Nintendo’s operating profit jumped 49.1% to 216.5 billion yen even as net sales fell 12.1%, with digital sales up 60.5% and a one-time U.S. tariff refund doing part of the lifting.
Nintendo’s operating profit rose 49.1% to 216.5 billion yen in the six months to September 30, 2026, even as net sales fell 12.1% to 966 billion yen, its first-half report released on November 5 shows.
Net profit reached 220.9 billion yen, up 11.0%, and ordinary profit 300.6 billion yen, up 27.4%. The company left its full-year financial forecast, published on May 8, 2026, unchanged. The results cover the first half of a fiscal year that ends in March 2027.
Nintendo said the profit increase came from two sources: software sales took a larger share of total sales, and a first-quarter refund of United States IEEPA tariffs, previously recorded as cost of sales, reversed those costs. In other words, the operating line benefited from a mix shift toward higher-margin software and a one-time item.
Digital sales drove the margin shift
Digital sales totaled 249.6 billion yen for the half, up 60.5% year on year, which Nintendo attributed mainly to increased sales of downloadable versions of packaged software. Mobile and intellectual-property-related income came to 62.7 billion yen, up 87.9%.
The hardware picture was weaker. Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 26.35 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2026, including 6.49 million in the first half and 2.67 million in the September quarter alone. The original Switch stands at 157.20 million lifetime units, with just 1.27 million shipped in the half. Software remains the profit engine: 73.21 million Switch 2 games and 1,593.87 million Switch games have been sold to date, with Mario Kart World the best-selling Switch 2 title at 16.48 million and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe leading Switch at 72.00 million.
Sales outside Japan came to 762.4 billion yen, 78.9% of the total.
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