During Nintendo’s Financial Results Briefing for the 2021 Fiscal Year (which ended March 2021), director and president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that 20% of console sales were to households that already owned the system.
“In the previous fiscal year, household demand for multiple systems accounted for roughly 20% of unit sales of the Nintendo Switch family of systems,” said Furukawa. “Going forward, we expect demand for multiple systems per household will increase even as hardware unit sales grow.”
Nintendo previously announced the Switch and Switch Lite had combined sales of 28 million over the last year, making the second Switch purchase about five and a half million units.
The Switch and Switch Lite remain fantastic console options for kids and parents alike. Anecdotally, my family owns a Switch, and we bought a Switch Lite for my nine year old this last holiday season. She can play Minecraft and Animal Crossing while daddy enjoys Monster Hunter Rise.
Nintendo hopes this year will remain nearly as strong in Switch sales, forecasting hardware sales at 25.5 million units. “In March of this year, Nintendo Switch entered its fifth year since launch,” said Furukawa. “However, we recognize that, unlike the fifth year in the life cycles of our previous game systems, Nintendo Switch currently has very high momentum.”
On the flip side, shipping and production is a concern for Nintendo going into this year, based on Covid-19 as well as the Suez Canal blockage. Chip shortage is an increasing problem for hardware manufacturers around the world.
[…] Demand for hardware continues to exceed our expectations even after the beginning of this calendar year, and production has currently not caught up to this high demand due to the tight supply and demand situation for semiconductor materials worldwide. Although we are currently striving to produce as many units as possible, the fact is that our production plans are more uncertain than they were at the beginning of previous fiscal years. Our full-year sales plan is based on the premise that we can secure the materials necessary for production, but if we are able to produce more units, we will work hard to meet the strong demand, and to be able to ship and sell those units.
