Kimishima on amiibo sales, most popular figures, future plans
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
Next is amiibo. More than a year has passed since we released amiibo in November 2014 as a brand new product category together with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Today, more than 80 types of amiibo have been released in Japan with over 25 amiibo-compatible games.
Approximately 31 million units of figure-type amiibo have shipped to date worldwide as of the end of third quarter of this fiscal year.
The number of units shipped in the third quarter of this fiscal year has reached approximately 9.9 million, which is an all-time high number for a single quarter.
amiibo can be purchased steadily regardless of seasonality with its affordable price compared to packaged software, and we were able to bring out its potential and sell even more in this year-end sales season. We think all Nintendo platforms can reap great benefits from the constant presence of Nintendo characters at retail stores.
Approximately 12.9 million individual amiibo cards were shipped in the third quarter of this fiscal year, which totals approximately 21.5 million cards worldwide since its release in July last year in Japan.
We believe card-type amiibo can be purchased casually with its affordable price.
This graph shows the latest shipment ratios by region for both figure-type and card-type amiibo.
Blue represents the Americas. In the US, the “Toys to Life” category, in which games work together with figures, is well recognized and people are familiar with this type of play. Also, previously released amiibo continue to sell in the long term. Accordingly, the Americas account for more than half of worldwide shipments.On the other hand, Japan holds a higher percentage for card-type amiibo based on strong sales of compatible software such as Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer in the Japanese market.
This slide is a comparison chart of the latest figure-type amiibo shipment ratios by region at the end of the second and third quarters of this fiscal year.
In particular, the Japanese market ratio increased alongside an overall increase in sales in the third quarter of this fiscal year.
This slide shows top selling amiibo characters sold in Japan, US and Europe last year.
Super Smash Bros. series characters, including third-party characters, are popular in the US, and in Europe, a wide range of amiibo from iconic characters to brand new characters sell well. On the other hand, the Splatoon series dominates the top three in Japan.As you can see, there is a big difference in sales trends between Japan and other regions.
This slide shows a sell-through comparison of Splatoon series amiibo for the first half (Apr.-Sept.) of this fiscal year and the third quarter (Oct.-Dec.) of this fiscal year.
Production capacity was not able to keep up with a much higher demand than we originally anticipated in part of last year, which caused inconveniences to our consumers and trade customers. In the third quarter of this fiscal year, however, Splatoon series amiibo sold extremely well after improvements in production capacity.
We believe it was purchased along with Splatoon software which also sold well in the year-end sales season.
We will be proposing new ways of having fun with amiibo. The Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge present campaign started on January 28 in Japan. A ticket with a download code for Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge, which is download software playable on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS systems, is given out at stores for people who purchase figure-type amiibo.
We will continue to introduce new members of the amiibo lineup. We are also planning to release multiple new amiibo beyond the ones shown on this slide.
