Nintendo has as good as confirmed there won’t be a sequel to the Nintendo Switch anytime soon, with hopes it will sell an additional 15 million Nintendo Switch consoles in the next twelve months.

Nintendo shipped just shy of 18 million Switch consoles for the fiscal year ending March 31, a 22 per cent drop on FY22.

Nintendo’s annual revenue fell 6 per cent, while its operating profits dropped 15 per cent.

Nintendo has already sold 125.62 million Switch consoles since its 2017 launch — well ahead of the Wii’s 101.63 but still a far way short of the 154 million Nintendo DS consoles — but the console is on a clear downward trajectory.

Nintendo notes “shortages of semiconductors and other components impacted production until around the end of summer, and we did not experience the growth in sales mainly during the holiday season that we saw in the previous fiscal year.”

In regards to software, unit sales fell 9 per cent year-on-year to 213.96 million games.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet were the biggest sellers, with total sales of 22.10 million units, along with Splatoon 3, which sold 10.67 million copies.

Nintendo Switch Sports sold 9.6 million, while a number of games released in the previous financial year continued to sell, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which sold 8.45 million copies, Kirby and the Forgotten Land sold 3.81 million units, and a total of 35 titles sold over a million copies during the period, including titles from other software publishers.

The current fiscal year will see revenues fall 10 per cent, the company forecast.

For the financial year ending March 2021, the Switch sold 29 million – albeit during the peak of the pandemic.

There are some bright spots on the horizon — namely the The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release this week, which could bolster console sales, as well as the runaway success of The Super Mario Bros Movie, which has already grossed more than A$1.5 billion globally.