Nintendo

What is Nintendo?

Nintendo is a Japanese entertainment company based in Kyoto that designs, manufactures and sells video game hardware and software. Its business is not limited to consoles: it also runs online services, licenses its characters, and owns the studios that produce most of its own titles. It is one of the longest-running companies in the games industry, and it has stayed in the same city since it began trading in the nineteenth century.

What makes the company unusual is that it develops both the machine and the games that run on it, rather than splitting those roles between two firms. That lets it build hardware around a single idea, such as a console that can sit under a television or travel as a handheld. Nintendo reports its results in yen with a financial year ending in March, so its updates land at different dates from most Western publishers.

How did Nintendo go from playing cards to video games?

Nintendo's own history starts in 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi began making and selling hanafuda, a Japanese playing card, in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto. The firm added Western-style playing cards in 1902 and in 1953 became the first in Japan to mass-produce plastic cards. The modern legal entity, Marufuku Co., Ltd., was set up in 1947, was renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. in 1951, and took its current name in 1963. For most of that stretch it sold cards and little else.

The move into electronics came in the 1970s and 1980s. Nintendo launched its first home video game machines, TV Game 15 and TV Game 6, in 1977, brought out GAME & WATCH in 1980, and released the arcade game Donkey Kong in 1981. The Family Computer, sold abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System, arrived in 1983, the same year the company listed its shares in Tokyo. Super Mario Bros. followed in 1985.

Quick facts

Founded: September 1889 in Kyoto, by Fusajiro Yamauchi, who made and sold hanafuda playing cards. Incorporated: November 1947. Headquarters: 11-1 Hokotate-cho, Kamitoba, Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan. President: Shuntaro Furukawa, with Shigeru Miyamoto as Representative Director, Fellow. Staff: 8,666 people on a global consolidated basis at the end of March 2026, and 3,084 at Nintendo Co., Ltd. alone on the same date. Capital: 10,065,400,000 yen. Stated business: the manufacture and sale of home entertainment products.

Structure: a publicly traded company, stock code 7974, whose shares moved to the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2022. Key series: Super Mario, Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong. Latest unit sales, as of 30 June 2026: 156.59 million Nintendo Switch consoles and 1,561.95 million Switch games; 23.68 million Nintendo Switch 2 consoles and 58.17 million Switch 2 games. The Switch 2 launched on 5 June 2025 at a United States retail price of $449.99.

How many Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles have sold?

Nintendo publishes life-to-date worldwide sales for each of its systems. In the table dated 30 June 2026, the original Nintendo Switch stood at 156.59 million consoles and 1,561.95 million games. The same table puts Nintendo Switch 2, which went on sale on 5 June 2025, at 23.68 million consoles and 58.17 million games. The list reaches back further as well, covering older hardware from the Game Boy and DS families to the Wii U. These are units sold, not units sitting unsold on shop shelves.

Context matters when reading a figure like 156.59 million. The original Switch built that total over roughly nine years on sale, while Switch 2 reached 23.68 million in about a year. Because the two appear side by side, the newer system is not being measured against a finished product. The counts are cumulative rather than quarterly, so they only ever rise. Nintendo refreshes the table each quarter, so a number quoted without the date it refers to can go stale quickly.

Why does Nintendo keep making Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong games?

Nintendo's largest franchises have been running for decades. Donkey Kong appeared as an arcade game in 1981, Super Mario Bros. arrived in 1985, and The Legend of Zelda has been part of the line-up for about as long. These series belong to Nintendo and are made mainly by its own studios, which means a new entry can be timed to a new console instead of waiting on an outside publisher to schedule one.

Keeping a small set of series alive costs less than building new audiences from scratch, and each hardware launch gives those names a fresh reason to appear. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza were among the titles ready around the Nintendo Switch 2's arrival. The approach has a limit: it depends on those teams continuing to ship games that justify a full-price purchase, and on new players still wanting those names.

Games

All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.
Amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits
AR Games
Backgammon
BS F-Zero 2 Grand Prix
BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge
Devil World
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong Classics
Donkey Kong Jr.
Dr. Mario 64
Drag x Drive
DSiWare
EarthBound 64
Everybody 1-2-Switch!
Everybody Votes Channel
Famicom Grand Prix
Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally
Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Kōkeisha
Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda
Golf
Gomoku Narabe Renju
Good Job!
Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak
Kirby: Triple Deluxe Match-Up
Mahjong
Mario Bros.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Strikers: Battle League
Mario the Juggler
Mario's Bombs Away
Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen
Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School
New Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo Badge Arcade
Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991
Nintendo Campus Challenge 1992
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Photo Dojo
Pikmin 1
Pilotwings 64
PlayChoice-10
Pokémon Tetris
Popeye no Eigo Asobi
Pro Wrestling
Rusty's Real Deal Baseball
Sound Fantasy
Splatoon 2
Star Fox 2
Steel Diver: Sub Wars
Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet
Super Mario Bros./Tetris/Nintendo World Cup
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Party Jamboree
Tennis
Tetris 2
Tetris DS
Tetris DX
The Legend of the Quiz Tournament of Champions
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords
The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
TV no Tomo Channel
Wii Chess
Wii Message Board
Wii Play: Motion
Yakuman Houou
Yoshi Topsy-Turvy
Zelda

Questions people ask

Is Nintendo a Japanese company?

Yes. Nintendo is a Japanese company headquartered in Kyoto, where it has been based since it started trading. Its shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and it reports its results in yen, so currency movements affect the published figures.

What did Nintendo do before video games?

It made playing cards. The company began in 1889 with hanafuda cards and added Western-style playing cards in 1902. It later tried other products, including a light-gun shooting system for leisure facilities in 1973, before its first home video game machines appeared in 1977.

How old is Nintendo?

The company traces its history to 1889, so it is more than 130 years old. The present limited company was incorporated in November 1947, and it took its current name in 1963. Nintendo counts its age from the card business, not from the video game era.

How many consoles has Nintendo sold?

As of 30 June 2026, Nintendo reported 156.59 million Nintendo Switch consoles and 23.68 million Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. Software sales for the same date were 1,561.95 million Switch games and 58.17 million Switch 2 games. These are life-to-date worldwide totals.