In its fiscal year 2025, Nintendo's net sales amounted to just over *** trillion Japanese yen (approximately **** billion U.S. dollars), down from over **** trillion yen a year earlier (**** billion U.S. dollars). Nintendo is a multinational consumer electronics and software company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo history Founded in September 1889 as a small Japanese firm producing handmade playing cards, Nintendo has evolved into one of the largest video game manufacturing companies. Operating as a single business segment, Nintendo’s operations are categorized by product type such as video game platforms, mobile, and playing cards. Most of Nintendo’s revenue is generated through sales of video game platforms. Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox Of the all-time sales of video game consoles, Nintendo registers three devices in the top five – Nintendo DS, Game Boy, and Nintendo Switch. PlayStation devices complete the top five list with the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4 featured, while the Xbox 360 is the only device under the Xbox brand that makes its way into the top ten rankings. Of the leading current-generation game consoles, the PlayStation 5 has recorded notably more sales compared to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

In its fiscal year 2025, Japanese video gaming company Nintendo reported a net income of ****** billion Japanese yen (*** billion U.S. dollars), a significant decline from *** billion yen in the preceding fiscal period. Nintendo is the developer and publisher of the Super Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon gaming franchises as well as a hardware maker.

In the fiscal year ending March 2025, Nintendo generated approximately 53.2 percent of its gaming software revenue via digital unit sales. This includes sales of downloadable versions of packaged software, download-only software, add-on content and Nintendo Switch Online. During the measured period, digital sales amounted to 326 billion yen.

Nintendo generated more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars lifetime revenue from mobile games as of November 2024, with Fire Emblem Heroes ranking first with 879 million U.S. dollars in IAP spending as of the measured period. Second-ranked Mario Kart Tour saw 267 million U.S. dollars in lifetime player spend. Despite being a prolific gaming company with many strong first-party title releases for its gaming consoles, Nintendo has not managed to translate its success to mobile. Dragalia Lost, which was launched in 2018 as a new mobile-exclusive IP, shut down in November 2022.

The share prices of four companies producing some of the world's best video games from January 2000 to February 2024.

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi Games. It is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol ATVI, and since 2015 has been a member of the S&P 500 Index. Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, and Activision Blizzard Studios. https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F10074224%2F44131e11275e32094a02f2c2c7ed437c%2Factivision-office.png?generation=1682852644217105&alt=media" alt=""> The company owns and operates additional subsidiary studios, as part of Activision Publishing, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward, High Moon Studios, and Toys for Bob. Among major intellectual properties produced by Activision Blizzard are Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk's, Spyro, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Candy Crush Saga. Under Blizzard Entertainment, it invested in esports initiatives around several of its games, most notably Overwatch and Call of Duty. Activision Blizzard's titles have broken a number of release records. As of March 2018, it was the largest game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalization. Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F10074224%2F78fc67916f57f5b2f336fa3144d14c48%2Fnintendo.900x.jpg?generation=1682852735183488&alt=media" alt=""> Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Switch. It has created numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Super Smash Bros. Nintendo's mascot, Mario, is internationally recognized. The company has sold more than 5.4 billion video games and over 800 million hardware units globally as of 2022. Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, For Honor, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy's, and Watch Dogs. https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F10074224%2F0c41ffee9463b847774c9b6bacaf3123%2Fistockphoto-584479884-170667a.jpg?generation=1682852814452144&alt=media" alt=""> Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die!. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F10074224%2F67f54151bb4c494165cd2e1ff72900df%2F1200px-EA_Building_RedwoodShores.jpg?generation=1682852940548941&alt=media" alt=""> Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including Battlefield, Need for Speed, The Sims, Medal of Honor, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Army of Two, Apex Legends, and Star Wars, as well as the EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL, PGA and UFC. Their desktop titles appear on self-developed Origin, an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and a direct competitor to Valve's Steam and Epic Games' Store. EA also ...

The statistics shows the types of Nintendo gaming platforms regularly used in affluent American households in 2018. In 2018, ***** percent of respondents who stated their income was high said they used a Nintendo 3DS/2DS regularly.

As of September 2024, there were more than 34 million paid Nintendo Switch Online memberships. First launched in September 2018, more than a year after the release of the Nintendo Switch console, Nintendo Switch Online is an online gaming subscription service which allows users to play online multiplayer, use cloud saves, and access a library of virtual Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games. In October 2021, the company released the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, a new membership tier which allows subscribers to access Nintendo 64 gaming titles on their Switch Console.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an action-adventure game published by Nintendo. Part of the hugely popular Zelda franchise of video games, BotW has accumulated over 33.04 million unit sales as of March 2025. The game is one of the top-selling Nintendo Switch game titles worldwide. Breath of the Wild was released on March 3, 2017, as a launch game for the Switch and the final Nintendo game for the Wii U console. The success of Breath of the Wild The release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a huge critical and commercial success. With a total of over 33.5 million unit sales (combined Switch and Wii U versions), BotW is currently the best-selling Legend of Zelda title of all time, ahead of Nintendo 64 fan-favorite Ocarina of Time. Breath of the Wild has broken several game launch records for its publisher Nintendo and won multiple Game of the Year awards from various outlets and organizations. Most notably, BotW won Game of the Year and three other awards at The Game Awards 2017, as well as Game of the Year at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards in February 2018. The popularity of open world action-adventure games Breath of the Wild is an action-adventure title where players explore an open world with plenty of room for experimentation with sandbox and gameplay mechanics. In a 2024 survey, action-adventure games were the second-most popular gaming genre among console gamers.Open world settings have been popular with major RPG and action-adventure titles, as they allow players to explore their in-game environment in a non-linear way with many ways to reach their objective. Initially, some points of the map and gameplay are often locked until the player passes a certain narrative point. Additionally, Breath of the Wild features gameplay mechanics where players can use certain skills to solve puzzles in multiple ways. This approach, where players are given tools to come up with their own creative solutions to objectives, is called sandbox gameplay.

First released in November 2022 for the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are the first installments in the ninth generation of Pokémon video games. During the launch weekend, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold over ten million units worldwide, including over four million copies in Japan alone. During the quarter ending March 2025, lifetime Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sales amounted to 27.15 million units, making it one of the best-selling Switch games of all time. Premium Pokémon games on Switch Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are not the only Pokémon titles for the Nintendo’s Switch – as of 2025, there were 12 Pokémon games available on the hybrid console, including new mainline games, remakes, and free-to-play titles. The biggest Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch console are Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee, a remake of the original Pokémon Yellow, as well as the first new mainline release Pokémon Sword & Shield (2019), which ranks among the best-selling Switch titles of all time. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, which were released in 2021, are remakes of the popular Diamond & Pearl for Nintendo DS and also rank among the best-selling Pokémon games ever. The 2022 release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus was another successful entry in the series, which featured many changes from traditional Pokémon gameplay mechanics. Free-to-play Pokémon games on Switch Apart from the mobile AR success that is Pokémon GO, the series has generally been known for its premium titles. However, in recent years, Nintendo has experimented with free-to-play titles (F2P), some of which are also available via console. Pokémon Café ReMix (2020), a puzzle café game, and Pokémon Quest (2018) are available for free from the Nintendo eShop. Another F2P entry is Pokémon UNITE, a MOBA title also available on mobile. Pokémon UNITE saw some success in the eSports segment and is also part of the invitation-only Pokémon World Championships.

In 2024, ****** remained the biggest gaming segment worldwide with approximately **** billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues. The console segment ranked second with **** billion U.S. dollars and PC gaming ranked last. Gaming revenue Revenues in the gaming industry are based on three major sources. Hardware, such as consoles, processors, screens, controllers, and other accessories; software, the actual games, as well as in-game purchases and live services. Some of the most important players in the computer and video games publishing market are Sony Computer Entertainment (Japan), Tencent Holdings Limited (China), Microsoft (United States) and Nintendo Company Ltd. (Japan). Traditional console and PC gaming companies may have worldwide name recognition but mobile gaming publishers are no slouches either: Shenzhen Tencent Tianyou Technology Ltd (formerly known as Tencent Mobile Games) generated more than ** million U.S. dollars in monthly app revenues in September, and the top-ranked mobile game publishers generate revenues worth millions in the double-digits every month. Several mobile gaming publisher have gone from being an indie company to an IPO in just a few years, with Rovio Entertainment, King, and Zynga just being a few examples of the mobile gaming boom in the mid-2010s. Mobile gaming monetization The majority of mobile gaming revenues are generated via smartphones, with tablet devices only accounting for a small share of mobile gaming gross. The average number of in-app purchases per paying user increased across all gaming genres in 2020-2021 as user engagement with gaming soared during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Another survey of mobile gaming developers found that platformers are the highest-monetizing free-to-play genre.

Released in May 2023, the latest release in The Legend of Zelda series, Tears of the Kingdom, was an instant hit. The Nintendo Switch-exclusive title sold over 10 million copies during its first three days of release and currently stands at a total of 20.61 million units sold. However, it still has a lot to live up to — its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has sold a combined 33.55 million copies across the Switch and Nintendo Wii combined. In total, the entire Legend of Zelda series has sold over 150 million copies, making it one of the most popular gaming series worldwide.

Since its release in November 2020, the Xbox Series X and Series S has sold well over ** million units worldwide. In 2025, the Xbox X/S sold approximately 1.28 million units. The modern-day console wars While the term “console wars” was originally coined to describe the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo in the video game market during the 1980s and 1990s, the modern usage refers to the battle for supremacy between the PlayStation and Xbox brands. The most recent battle between these console giants has been fought out between their eight-generation consoles, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. However, while the PlayStation 4 has sold over 45 million units in Europe alone, Microsoft’s console is yet to reach 60 million unit sales worldwide. This duel has also turned into a three-way battle thanks to the enormous success of Nintendo’s hybrid video game console, the Nintendo Switch. Despite being released over 3 years later than its rivals, the console has already racked up over *** million unit sales worldwide, approximately a quarter of which were in North America. The future of console gaming This fight for supremacy shows no signs of slowing down, with the next battle of the console wars upon the horizon. Sony continues to have the upper hand, as sales of its PlayStation 5 reached ** million in 2023. In comparison, estimates have Microsoft shipping *** million units of its Xbox Series X in 2023.