Nintendo hikes Switch sales forecast after bumper year-end

FILE PHOTO: Nintendo's game character items and goods are displayed at Nintendo Tokyo, the first-ever Nintendo official store in Japan, at at SHIBUYA PARCO department store and shopping mall complex, during a press preview in Tokyo, Japan November 19, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd on Monday hiked its full-year forecast for Switch games console sales to 26.5 million from 24 million previously after a bumper end to 2020, buoyed by a home entertainment boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kyoto-based firm said it sold 24.1 million hardware units in the first nine months of the financial year through March 2021 - more than its previous full-year forecast - comprising 16.8 million hybrid home-portable Switch consoles and 7.3 million portable-only Switch Lite devices.