Nintendo's Q1-2 Digital Sales Make Up Over 50% Of All Software Revenue

You cant fight it.... now all we need is a proper Nintendo account system, where purchases carry over to the next console etc...

If they stay with the Switch brand, with backwards compatibility then it's a possibility.

This is gonna convinve Nintendo to make their next console a metaverse and make us use My Nintendo Gold Points as crypto and to buy games.

Nintendo is doomed. Again. again. Again. Again.

@gcunit That's not a gif I wanted to see today.

I'm a 37 year old man with 15-30 mins a night to play games if I'm lucky. I have about 15 games physically, but the odds of me fussing with a cart (especially the tiny cart behind a sh*tty Little door, after I've been doing carpentry for 8 hours) vs playing a downloaded game are pretty slim.

in other words, I'm all about download games, and I often regret that I got X game physically when all I want to do is pop something on and play for 10 minutes.

OTOH, I buy Mario, Zelda, Kirby, et al physically.

@johnvboy they already had it going on with DSiWare on 3DS and Wii downloads on Wii U, too. All in all, the odds look quite decent.

@HotGoomba or anytime soon, in my case.

I know its more convenient, but when Nintendo becomes a download only console (which I think it will in the next gen or the one after that), bye bye, thats me out of the computer game community.

@nhSnork,

It needs to happen, but yes thing look positive.

We need to see digital numbers reported for Switch on a regular basis if that is the case. Most sales charts only report physical numbers and the digital report comes out only semi-annually.

I prefer physical over digital. I've thought a couple of times to move to all-digital, but if Nintendo really wants me to do that, there are a couple of things that have to be considered (sorry, I cannot format the comment as I'd like to and it's a bit long):
-You need more than 32GB of internal memory in your systems.
On the Wii U they were manageable without an HDD and for sticking mostly to physical discs. It also helps that not many games have big DLCs and updates.

On Switch, those 32GB will be used almost immediately, especially if you're like me and take a lot of screenshots and videos. Right now I have a 128GB microSD Card and it only has about 20GB left. The 32GB of the Switch are strickly for DLC and updates for games I own physically and have just about 3GB left there.

I'm not sure how much internal memory the 3DS has, but even then the 32GB SD Card is also manageable under the same conditions as the Wii U.

-You want me to go all-digital, yet you refuse to give those versions considerable discounts.
Not even because you're closing the past eShops you're gonna have at least a 50% sale? And yes, I know it's a business, but they should know that right now (at least here in Mexico) physical Wii U games are as cheap as cheap can get. I wish I could say the same about physical 3DS games, though.
That's perhaps the biggest reasons I haven't 100% moved to digital only and keep getting physical games while I can. Money doesn't grow on tress, you know?

-Get your stuff together when it comes to online, especially if you're gonna make customers pay for it.
I understand this is a big area of opportunity, but with the Switch you really went and done it with its poor wifi signal. On past systems it was bad, but it was functional. Now I cannot have a match online without it lagging like crazy unless I play handheld mode in another room. Remember, on Switch I'm sticking to mostly docked.
The Switch is the joke of my devices and video game systems that can connect to the Internet. The poor wifi signal almost defeats the purpose of it being a hybrid system for me.

Let's go, digital it's awesome and also way cheaper

@HotGoomba I get it, I'm sorry, but it's just...

...when I think about...

...future being all-digi...

... can't help mysel...

@HammerGalladeBro sorry to burst your bubble but wifi connection is fine.

@Bunkerneath
I felt the same a few years ago, I'm going to just subscribe to Gamepass when this happens.

If only Nintendo accounts weren't stupid bad and annoying.

Handling digital purchases within a household is a total mess.
Primary Switch, secondary Switch etc.....

I think that with numbers like those, the "digital only" future it's still goona take a while. Next gen it's just too early for Nintendo to potentially lose those 50% of boxed game sales.

I'm fine with digital only, if Nintendo stops pretending they need parity with retail (who get 50% mark up), and make all games 30usd at launch.

Not surprising and I suspect Switch probably is the console with the lowest percentage if digital due to its success with younger audiences.
Its going to happen in a gen or two, most people i know have gone digital due to ease or lack of space. Happened to pc gaming years ago

note that this is by revenue, not units

digital sales make much more per unit than a physical sale which includes the cost of production, distribution, and the cut for the retailer

as an example, if a game costs 50 at retail, it might only mean half that in revenue for nintendo for a physical copy - so sales volumes could be 2:1 physical:digital whilst revenues were 1:1

I’ve no idea what the sales volumes are, but I would expect that physical sales far exceed digital still by these numbers, as they produce less revenue per unit

Yeah I'm mostly digital now, because it's just so convenient. No more searching for my cartridges, I always have everything with me everywhere I go.

I never sell my games anyway, still own all my gb/gbc/gba/nds/3ds cartridges. I certainly don't want the option to go away but it turns out it isn't for me.

Flipside is I probably have to upgrade my 400 GB SD card to 1 or 2 TB this winter, it's almost full.

Nah I don’t see physical going away anytime soon for Nintendo. It is still a significant percentage of sales is what people are forgetting. People thinking 50% range for digital is doom and gloom now

Also physical has plenty of convenience over digital for the consumer that I don’t see Nintendo ditching the medium anytime soon

For me personally a digital game is EUR20 max. For a full priced game I need physical, because I can swap, trade or sell it if necessary. It's all about retaining value.

I play much more my digital games than my cartridge games. Much more. I don't like to search the cartridges ..i like to click and play the fastest i can.

Can someone explain this math to me?

“It is worth bearing in mind that the term 'digital sales' does not refer only to games. The percentage accounts for all things bought digitally - downloadable versions of packaged software, download-only software, DLC, Nintendo Switch Online memberships etc. - and does therefore not wholly reflect the state of game sales alone.

Nintendo stated that sales increased for NSO memberships, DLC and download-only content to account for 47.5% of the company's total digital sales.

This being said, digital sales of otherwise packaged software continue to account for around half of game sales.“

So half of all game sales are digital, but then around half of that is actually NSO memberships and DLC (not digital versions of packages games). And somehow they’re saying digital versions of packaged games still make up half of Nintendo’s game sales? That doesn’t make sense. They just laid out how half of game sales are NSO and and DLC sales. It can’t be both. Their math indicates it’s like 25% unless I’m missing something?

@gcunit that was really disturbing.

On Topic. Good to see that digital sales are coming along. I wonder at the attach rate and if there is any correlation to digital sales increases.

Nintendo should go $29.99 on all its hit first party digital games next year. Its time....and sales would go through the roof! Bring back Players Choice at least digitally!

So much more convenient but the sales that go 3 to sometimes like 10 times cheaper digital is why it's so popular. I know there's quite a few games I'd never have played without eShop sales.

@SteamEngenius it really depends tho. I see physical so much cheaper at times than digital….

If a refund option is available on digital purchase then Nintendo won't be so happy seeing a lot of games getting the push back. As much as I like digital, I still prefer physical releases as well and there's no world where I would see digital been the only way to buy games.

i dont like where this is going. I bought the witcher 3 goty on sale - after being initially overwhelmed by how good it was I came to highly dislike the game. And now I cant sell it... lmao

@Zucaritas cheaper to produce or cheaper to buy? cause I get physical copies WAY cheaper. like 20% cheaper on release day

@superbearo its not just production costs, which include packaging and card - there is also a whole distribution chain, where everyone wants to get their cut. To put this into perspective, I can get physical copies on day1 about 20% cheaper than from the eshop. Buying digital simply means: pay more for less (no card) with less options (cant resell!) and requires extra investment on top in the form of SD cards. GGWP!

I think starting 2023 will be buying a game twice. Digitally and physically

@Poco_Lypso cheaper to buy, here physical copies are almost double the price sometimes and they still are more expensive than digital full price even years after the game release with the dumb excuse that you can sell them after beating the game

@Zucaritas must be a regional thing. I'm from Poland - we pay about 290 in our currency for day1 digital releases here, and I can order physical copies for like 220 on average. Lots of dicounts to be found occasionally, perona strikers can be purchased for 140 atm, - exchange rate is 1 eur = 5pln atm. tbh if you check the german Amazon you will find similar discounts, maybe this is related to EU zone.

Doesn’t look like we’re going digital only for at least another gen! Whoop! Eventually I think we will look back fondly at the good ol’ days when we had a choice. Long live physical!!

@gcunit
I can relate to the nausea over an all-digital future 🤮
I have no idea what that gif is from, but thanks for the laugh!

If I’m paying more than $10 for a game, I want a hard copy. I can’t share eShop purchases with my kids or friends, I can’t sell them back, and someday my “license” to play will expire if I need to retrieve a purchase from a closed eShop. Physical games are tangible assets that give me peace of mind and something fun to alphabetize on the shelf.

If even Nintendo goes all-digital later, I may just abandon ship like @Bunkerneath.
But que cera, cera.
I think I’ve accumulated enough retro games to last the rest of my life anyway.

@Teksetter It's from Team America: World Police.

@gcunit
Thank you! Looks horrifying. 😅
Maybe the next time I’m in the mood for demented muppets I can look it up.