Nintendo ships 5.7 million amiibo, most of them of Link

Amiibo are dead, long live amiibo! Despite what rumors would have us believe, amiibo figurines are apparently selling well. At its investor briefing, Nintendo painted a rosy picture of its Skylanders-like toys, detailing where the figurines made the most money and which among the lot is actually the most popular. And if you thought it was your friendly, Italian plumber, better think again. Well, actually he is, but only in one very small part of the world and the amiibo market.

Given that Super Mario is probably the most popular Nintendo franchise around the world, you'd think one of them might be at the top. But instead it was Link that took the spot. All except in Australia, where Mario did win first place. But that's hardly a significant win in terms of the country's overall contribution. That said, Super Mario characters did take up quite a lot of space in the top 10, with Mario, Yoshi, Peach, and Luigi all present. Pikachu is, unsurprisingly, the only Pokemon around. The biggest shock, perhaps, is that Donkey Kong is actually there too.

1. Link

2. Mario

3. Pikachu

4. Kirby

5. Samus

6. Yoshi

7. Zelda

8. Donkey Kong

9. Peach

10. Luigi

The figures per market is also quite surprising. You'd expect amiibo to do well in Nintendo's home turf, but no. The US and Canada actually saw the biggest number of shipments, making up 63 percent of the total. Europe contributed a far 23 percent, while the amiibo didn't fare so well in Japan at only 11 percent. And Australia, where Mario was actually more popular than Link, only took up 3 percent of the pie.

These figures would probably refute rumors of an amiibo shutdown, though it doesn't really contradict the possibility that at least some not so popular characters will be discontinued. Nintendo even plans to capitalize on the amiibo even further by using the NFC-powered figurines to unlock special limited NES and SNES scenes. That said, it also plans to introduce similar functionality in NFC-powered cards, which may actually adversely affect amiibo sales.

SOURCE: Nintendo

VIA: The Verge