Nintendo Switch deliveries fell 20 percent last year due to chip shortages
Nintendo shipped 4.11 million units of the Switch last quarter, for a total of 23.06 million in its last financial year. That is 20 percent less than a year earlier. According to Nintendo, this is due to the ongoing chip shortages.
Nintendo just met its revised delivery expectations for fiscal year 2021. Those expectations were initially at 25.5 million, but were later adjusted to 23 million consoles shipped. In 2020, the company delivered 28.83 million Nintendo Switch consoles. Company declares in its quarterly figures that it suffered from “semiconductor components and other parts shortages” in 2021, causing deliveries to fall by 20 percent in the past fiscal year.
In total, the Nintendo Switch has now been delivered 107.65 million times. This makes the Switch Nintendo’s most successful ‘home console’. Previously, that was the Nintendo Wii, which has been shipped 101.63 million times. Only the Nintendo DS and Game Boy handhelds were more successful, with 154.02 and 118.69 million units shipped.
The Japanese gaming giant is further lowering its Switch delivery expectations for the coming year. Nintendo expects to ship 21 million Switch consoles this fiscal year. That is 8.9 percent less than the previous year. The company also expects revenue and operating income to fall by 5.6 percent and 15.6 percent in 2022.
In total, 235.07 million Switch games were delivered in 2021. Pokémon Legends: Arceus as a new title did well in the previous quarter. That game has been delivered 12.64 million times through March 31. The Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes for the Switch have now been delivered 14.65 million times. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still doing well: last quarter Nintendo delivered that game 9.94 million times. This means that since its release in April 2017, that game has shipped 45.33 million times.
The number of expected game deliveries for the coming financial year will be reduced. Nintendo expects to ship 210 million Switch games. This summer, the company will release Splatoon 3, a new Mario Strikers football game and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will follow at the end of this year. Bayonetta 3 is also planned for this year, but it has no release date yet. The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was recently delayed to spring 2023.