PS5 Sells 118,085 Units in Japan at Launch, Xbox Series X|S Sells 20,534 Units - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 November 2020 / 3,990 Views
Famitsu has revealed the launch week sales for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S in Japan. The PS5 in its first four days sold 118,085 units in Japan, while the Xbox Series X and S sold 20,534 units in its first six days.
To compare, the PlayStation 4 sold 322,083 units in its first two days in February 2014 and the Xbox One sold 23,562 units in its first four days in September 2014. Also, the PlayStation 3 sold 88,443 units in its first two days in 2006 and the Xbox 360 sold 62,135 units in its first two days in December 2005.
Famitsu did note that while PS5 sales seem well below the PS4, the PS5 is sold out in Japan and the PS4 launched at a much later date when compared to its launch in the rest of the world, which meant more stock was available.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X and S quickly sold out of pre-orders when they became available and continue to have stock issues. Retailers have resorted to selling consoles using a lottery-based system.
Marvels’ Spider-Man: Miles Morales was the best-selling PS5 game with 18,640 units sold, followed by the remake of Demon's Souls with 18,607 units sold.
Here is the hardware breakdown of the last three PlayStation launches in Japan:
- PS5 - 118,085 units
- PS4 - 322,083 units
- PS3 - 88,443 units
Here is the hardware breakdown of the last three Xbox launches in Japan:
- Xbox Series X|S - 20,534 units
- Xbox One - 23,562 units
- Xbox 360 - 62,135 units
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Sony had months of pre-orders to gauge demand for launch, so if they supplied just a little over the Pre-Order to Japan then it would be sold out. Not to mention the mindshare and social media the months before that to gauge demand.
I know both systems are sold out and week 1 numbers don't point how much interest there is, but we can clearly see Sony's interest moving away from Japan. I think we all knew the PS5 was going to do worse than PS4 in Japan, but it may be worse than what I thought.
Xbox Series did decently considering it's almost has much as Xbox One, plus when the Xbox One was out it wasn't sold out. So the Xbox Series demand is most likely higher than what everyone thought.
Sony interest is moving from Japan by launching together with USA instead of several months later?
The PS5 only did a little over 100K. It's the 2nd worst opening for a PS system ever. The Switch launched WW on the same day and still did over 300K in Japan. Also we all knew Sony's interest was moving away from Japan before the PS5 launch. Them launching first in Japan along with a few other regions doesn't change this.
Microsoft seems to have more interest in Japan than Sony does.
I think it's a mutual decision. Sadly Japan seems to be moving increasingly away from traditional consoles. I guess it won't matter much as long as global sales keep up. But I do worry about japanese devs that make games that don't have as much worldwide appeal.
if it wasn't for corona and they had enough ps5 in japan, they would have sold more obviously...
So MS is more interested than Sony in Japan and that is why they sent 1/6 of the inventory to there? Switch didn't need to counter moves from competitor in all markets so they could send more consoles to Japan, and guess what Japan is more into handheld and phones than consoles. Looking and the total sales from PS2, 3 and 4 that have been decreasing you can very well see that there isn't much point in putting massive inventory for Japan. But seems like you think sending more inventory several months after other countries had a release is giving more preference than day one launch with less inventory.
Surprised, but also not surprised. I knew Sony would have a hard time in Japan, due to Nintendo's dominance as well as their dumb moves (X and O button usage, censorship, bad communication, focus on western games), but not by that much.
From bad to worse
No surprise Xbox barely sold any, but really surprised how small the sales of PS5 is compared to PS4. I guess the Switch really has a good chunk of the Japanese market.
Japanese people love cute small things, the Ps5 is an airship.
It was sold out. PS4 had the launch 3 months after tier 1, so it had plenty more inventory.
How is selling out your allocation a bad thing? It was a long time ago so I forgive the memory but Sony launched in Japan in late February 2014, long after launch so had more allocation of PS4's to sell.
Honestly, I don't understand why Sony tries so hard to be a Western company - it makes the difference between Playstation and Xbox even smaller. Sure, the whole Western market (Americas + Europe) is much bigger than the Asian market but still, losing your original Japanese identity to become an Euro-American is really sad.
And why do you think they try so hard to be western? From my POV they have been a global company at least since PS3. That isn't being western. They have grow in all countries (including Asia) except Japan that have been showing continuously less interest by consoles.
Sony is a big business. They exist to make money, not to preserve some nebulous think like Japanese identity. They've seen the money in gaming shift to the west, so they've changed their focus to where the money is. It wouldn't make sense for them to do anything else.
So much for the Japanese market not liking Sony's PS5 ... Right? Lol
Japan is mobile turf.
It makes no sense at all to make statements pertaining to the insignificance of console sales and the release of said consoles in territories in which have little to no effect in an all around sales figure. MS should stick to their guns for once, prove that console sales are of lower importance to them and completely drop the Box from Japan. Makes no sense at all to accommodate to anyone that just doesn't reciprocate a mutual passion.
Nah releasing a console in Japan shows japanese developers you care
Sure it does. But when the customer isn't purchasing a significant number of units it shows they DON'T CARE. Generations of failure to generate revenue is a clear indicator to stop operations. It really is simple business. And even though staff members make statements attesting to their indifference of console sales, I'm more than positive if things were going well, MS would be issuing a MUCH different statement. But by all means, encourage anyone to sell a product to a demographic that has little to no
concern. We'll see how long they last. Lol.
Sure it does. But when the customer isn't purchasing a significant number of units it shows they DON'T CARE. Generations of failure to generate revenue is a clear indicator to stop operations. It really is simple business. And even though staff members make statements attesting to their indifference of console sales, I'm more than positive if things were going well, MS would be issuing a MUCH different statement. But by all means, encourage anyone to sell a product to a demographic that has little to no
concern. We'll see how long they last. Lol.
Supply constrain was very strong. SW sales are more depressing though, hope the supposition that to many consoles were bought by scapelrs so people didn't had a reason to buy the game and some opted to buy PS4 version to play on both is true.
Why are you supporting scalpers? They are the worst consumers on the planet.
Where did I supported them? I don't support them. I said that I hope the supposition that low SW sales were due to to many scalpers (who don't buy the games) instead of the alternative, players not liking the games.
Not liking the game is still better than having thousands of scalpers.
Sure, but looking at what we have seem in several countries (and anedoctal that some people tried 50 lottery tickets to buy the consoles) and that Demon's Souls is a title that had success in Japan (but tied with MM?) shows it is more likely that scalpers got to many consoles so there wasn't much legitimate owners that would buy games for their new consoles.
Lowest launch week sales for Xbox in Japan so far.
