Nintendo bets on franchises like Mario and Pokemon to boost Switch 2

Nintendo Some of the most recognizable characters in video games are from Super Mario to Pokemon.

Now, more than ever, the Japanese giant is expanding its valuable intellectual property (IP) footprint across movies to merchandise and theme parks to boost sales of its flagship Switch 2 console and flagship games.

“These characters, Mario and Pikachu, are obviously Nintendo’s main IP franchises, and because they’re recognizable, they have massive appeal,” Ruben Martens, a lecturer in film and media studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, told CNBC.

In November, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa laid out the company’s thinking behind the IP push.

“The combination of these three elements – Nintendo’s unique and original entertainment at the core of our business, and our guiding principles of growing the Nintendo IP fan base and building long-term relationships with our customers – will drive the mid-to-long-term growth of our business and enable us to leverage our unique strengths,” Furukawa said.

Nintendo is the focus of new episodes of my show “Built for Billions,” in which I examine the gaming giant’s console hits and flops and see how the company is positioning itself for the future with its treasure trove of IP.

Over the past five years, Nintendo has significantly increased its efforts to spread its popular franchises and characters to reach a larger audience.

In 2021, Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan opened Super Nintendo World, an area of ​​the Super Mario World theme park that includes areas such as Bowser’s Castle. Other Universal Studios locations opened their Super Nintendo World areas later.

In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. movie, released by Universal Pictures, grossed more than $1 billion, and is slated for release this year. A movie based around one of Nintendo’s most popular characters, Zelda, is also in the works.

Then there are the merchandise, from clothes to soft toys, sold in Nintendo stores and elsewhere.

But IP itself isn’t the main driver of Nintendo’s revenue. In the first nine months of Nintendo’s fiscal year, which began in March 2025, the company reported 54.5 billion Japanese yen ($347.7 million) in IP-related revenue. That’s just under 3% of Nintendo’s overall sales for the period.

Movies and theme parks play an important role in driving fans towards Nintendo’s flagship gaming products and attracting new players.

For example, a Super Mario Bros. movie in 2023 gave Nintendo a short-term profit despite the original Switch console being six years old. This allowed Nintendo to extend the console’s lifespan and helped turn the Switch into the gaming giant’s best-selling device of all time.

Nintendo entered the home console market in 1983 in Japan with the Famicom, which became the NES internationally in 1985. So it has been around for a long time and several generations of players have interacted with its games and consoles.

That nostalgia factor is key to the company’s continued momentum and the core brands it controls to play.

“I think Nintendo has been able to cultivate a Disney feel through this really powerful mobilization of nostalgia and accessibility — you can immediately engage with these characters without knowing it before,” Martens said.

How Nintendo presents its characters in movies and theme parks will become increasingly important, as the Switch 2, released last June, seems to be doing. Nintendo has sold more than 17 million units of the device so far.

“Mario Kart World” is the best-selling game for the Switch 2, underscoring how Nintendo’s recognizable games are key to driving sales.

The challenge for the company is to continue reinventing its franchises with the risk that those beloved characters that are popular today will go out of fashion for its gamers.

“One risk is that, at some point, people may tire of the same IPs that produce Nintendo games,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Canton Games, told CNBC’s “Built for Billions.”

“So Nintendo is sitting on a treasure trove of IPs, but the top three are Zelda, Mario and Pokemon,” Toto said.

“Everybody’s happy with these IPs … but what about 10 years in the future or 20 years in the future? So I think Nintendo, at some point, has to come up with new IPs, new ideas, in terms of characters, in terms of new worlds, because there’s a risk of things getting a little stale.”