Zelda and the Mario movie increase Nintendo revenue

Due to the successful launch of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the brisk sales of its most recent “Zelda” game, Nintendo on Thursday revealed a 52 percent increase in first-quarter net profits.

The Japanese gaming company reported net income of 181 billion yen ($1.26 billion), but kept its 340 billion yen net profit projection for the entire year through March 2024.

According to Nintendo, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” had a “good start” after its May release, selling 18.51 million units.

Success of the game prompted hardware sales in addition to a “significant increase” in software unit sales, according to Nintendo.

Since its initial release in 1986, the video game starring Princess Zelda and the elf-like hero Link has amassed 125 million sales worldwide.

The “Hogwarts Legacy” video game, which is based on the “Harry Potter” series, took two weeks to sell 12 million copies, but Zelda’s sales increased quickly.

A cooperative effort by Universal, Nintendo, and Illumination Studios, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” debuted in April and turned out to be a financial success for the Kyoto-based company.

It was the first movie of the year to earn more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office.

According to Nintendo, the movie revived consumer interest in the video game series and had “widespread positive effects” on everything from merchandise to mobile apps.

According to the firm, its release “positively impacted sales of ‘Mario’ related titles, with ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ recording sales of 1.67 million units (for cumulative sales of 55.46 million units)”.

According to Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Toyo Securities, before of Thursday’s results, “it was initially claimed that the performance of the film would have no bearing on Nintendo’s earnings, but it actually boosted sales of Switch consoles.”

Overall, sales of hardware rose 13.9% year over year to 3.91 million units, while those of software rose 26.1 percent to 52.21 million units.

A weaker yen also helped Nintendo’s performance from April to June by “inflating repatriated sales,” according to Yasuda.