Nintendo’s Splatoon 3 game became the Switch’s biggest debut to date, selling 3.45 million units in Japan during its opening weekend.
Nintendo shares have increased by 5.5% in Tokyo this Tuesday, their biggest leap since December 2020. The console maker owes that excitement to the highly anticipated release of the Splatoon 3 video gamewho has surpassed national best sellers launch of all Switch titles, far ahead “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” (1.88 million units).
The hugely popular game had previously boosted Nintendo software sales during the pandemic and helped sustain hardware demand for the platform, which is now five years old.
With this fanfare beginning, Nintendo established a new record for any game launch in Japanaccording to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners.
“The sales volumes of new Nintendo titles exceed our expectations on almost all occasions“, wrote, for their part, analysts Junko Yamamura and Sachiho Uzaki of Citi after the publication of the figures. “As things stand, any negative impact of a North American recession on the demand for games has been limit.”
Shooting the longevity of the Switch
Splatoon 3 is part of a strong lineup of games that Nintendo has lined up for the holiday season, looking to extend the life of the Switch beyond the typical window of a single console generation. The company is also betting on its franchise Pokémon to maintain momentum in the new year, when a new version of the game is to be released fin 2022.
Nintendo has announced sales down last month and the material remains a sensitive point. The shortages extended by components and high material costs put pressure on its prospects. If the company nevertheless maintained its forecast to sell 21 million units of the Switch hybrid console, it sold 23 million the previous year.
According to Citi analysts, “we are on the threshold of a resumption of Switch hardware supply”, starting in October.