During Nintendo’s latest financial briefing, president Shuntaro Furukawa stated that there was enormous growth in digital sales in Q3 of 2021 for Nintendo and that the brand-new Animal Crossing: New Horizons paid DLC add-on was a huge factor in that. Another factor was the Sora DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sora, from the Kingdom Hearts series, will be the very last character that will be added to the game.
“We do not disclose attach rates of individual pieces of add-on content for specific titles, but digital sales grew enormously in Q3, and one factor in that was the Animal Crossing: New Horizons add-on content. It is playable by subscribers to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, and there were both consumers who bought the add-on content on its own and those who played it through Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. In addition, the last fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Vol. 2 was released during the same period. The introduction of such major add-on content for existing software contributed to Nintendo Switch’s user engagement. We believe that the introduction of new titles and this sort of addon content in the holiday season had the effect of both growing hardware sales and increasing sales of other software.”
This will most likely be a recurring theme, given that Nintendo just announced a brand new Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is currently the most popular game (in total units sold at over 43 million copies) on the platform.