Over ten years to March 2026, Nintendo’s estimated revenue from publishing Pokémon games outside Japan (¥517bn) was about twice its share of The Pokémon Company’s profit (¥253bn)

How it’s built

1. Took the research’s estimate of Nintendo’s overseas Pokémon game revenue each year (central case).
2. Compared with Nintendo’s filed share of affiliate profit each year.
3. Estimated profit on the publishing revenue at 30–50% (central 40%), after royalties, manufacturing, freight and marketing: about 0.8 times the affiliate profit over the decade.

What we assumed

• The overseas revenue estimate (60–80% of list price on million-seller units).Nintendo discloses units, not revenue by title; the estimate is built from units and US prices.
• Nintendo keeps 30–50% of that revenue as profit.The research gives no direct evidence for this margin; it is the main uncertainty.
• Affiliate profit is treated as Pokémon.Nintendo reports all affiliates together.

Sanity check

The balance swings by year: publishing dominated in launch years, while in the quiet years to March 2024 and 2025 affiliate profit was 2.5–4 times the estimated revenue.

Where it comes from

Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes:

• EstimateNintendo overseas Pokémon software revenue series, year to March 2017-year to March 2026
• ReportedPickup against 32% of TPC parent net income series, Nintendo year to March 2015–year to March 2026 ↔ TPC parent year to February 2015–year to February 2026
• EstimateHow much of The Pokémon Company's profit reaches its owners as cash

Where it’s used

• StoryNintendo