"Amiibos are selling like hotcakes." Unfortunately, those are not the words of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata at a recent company earning's report meeting, but he must have been thinking it.
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The NFC (near field communication) toyline, molded in the shape of various Nintendo characters, has sold 5.7 million units since the release alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U back in November. The numbers date from November to December of 2014, so those sales figures could be quite a bit larger at this point.
The Amiibo figurines are far and away one of the most successful launches in recent Nintendo memory, with misprinted or defective Amiibos selling at exorbitant prices on ebay and stores being unable to keep up with demand.
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"Amiibo is offered at a more affordable price range than packaged game titles," said Iwata, "so consumers may feel the hurdle has been lowered to buy them one by one without seasonal gaps. In fact, considering the recent sales, Amiibo has shown a smaller decline after the year-end sales season in various markets in the world than packaged titles."
In addition to announcing the upcoming new line of Amiibo - Mario Bros - Iwata announced, "We are going to add various changes to the appearances of Amiibo store shelves including the "Super Smash Bros." series. As store shelf space is limited, some Amiibo may become standard models while others may be replaced once they sell out. If this is possible, Amiibo will maintain a constant presence in stores, which will be beneficial for all Nintendo platforms."
North America loves its Amiibo. The United States and Canada made up 63 percent of the total sales of the figures, with Europe coming in with an additional 23 percent. See the chart below.
Unsurprisingly, Link is the favorite Amiibo in the US, Europe and Japan. It just makes you wonder what Australia was thinking! I mean, Mario is great and all, but does Mario have a sword? No. And characters with swords always make better figures, this is known.
"This does not perfectly represent the popularity or demand for each character because some amiibo were out-of-stock in some regions," Iwata added, noting the difference, "but you can certainly see some regional differences in the sales trends."
5.7 million is a great start, but it is peanuts compared to the Skylanders empire. Skylanders parent company Activision "has sold over 175 million toys since the launch of the franchise" back in 2011, and that number was from last July. And the new Trap Team, just launched this past October continues the trend. Disney Infinity is also another competitor, and with the Marvel franchise just released and the certainty of Star Wars approaching, you know they're going to become a...Force to be reckoned with.
Nintendo should be pretty happy the gamble paid off. Plus, with the New Nintendo 3DS adding Amiibo support, there are now more options than ever to utilize the figures. Or, at the very least, they look really good on your wall.
