Nintendo first-half net profit more than tripled on soaring sales
The Japanese videogame maker said net profit rose to 213.12 billion yen ($2.04 billion) for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, from Y62.02 billion a year earlier
File photo: Gothenburg, Sweden - March 10, 2017: A shot from above of a young man's hands holding a neon coloured Nintendo Switch video game system developed and released by Nintendo Co., Ltd. in 2017.
Nintendo Co. said Thursday that first-half net profit more than tripled from a year earlier as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to drive strong sales.
The Japanese videogame maker said net profit rose to 213.12 billion yen ($2.04 billion) for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, from Y62.02 billion a year earlier.
Second-quarter net profit was Y106.64 billion, given net profit of Y106.48 billion in the first quarter, according to a Wall Street Journal calculation. That beat the estimate of Y77.03 billion by a Visible Alpha poll of analysts.
Nintendo raised its revenue and net profit forecasts for the full year ending March 2021. The company expects revenue to increase 7.0% to Y1.400 trillion, compared with the previous forecast of a 8.3% fall, and forecasts net profit to rise 16% to Y300.00 billion, compared with the previous view of a 23% decrease.
Nintendo said it expects to sell 24.0 million Switch consoles this fiscal year, up from the previous projection of 19.0 million units. The company said it sold 12.5 million units in the first half, compared with 6.9 million units a year earlier.
The company's first-half revenue increased 73% to Y769.52 billion, helped by strong sales of "Animal Crossing: New Horizons."
Second-quarter revenue was Y411.42 billion, given revenue of Y358.11 billion in the previous quarter.
Nintendo said it sold 14.3 million copies of "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" in the first half.
Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com