Nintendo's digital earnings surge 83% to $663 million

Nintendo is making big strides towards digital-based revenues, propelled by game sales, services, and add-on content.

Nintendo's recent financials show a huge surge in digital earnings. The company made 71.6 billion yen ($663.45 million) from digital in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2019, up a tremendous 83% year-over-year. Nintendo attributes this big jump in digital revenue to strong Switch Online subscriptions, massive add-on sales like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's fighter pass, and more direct consumer spending on digitally-delivered games.

Interestingly enough, the digital still isn't the preferred method consumers actually use to buy games. Retail box sales still hold the lion's share of Switch game sales. Only 36.2% of Nintendo's total 58.54 million software sales in 2H'19 were from digital--the rest were from physical sales.

All told, Nintendo made 405.588 billion yen ($3.75 billion) from the Nintendo Switch hardware and software in the first six months of FY'19, or roughly 91% of total net sales during the period.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa doesn't expect this high digital trend to continue through the holiday quarter as more consumers opt for retail purchases.