TOPSHOT – A Super Mario character is pictured at a Nintendo display ahead of the launch of the company’s Switch 2 console, an electronics store in the city of Nagoya, Aichi prefecture on June 2, 2025.
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Nintendo arguably has the most recognizable characters in video games, from Super Mario to Pokémon.
Now, more than ever, the Japanese giant is expanding the footprint of its valuable intellectual property (IP) across movies to merchandise and theme parks, betting on nostalgia and new gamers, to drive sales of its flagship Switch 2 console and key games.
“These characters, like Mario and Pikachu, they’re obviously Nintendo’s main IP franchises, and because they are so recognizable, they have a massive appeal,” Reuben 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.
“We believe the combination of these three elements — the core of our business being Nintendo’s unique and original entertainment, and our guiding principles of growing the Nintendo IP fanbase and fostering long-term relationships with our consumers — will drive the medium-to-long-term growth of our business and allow us to leverage our unique strengths,” Furukawa said.
Nintendo is the focus of the new episodes of my show “Built for Billions” in which I delve into the gaming giant’s console hits and flops and look at how the company is positioning itself for the future with its treasure trove of IP.
Expansion of the Nintendo footprint
In the last five years, Nintendo has significantly ramped up efforts to spread its well-known franchises and characters to reach a bigger audience.
In 2021, Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan opened Super Nintendo World, an area of the theme park based around the world of Super Mario, featuring areas such as Bowser’s Castle. Other Universal Studio locations also opened their Super Nintendo World areas later.
In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was released by Universal Pictures, grossed more than $1 billion, with a sequel planned for release this year. A movie based around Zelda, one of Nintendo’s most popular characters, is also in the works.
Then there’s merchandise from clothes to soft toys that are sold in Nintendo stores and elsewhere.
But IP itself is not a main driver of Nintendo’s revenue. In the first nine months of Nintendo’s fiscal year that began in March 2025, the company reported IP-related revenue of 54.5 billion Japanese yen ($347.7 million). That’s just under 3% of Nintendo’s overall sales for the period.
Nintendo said its Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games for the Nintendo Switch hit an all-times sales record for the company. Pokémon is one of Nintendo’s longest-running and most popular franchises.
Guillaume Payen | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The movies and themes parks instead play a key role in driving fans towards Nintendo’s core gaming products while also attracting new players.
For example, The Super Mario Bros Movie in 2023 gave Nintendo a short-term profit boost even as the original Switch console was six years old. This allowed Nintendo to extend the life of the console and helped turn the Switch into the gaming giant’s best-selling device of all time.
Nintendo entered the home console market with the Famicom in Japan in 1983, which became the NES internationally in 1985. So it’s been around for a long time and several generations of players have interacted with its games and consoles.
That nostalgia element has been key in the company’s continued momentum and its leveraging its key brands to play into that.
“Nintendo has been able to foster that Disney feel through this really powerful harnessing of nostalgia and also, I think accessibility — the fact that you can go in and immediately engage with these characters without prior knowledge,” Martens said.
Switch 2 sales in focus
How Nintendo presents its characters across movies and theme parks will become ever more important as it looks to make the Switch 2, which was launched last June. Nintendo has so far sold more than 17 million units of the device.
“Mario Kart World” is the best-selling game for the Switch 2, underscoring how Nintendo’s recognizable games are key to driving sales.
A challenge for the company will be to keep reinventing its franchises with the risk that those beloved characters that are popular today could go out of fashion with its gamers.
“The one risk is that at some point in time, people could grow tired of the same IPs that Nintendo produces games around,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan 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 is happy with these IPs … But what about 10 years in the future, or 20 years in the future? So Nintendo, I think, at some point, has to come up with new IPs, new ideas, in terms of characters, in terms of new worlds, because there is a certain risk that things might become a little bit stale.”
