld-only revision of Switch (which play the same software) then it wouldn't make sense to put Switch under one of the two existing category.
 

Waji

Member
- If we consider that 1 2 Switch is close to 1 million then in the first month Switch first party/total software tie ratio is more than 65%.
Which is not so mad for third party if we consider the "fact" that they're not really yet on board.
These games that are not Zelda, 1 2S , Snipperclips... still had to do 35% software sales.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Too bad we don't get updates to Woolly Yoshi, considering it continues to be one of Wii U's top sellers at Amazon.de. Also I wonder, whether there is enough air left for Wii U to allow NSMBU or SM3DW to pass Sunshine.
 
Seeing the top sellers on Wii, it's no wonder Nintendo wanted to keep the Wii name alive in the Wii U. Sports Resort/Play/Fit all sold incredibly well.
 
@ that last graph with revenue/operating income/net income, for 3/17 how can net income be so much higher than operating income? Even assuming a $0 tax via writing off their losses from previous years, what would make the net income go up higher than the operating income?
 

Celine

Member
@ that last graph with revenue/operating income/net income, for 3/17 how can net income be so much higher than operating income? Even assuming a $0 tax via writing off their losses from previous years, what would make the net income go up higher than the operating income?
Extraordinary income due to the Seattle Marines sale.
 
Its really crazy how big of a difference there is between Wii U launch and Switch launch. Especially when you take into account the Wii U was being sold for a loss and Switch is being sold for a profit.

I thought the Switch would be fine, but i thought it would struggle at $299 in its current form. I thought next year it would get different revisions (like a dockless sku and maybe a slim) along with a price drop, that combined with Pokemon/Animal Crossing/Fire Emblem/etc would be the big turnaround like event that the 3DS had early on in its life. But the Switch is already doing that at $299, without multiple sku's, with pretty much just a multiplat Zelda. Imagine what is going to happen when it starts getting its big exclusives, when the price goes down, its going to be crazy.

Before Switch launch i was wondering whether this would be Nintendos last hardware, now im wondering if they'll ever stop.
 

Atheerios

Member
A lot of great info in there, thanks OP.

For the next update I would suggest making the "Update as x of y" text smaller and with a lighter color, that way it will be easier to skim for a specific game title.
 

Celine

Member
Updated 3DS chart and related graphs with missing Super Mario Maker for 3DS sales.

A lot of great info in there, thanks OP.

For the next update I would suggest making the "Update as x of y" text smaller and with a lighter color, that way it will be easier to skim for a specific game title.
Will look if it is possible to do it in Excel.

EDIT:
Don't think it's possible.
 

Eolz

Member
It's going to end up 10 million less than the fucking PSP. It was a failure regardless of how you spin it.

But it's not. A disappointment for sure, but they managed well considering the time period. And it's far from a disappointment or failure in Japan as well.
A failure would be the Vita for example. Or the WiiU for home consoles.
 

TheMoon

Member
It's going to end up 10 million less than the fucking PSP. It was a failure regardless of how you spin it.
The following:

3DS went up against a mobile centric world, in all honestly the 3DS' performance is pretty incredible.

Is why. There's no need to spin anything. It's remarkable that it did as well as it does and even just had an uptick YoY now. Context matters.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
The era that came in late/after PS2/GBA will forever be the peak performance for the dedicated gaming device market.

Maybe not forever due to some unforeseen event, but at least for a very very long time. Given how Nintendo still doesn't ship to so many companies (and their European and South American operations aren't all that great), there is at least some possibility of overall growth.
 
Choose to add a "Hybrid console" category because if Nintendo decide to do stationary-only or handheld-only revision of Switch (which play the same software) then it wouldn't make sense to put Switch under one of the two existing category.
Perfect!
Thanks once again for the great job you've done with this thread, it's an extremely useful resource :)
 

joecanada

Member
it's a console everywhere but message boards where people love to argue about hardware power.

My qualifier is overall sales. I predicted about 50 million for switch but that was based on switch cannibalizing 3ds sales and ending WiiU of course .

So as this thread shows about 80 million for WiiU plus 3ds I feel pretty good about my prediction , maybe it was 50-60 can't recall right now ,. However I stated that was a decline in their overall sales and I feel Nintendo would only be semi happy with that . I see it as a contraction in their market share but they could still sell more than 60 too...
Unless 3ds had bad software sales and they make it up that way. A lot could still happen
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
Wow, Twilight Princess HD didn't crack a million. I mean I shouldn't be too surprised, but 500k copies of Wind Waker HD sold in just the last year.
 

jackal27

Banned
God I always forget just how well the DS sold. It's mind boggling. Love that little guy.

Also, those Wii software sales omg. Nintendo games have such long legs.
 

Roo

Member
Mario Kart 8 is around 450k copies shy from reaching Super Mario Kart
Wonder if it'll be able to surpass it by the end of 2018 FY.
 
Mario Kart 8 is around 450k copies shy from reaching Super Mario Kart
Wonder if it'll be able to surpass it by the end of 2018 FY.
The obscenely high attach rate, the Wii U being discontinued, and Deluxe releasing on Switch means there's a good chance that may not happen. There's really not that much of a potential audience left for that version.
 
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