Nintendo profits dip to $6.6 billion after year of hardware struggles

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Nintendo reported declines across the board in its financial results for the twelve months ended March 31, 2023, with gross profit down 6.4% to ¥885.4 billion ($6.6 billion).

The Switch firm attributed part of its lower performance to hardware issues, particularly the troubles it has had with semiconductor supplies.

It's also worth noting the Switch is now entering the seventh year of its lifecycle, and most major games firms are seeing a post-lockdown decline after the pandemic boosted sales.

Here's what you need to know from Nintendo's full-year results:

Nintendo originally forecast Switch sales of 21 million units for the fiscal year ending March 2023, which in itself represented a decline of 8.9% on the previous financial year. It's actual sales of 17.97 million units are 14.4% down on that forecast, and 22.1% lower than its sales from the previous year.

As the platform holder has said with each of its quarterly results this past year, semiconductor shortages have had an impact on its ability to deliver hardware. However, the company also noted that it did not see the same growth around the 2022 holiday season as it did in 2021.

Nintendo highlighted some of the biggest selling games of the past financial year, including Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, which has sold 22.1 million units since launching in November.

Splatoon 3 has sold 10.67 million units since its September debut, while Nintendo Switch Sports has sold 9.6 million units since April.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to sell well, adding another 8.45 million units over the past year. It stands as the biggest-selling Switch game of all time at 53.79 million units – more than 10