Broad stand-alone distribution of amiibo is likely a thing of the past, but Nintendo is likley to keep them alive for launch specials and pack-ins for collector's editions.

They found a way to return big-time to the physical toy market with a brand of their own, and I don't think they will let it go easily.

I think they've settled into their rightful place. While the "amiibo craze" is dead, amiibos will likely live on for a long time.

That was never their original purpose.  They were supposed to be toys, a kind of viral marketing strategy that was intended to jump from kid to kid.  That adults were the ones buying them caught Nintendo by surprise.

I don't think they're dead by any means... I've gotten quite a few just recently (the Odyssey and latest BotW ones).

I suspect they may see a decent drop off as people who were interested already have most of the characters and probably don't feel like getting the same characters twice or more. Really though, they should get a little creative with how the amiibo work.

I wish that the Champions amiibo have stock and more people like me would be interested in getting those. They aren't dead but the common ones or the more unpopular ones have a ton of stock.

There not a popular but not dead.

There will always be collectors interested in these little doobers. Seems like easy profit. (I only have two which came with the games I got them with: Wolf Link and Golden Megaman)

I have a buddy who has a 3D Printer and orders the chips from some China distributor.

I gave him $20 and he printed 50 cards for my kids. They are full color and look fantastic. They all work flawlessly and take up less space.

With that being said there will always be a collectors market for these figures.

I did. You're right they spoke about it, but they didn't note if it was up YOY or not. Feel free to check on that if you want. Here is what I found

" We also made moves to expand our amiibo line, by launching the new Splatoon series amiibo. Our amiibo sales were approximately 5.10 million units for figure-type and approximately 2.80 million units for card-type."

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/171030e.pdf

Fake news

2016 Q3 9.9 million

2017 Q3 3.8 million

they were massively down, in fact they've been down every quarter this year.

Are they dying? Yes the evidence says they are