Nintendo Now the Fifth Largest Company in Japan

Videogame maker Nintendo is now bigger than Honda Motor Company

The runaway successes of Nintendo, with its latest home console and handheld systems, have boosted the videogame maker to become Japan’s fifth largest company by market value.

Nintendo’s market value stood on Thursday at 8.69 trillion yen ($72 billion), making it bigger than even the NTT telephone company and Honda Motor, according to Reuters.

In late June, Nintendo overtook Sony in market share as the company became one of the 10 most valuable companies in Japan.

Upon the report of the company’s earnings on Wednesday, stock of Nintendo rose 3.5 percent, followed on Thursday by another 8.1 percent climb to 614,000 yen.

Both the Nintendo Wii and DS Lite remain hot sellers despite the length of time since launch. NPD Group numbers that track the sales of all videogame consoles consistently show both Nintendo products at the top of the charts.

Last month, the Nintendo DS was the highest selling videogames machine with 561,900 units sold. The Wii followed closely behind with 381,800 units, making it the best-selling home console for the month.

With no dip in demand in sight, Nintendo is boosting its sales forecasts for the current business year. It intends to sell 16.5 million Wii consoles this year, while also moving 26 million DS Lite units. Both numbers represent an 18 percent boost over previous expectations.

Nintendo also raised its operating profit forecast by 37 percent to 370 billion yen ($3.1 billion) for the fiscal year.