Splatoon 3

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Jumps onto Live Streaming

This analysis examines the live-streaming performance of the Nintendo title Mario & Luigi: Brothership while contextualizing it within Nintendo’s broader market position as the current Switch console nears the end of its lifecycle.

• Nintendo’s fiscal Q2 2024 revenue fell 17% year-over-year to ¥276.7 billion as consumer anticipation for the successor to the Switch impacts current hardware and software sales.
• Mario & Luigi: Brothership generated 933,000 hours watched in its debut week, significantly trailing the performance of recent Nintendo RPG remakes like Super Mario RPG (3.9 million hours) and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2.6 million hours).
• The viewership for Mario & Luigi: Brothership was heavily concentrated, with a single streamer, Batora324, accounting for 20.4% of the game's total debut week hours watched.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Switch Games on Live Streaming

The release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom serves as a case study for the performance of Nintendo intellectual property on live-streaming platforms.

• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom generated 3.4 million hours watched and over 100,000 hours of airtime during its debut week, significantly outperforming the 2019 release of Link’s Awakening, which saw 2 million hours watched.
• The game's open-ended 'Echoes' puzzle system drove high engagement by encouraging unique player solutions, a feature that mirrors the successful live-streaming appeal of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
• Western viewership for the game was primarily driven by streamers alanzoka (194K hours), BarbarousKing (73K hours), and Ponce (61.5K hours), while Japanese viewership was led by NIJISANJI VTubers Hayama Marin and Yorumi Rena.

How Blight: Survival Added Hundreds of Thousands of Steam Wishlists!

The marketing success of Haenir Studio’s Blight: Survival serves as a primary case study for modern game discovery, demonstrating how high-quality gameplay reveals can exponentially increase consumer interest.

• Haenir Studio increased Blight: Survival's Steam wishlist ranking from #166 to #48 through a 190% growth driven by authentic gameplay reveals and viral social media campaigns.
• Nintendo Switch lifetime sales reached 114 million units, though the company lowered hardware forecasts by 2 million units due to ongoing semiconductor supply chain constraints.
• Nintendo’s first-party software remains a primary revenue driver, accounting for 74% of total software sales, with Splatoon 3 selling 6.7 million units in its first month.

Peak Play: Trends in East Asian Videogame Streaming H1 2023

The East Asian videogame livestreaming market is a mature and culturally distinct ecosystem where competitive esports serve as the primary engine for audience engagement.

• Competitive esports, specifically MOBA and Battle Royale titles, drive over 50% of total viewership in the East Asian streaming market.
• Honor of Kings remains the dominant force in China with 5.67 billion views, while VALORANT and Apex Legends lead in Japan and Korea with over 100 million hours watched each.
• Key Opinion Leaders and VTubers are significant market drivers, contributing up to 15% of total viewership for major titles and successfully revitalizing older games.

Nintendo Financial Results Explanatory Material: 2nd Quarter of Fiscal Year Ending March 2023

The financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2023 demonstrate a period of resilient growth for Nintendo, characterized by strong software performance and significant currency-driven gains, despite ongoing supply chain constraints.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Market Performance: Japan November 2022

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet dominated the Japanese video game market in November 2022, securing its position as the month's top-selling title by a significant margin.

• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold an estimated 3.1 million boxed units in Japan during November 2022, making it the top-selling game and accounting for 73% of all boxed game sales in the country for the month.
• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's launch sales in Japan significantly surpassed those of Pokémon: Arceus, which sold approximately 2.1 million units in its first month.
• Nintendo Switch consoles dominated hardware sales in Japan during November 2022, accounting for 93% of all physical copies sold, with the Switch OLED model representing over 50% of units and the Switch Lite seeing a boost to 13.6% of hardware sales.

US Video Game Market: September 2022

The United States video game market experienced a contraction in September 2022, with total consumer spending reaching $4.07 billion, a 4% decrease compared to the same period in the previous year.

• US consumer spending on games (software, hardware, accessories) in September 2022 decreased by 4% year-on-year, totaling $4.07 billion.
• Despite the overall decline, hardware sales saw a significant 19% increase in September 2022 compared to the previous year, primarily driven by PlayStation 5 sales.
• Software sales, including physical, digital, subscriptions, and DLC, dropped by 7% in September 2022 to $3.4 billion, with gains in non-mobile subscriptions offset by declines in other content segments.

Consolidated Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2022

Nintendo’s consolidated financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2022, reflect a period of mixed performance characterized by hardware supply constraints offset by strong digital growth and favorable foreign exchange gains.

Financial Results Explanatory Material: Fiscal Year Ended March 2022

Nintendo experienced a period of stabilization during the fiscal year ended March 2022, characterized by a slight contraction in financial performance despite robust engagement metrics.