According to information from Nikkei, Nintendo is targeting a distribution target of 20 million Switches for the console’s 6th fiscal year, which runs from April 2022 to March 2023. This is 10% less than the previous one. financial year and 30% less compared to the record financial year during which Nintendo had distributed 28.83 million Switches, driven by confinements and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Although very natural in the life cycle of a console, this decline is already attributed to shortages of semiconductors and logistical disruptions, which we tend to forget that they also affect Nintendo, although to a much lesser extent than Sony and Microsoft.
“The Kyoto-based company would like to start ramping up production, but the prolonged chip shortage and global supply chain disruptions exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will impact production. Meanwhile, China, where the Switch is produced, is grappling with coronavirus outbreaks. Supply chains there have been disrupted by the shutdown of Shanghai, which has hurt the production and delivery of parts and materials. If the shutdown continues, Switch sales in fiscal year 2022 could fall below 20 million units“, says the Nikkei article.
After reaching the 100 million park faster than the PS4 and the Wii, the Switch could therefore accumulate approximately 128 million consoles in March 2023. Under these conditions, we can estimate that the platform will be able to cross the 150 mark. million sometime in 2024, joining the PS2 and Nintendo DS in the console hall of fame. Nintendo also has the necessary catalog to compensate for production constraints by selling more and more games.
Splatoon 3, Mario + The Rabbids Sparks of Hope, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet or even the sequel to The Legends of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are among the largest known cartridges in its catalog. With already 766 million Switch games distributed as of December 31, Nintendo can also perfectly envisage crossing the bar of one billion games in the long term, which the manufacturer has never done in its history even with the Wii (922 million games) or the DS (948 million games).