Nintendo sold almost 10 million Amiibos in the last three months

While Nintendo didn't have a lot of good news to share in its latest earnings report, it's now elaborated on a new money-maker. Yep, those Amiibo: for-real figurines that can connect to compatible games — which are eminently collectible in the process. Nintendo says it sold a stunning 9.9 million figures in the last quarter, which is up from 6.4 million Amiibos from the quarter before. It's also more than double the number of Splatoon copies sold: the Wii U's best-selling game.

While the figures aren't cheap, as the company itself notes, Amiibo are often cheaper than game software. Again, there's interesting differences in which figures sell well in which territories: Splatoon characters make up the entire top three in Japan, while in the US, Link stays at the top and (technically?) Italian plumber Mario tops the charts in Europe. It seems that Nintendo are just getting started. Expect many more figures and Amiibo cards in 2016.