Nintendo profits surge 53% on US tariff refund
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- Nintendo reported profits surged 53.5% to ¥147.4bn (£694m) for the three months to June, beating expert forecasts of ¥77.8bn.
- Nintendo saw revenue drop 10% to ¥517.8bn despite Switch 2's "strong sales momentum" and steady performances from Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Star Fox, and Pokémon Pokopia.
- The profit spike came from a US tariff refund after the Supreme Court ruled Trump's "Liberation Day" trade levies illegal earlier this year.
- The Trump administration has refunded about $100bn from pre-ruling tariffs, representing 60% of the $165bn collected.
- Nintendo filed its own lawsuit seeking a full refund plus interest weeks after the ruling, and faces a separate consumer class action alleging it pocketed tariff savings instead of passing them to customers — a claim Nintendo's lawyers call "meritless."
- Trump imposed fresh tariffs on more than 80 countries including Japan last month, while a coalition of 25 US states is now suing the administration over the levies, potentially opening the door to more refunds.
Why it matters: Nintendo's 53.5% profit jump came largely from government money while a consumer class action demands those savings be passed through. With 25 states now suing to overturn Trump's fresh tariffs on 80+ countries, Japanese exporters face a second round of refund uncertainty even as Nintendo's Tokyo shares rose 2.87% on the earnings.
