Nintendo Profits Up 261%, Officially Outsold Wii U’s Entire Run

It’s no secret that Nintendo is just making money hand over fist right now thanks to the successful launch and support of its Switch portable console. The new device has officially surpassed the entire run of the company’s previous offering, the Wii U, and its profits are up by a whopping 261 percent. It seems things are only getting better for Nintendo, as well, since Switch sales projections have been raised to 15 million from 14 million for the first year.

These new details came via the company’s latest earnings report, noting that as of December 31st, 2017, the number of Switch units sold was at 14.86 million. That was for the hardware. The software sales topped out at 52.57 million.

“For the nine months ended December 31, 2017, the Nintendo Switch hardware sold well following the launch and sales volume rose substantially during the holiday season. For the Nintendo Switch software, Super Mario Odyssey was released in October and has been a big hit, with global sales reaching 9.07 million units,” Nintendo notes in a statement.

Just to compare, the entire run of the Wii U saw the disappointing console’s sales numbers reach only 13.56 million. That’s how many units were sold over the course of five years and the Switch managed to surpass it in only nine months.

As Ars Technica notes, Nintendo had to keep revising forecasts on how many Switch units would be sold all through last year. Initially, the company cautioned shareholders to expect only about 10 million units of the console sold in the 12 months. This was then revised to 14 million, and now it’s at 15 million.

CNBC also reports that this success for the Japanese firm has allowed for record jumps in operating profit, which is now at 261 percent year-on-year. The last time Nintendo had it this good was Q4 of 2009.