Nintendo profit jumps more than 400% thanks to the Switch and ‘Animal Crossing’

    (CNN) — Nintendo sales are still soaring.

The Japanese company posted another round of blockbuster earnings Thursday, proving that its hot streak from the pandemic is far from over.

The company said it made 145 billion yen ($1.37 billion) in operating profit for the quarter ended June, marking a 428% surge compared to the same time a year ago. That blew away expectations from analysts, who had estimated about 62 billion yen of profit, according to data provided by Refinitiv.

Nintendo also doubled sales from a year ago, taking in about 358 billion yen ($3.4 billion).

The results show that months into the pandemic, people are still turning to the Nintendo Switch game console in droves. Nintendo sold about 5.7 million of the devices from April through June, marking a 167% increase year-over-year.

The runaway success of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” continued to be a boon for the company. The game, which is set on a relaxing virtual island utopia and allows users to fish, catch bugs and play with friends on the beach, runs on the Switch and has been in high demand since people worldwide started staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nintendo sold 10.6 million copies of the game in the most recent quarter.

“Sales of this title continue to be strong, with no loss of momentum,” the company said in a statement. It added that the game was its bestseller this quarter, “contributing greatly to the overall growth in software sales.”

Nintendo has sold 22.4 million copies of “Animal Crossing” overall, putting it just under Nintendo’s best-selling game of all time, “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.” That title has racked up 26.7 million sales.

The Switch, which was first released in 2017, sold out on various websites earlier this year as customers scrambled to find new forms of home entertainment.

This spring, the Kyoto-based company ran into supply issues with the Switch as factories were shut down in China. Those closures triggered some component shortages and slowed output at factories in Vietnam.

Now, “the overall production situation has almost recovered,” the company said.

Nintendo also took the opportunity to tease its pipeline of games. This fall, it plans to release a new title, “Pikmin 3 Deluxe,” as well as offer some new content for Pokémon players. The company released another new Switch game, “Paper Mario: The Origami King,” last month.

“We will work to keep the platform active with new titles and by reinforcing sales of popular titles that have already been released,” the company said.

— Kaori Enjoji contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
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