Nintendo is almost doubling its profit forecast for the year due to strong Switch sales.

The console is now on track to beat the lifetime sales of its predecessor, the Wii U, in just a single year.



The Nintendo Switch is a smash hit — and now Nintendo is almost doubling its operating profit forecast for the year.

On Monday, the Japanese video company raised its full-year operating profit forecast to 120 billion yen ($1 billion, £760 million), as supply shortages on its new games console finally began to ease.

Strong demand for the hybrid home-portable Switch console, following the flop of predecessor Wii U, has already led to a near-doubling of Nintendo's stock price to nine-year highs since the device's launch in March 2017.

It has been buoyed by the release of highly critically acclaimed first-party titles like "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" and "Super Mario Odyssey."

The games maker forecast profit of 120 billion yen ($1.06 billion) for the year ending March, from 65 billion yen estimated three months ago. (The new outlook is still below a Thomson Reuters Starmine SmartEstimate of 133.60 billion yen drawn from the projections of 22 analysts.)

Nintendo also raised its annual Switch sales forecast to 14 million units by March 2018, up from 10 million units.

For context, the Switch's predecessor, the Wii U, only sold 13.56 million units in five years — meaning the Switch could overtake it in a single year.

"We've boosted Switch production in order to meet strong demand from our customers as it was difficult for customers to buy the consoles at retail stores," Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said at an earnings briefing on Monday.

Nintendo sold about 2.9 million Switch consoles in the three months through September, bringing the cumulative total to 7.63 million units.

The Nintendo Switch. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Nintendo of America The Switch's early success has fueled hopes for strong earnings in the coming years for Nintendo, as solid demand for new consoles is widely regarded as a prelude to strong sales of high-margin game software sales over several years.

The Switch, however, is set for stiffer competition into the year-end holiday shopping season as Microsoft releases its high-powered, high-resolution Xbox One X console on November 7.

"The true power of the Switch would be tested during the upcoming holiday season," Kimishima said.

Nintendo is also trying to reduce its reliance on the console business and stabilize fluctuating profit by moving into new areas for the company such as smartphone gaming and theme parks.

Its share price ended Monday 0.26 percent lower ahead of the earnings release, compared with a 0.01 percent rise in the Nikkei benchmark index.