Nintendo gave up running Pokémon in 1998 and kept three things: the trademarks outside Japan, the right to sell the mainline console games, and 32% of the votes in The Pokémon Company. For years the games were the part that paid. That has changed. In the year to March 2026 the stake booked ¥82.8bn of profit for Nintendo, about as much as the ≈¥81bn we estimate it took in revenue from Pokémon games overseas, and that was a year with a major launch. In the following six months the stake booked ¥60.8bn, up 37.7%. Very little of this is cash. Dividends over the ten years to March 2026 came to an estimated ¥3.3–3.8bn.
The games are Nintendo’s cash, and they follow the launch calendar
Nintendo sells the mainline Pokémon console games everywhere. Outside Japan it is also the publisher; in Japan The Pokémon Company publishes and Nintendo sells, and a few spin-offs such as Pokopia are sold there by The Pokémon Company itself (see Video games). The overseas role is the larger one, because Japan took only 21.8% of the units in the year to March 2017 and 25.2% in the year to March 2020.
On our estimate, built from Nintendo’s unit tables at list prices, overseas Pokémon game revenue reached ≈¥127bn in the year to March 2022, when two titles launched, and fell to ≈¥8.9bn in the year to March 2025, when none did. Each of the last three launch years has also been smaller than the one before at the midpoint of our estimate, though the ranges overlap: ¥109–145bn, then ¥81–108bn, then ¥69–93bn last year. Part of that is timing, since Legends: Z-A is still selling and had reached 13.31m units by September 2026. Pokémon games, Japan included, were about 12% of Nintendo’s sales in the Pokémon GO year and 4.5% last year.
Fig. 1 sets that revenue against the profit Nintendo books from its stake. In every year to March 2023 the games brought in between two and nine times as much. In the two years that followed, with no mainline launch, the stake’s profit of ¥30.1bn and ¥35.1bn was about two and a half and four times the game revenue. Last year was the first launch year in which the two were level.
Nintendo’s booked share of affiliate profit now matches its overseas Pokémon game revenue in a launch year
Estimated revenue from Pokémon games sold outside Japan (bars) and Nintendo’s booked share of its affiliates’ profit (line), ¥ billion, years to March 2017–2026. The bars are revenue before any cost; the line is profit that has not been paid out.
- Overseas Pokémon game revenue (estimate)
- Share of affiliate profit booked
Show the numbers
| Year to March | Overseas Pokémon game revenue (estimate), ¥bn | Share of affiliate profit booked, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | |||
| 2018 | |||
| 2019 | |||
| 2020 | |||
| 2021 | |||
| 2022 | |||
| 2023 | |||
| 2024 | |||
| 2025 | |||
| 2026 |
Overseas Pokémon game revenue (estimate). Our estimate from Nintendo’s unit tables at list prices, before any cost. The year to March 2026 lies in a band of ¥69.4–92.6bn. Years to March 2021, 2024 and 2025 had no mainline launch.
Share of affiliate profit booked. Nintendo’s share of its affiliates’ profit as printed, nearly all of it The Pokémon Company’s. It is an accounting entry and almost none of it has been paid out.
The comparison flatters the games, because the bars are revenue. If Nintendo keeps 30–50% of it after costs, an assumption, last year’s games contributed ¥21–46bn, between a quarter and just over half of what the stake booked.
The stake’s profit more than doubled last year, and the latest half is nearly three-quarters of it
Nintendo books its share of its affiliates’ profit each year whether or not any is paid. The line was ¥1.9bn in the year before Pokémon GO and ¥20.3bn in the GO year, then stayed below that for four years. The card boom lifted it from 2022, and it went from ¥35.1bn to ¥82.8bn last year. Over ten years the total is ¥253bn.
Two qualifications apply to last year’s figure. It contains between ¥11.7bn and ¥17.0bn of one-off gains. It also covers all of Nintendo’s affiliates, among them the company that runs the Seattle Mariners, although The Pokémon Company accounts for ¥80.9–84.2bn of it.
No one-off of that kind is expected this year. April to September 2026 brought ¥60.8bn, against ¥44.2bn a year earlier, as the last bar of Fig. 2 shows. That was 20.2% of Nintendo’s ordinary profit for the half. The full-year share was 15.3% last year and 40% in the GO year, when Nintendo’s own profit was far smaller.
Nintendo’s share of affiliate profit more than doubled last year, and this year’s first half is already three-quarters of it
Nintendo’s share of its affiliates’ profit, ¥ billion. Full years to March; the last bar is April–September 2026 only.
- Full year to March
- First half of the year to March 2027 (six months only)
Show the numbers
| Year to March (last bar: a half year) | Full year to March, ¥bn | First half of the year to March 2027 (six months only), ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | – | ||
| 2018 | – | ||
| 2019 | – | ||
| 2020 | – | ||
| 2021 | – | ||
| 2022 | – | ||
| 2023 | – | ||
| 2024 | – | ||
| 2025 | – | ||
| 2026 | – | ||
| Apr–Sep 2026 | – |
Full year to March. Nintendo’s share of its affiliates’ profit (equity-method income), as printed. Nearly all of it is The Pokémon Company’s (Nintendo holds 32%); the line also takes in the Mariners’ operator, and the year to March 2026 carries ¥11.7–17.0bn of one-offs.
First half of the year to March 2027 (six months only). Six months, April–September 2026: ¥60.8bn against ¥44.2bn a year earlier (+37.7%), already 73% of the whole of the previous year.
Nintendo’s only certain payment to The Pokémon Company is for games in Japan
The money that flows the other way is small. For the games it publishes in Japan, The Pokémon Company received an estimated ¥15.5–23.3bn in its year to February 2026, a launch year, and about a tenth of that the year before. That is the only leg we can be sure exists, and its size rests on an assumed share of the Japanese list price.
A royalty on the overseas sales would be natural, and no filing shows one. In eleven annual reports to March 2026 Nintendo lists no material contract, and its related-party note has no transaction with The Pokémon Company. The one dealing it describes runs the other way, with The Pokémon Company buying Nintendo’s products and having Nintendo manufacture for it. The silence does not settle the matter, because the note only has to show dealings above about ¥195bn. We therefore carry the overseas royalty as a range of ¥0–28bn with no central figure, the top being a 30% rate. Fig. 3 draws the two legs side by side.
Nintendo paid The Pokémon Company an estimated ¥16–23bn for games in Japan last year; no filing shows a royalty on top
Estimated payments from Nintendo to The Pokémon Company for console games, ¥ billion, latest year (a launch year). The second bar is a range from zero to what a 30% royalty on overseas sales would be.
- Publishing in Japan (estimate)
- Overseas royalty: in no filing; the top of the range is a 30% rate
Show the numbers
| Year to March 2026 | Publishing in Japan (estimate), ¥bn | Overseas royalty: in no filing; the top of the range is a 30% rate, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publishing in Japan (estimate) | (15.5–23.3) | – | |
| Royalty on overseas sales, if one exists | – | (0.0–27.8) |
Publishing in Japan (estimate). What The Pokémon Company receives as publisher of the console games in Japan, where Nintendo is the seller: 50–75% of the Japanese list value of the year’s million-selling titles.
Overseas royalty: in no filing; the top of the range is a 30% rate. Nintendo’s annual reports show no royalty to The Pokémon Company. The range runs from nothing to what a 30% royalty on overseas wholesale revenue would come to.
The stake on Nintendo’s books is profit left inside
Nintendo carried its holdings in affiliates, nearly all of them The Pokémon Company, at ¥25.3bn in March 2017 and ¥278.3bn in March 2026. Fig. 4 breaks down the rise. Booked profit added ¥233.1bn. Dividends took out about ¥3.8bn, from the two payouts in The Pokémon Company’s record (see The Pokémon Company). The remaining ¥23.8bn is almost all the weaker yen raising the value of the affiliates’ foreign assets.
Nintendo’s stake has grown from ¥25bn to ¥278bn on its books, almost all of it profit left inside The Pokémon Company
Nintendo’s holdings in unconsolidated subsidiaries and affiliates, nearly all The Pokémon Company, ¥ billion, March 2017 to March 2026. The currency step is what the other steps leave unexplained.
- Adds
- Takes away
- Currency and other
- Total
Show the numbers
| Step | Share of profit booked, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|
| On the books, March 2017 | ||
| Share of profit booked, nine years | ||
| Dividends received | ||
| Currency translation and other movements | ||
| On the books, March 2026 |
Share of profit booked. Nintendo’s holdings in unconsolidated subsidiaries and affiliates as filed, nearly all of it The Pokémon Company (¥273.8–278.0bn of the March 2026 figure on our estimate). Dividends are Nintendo’s 32% of the two payouts; its own accounts point to ¥3.3–3.8bn. The last step is what is left over, almost all of it currency translation.
Nintendo has little need of the cash. It holds ¥1.8tn of cash and deposits of its own, and its accounts already carry a provision for tax on the profits its subsidiaries and affiliates have kept; that tax, the book value and the balance of votes among the three owners are on Value and risk.
What it adds up to
Nintendo reports the full year in May 2027. Its share of affiliate profit passes last year’s ¥82.8bn if the second half brings more than ¥22.0bn.