Nintendo profits jump 200% as Switch sales continue to sizzle

Hong Kong(CNN Business) Nintendo (NTDOF) Switch fever isn't going away.

The company posted another round of knockout earnings and raised its forecast Thursday, showing that a surge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic isn't wearing off.

The Kyoto-based firm said that operating profit for the first half of the fiscal year, which ended in September, soared 209% to 291.4 billion Japanese yen ($2.8 billion) compared to the same period the year before. Sales climbed 73% to 769.5 billion yen ($7.4 billion).

The success shows that months into the pandemic, people are still turning to the Switch game console in droves. Nintendo sold about 12.5 million of the devices from April through September, an 81% increase over the previous year.

"Strong sell-through momentum continues even after the summer sales season," Nintendo noted in a presentation to investors.

The firm on Thursday hiked sales projections for the Switch, predicting a jump through the financial year ending in March. It now expects to sell 24 million units, up from the 19 million previously forecast. The company's profits are expected to surge by as much as 50%.

One notable success was the continued popularity of "Animal Crossing: New Horizons." The best-selling game, which is set on a relaxing virtual island utopia and allows users to fish, catch bugs and play with friends on the beach, runs on the Switch and has been in high demand since people worldwide started staying home because of the coronavirus crisis.

Nintendo sold 14.3 million copies of the game over the six-month period, bringing total sales to about 26 million units, it said. For comparison, Nintendo's best-selling Switch game of all time, "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," has racked up almost 29 million sales.

Other titles also helped boost the company's software sales through September.

According to Nintendo, more than 5.2 million copies of "Super Mario 3D All-Stars," a special game released in September to celebrate the titular Mario's 35th birthday, have been sold so far. "Paper Mario: The Origami King," a recently launched role-playing game that is based on the Nintendo 64 classic, has picked up more than 2.8 million sales.

Demand for Switch games made by other video game developers "also continued to grow steadily," the company said. This financial year has been so strong, there are now 20 different Switch titles that have sold at least than a million copies, it added.

Competition could soon get stiff, however. Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) are both due to release new gaming consoles in the coming days: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.