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Switch Accounted for Nearly 99% of All Consoles Sold in Japan

Switch Accounted for Nearly 99% of All Consoles Sold in Japan - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 December 2021 / 4,788 Views

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl (NS) has remained in first place on the retail charts in Japan with sales of 164,580 units, according to Famitsu for the week ending December 5, 2021. 

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (NS) debuted in third place with sales of 36,928 units. Disney Magical World 2: Enchanted Edition (NS) debuted in eighth place with sales of 13,348 units.

The entire top 10 are games for the Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling platform with 202,937 units sold and accounted for 98.5 percent of all consoles sold for the week. The PlayStation 5 sold 1,919 units, the Xbox Series X|S sold 558 units, the 3DS sold 423 units, and the PlayStation 4 sold 116 units.

Pokemon Sells 1.4 Million on the Japanese Charts, Switch Sells 167,778 Units

Here is the complete top 10:

    1. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl (The Pokemon Company, 11/19/21) – 164,580 (1,915,268)
    2. [NSW] Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo, 10/29/21) – 40,668 (405,177)
    3. [NSW] Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (Nintendo, 12/03/21) – 36,928 (New)
    4. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 03/20/20) – 18,640 (6,987,075)
    5. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 18,308 (2,309,889)
    6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 16,160 (4,169,449)
    7. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 14,728 (4,532,477)
    8. [NSW] Disney Magical World 2: Enchanted Edition (Bandai Namco, 12/02/21) – 13,348 (New)
    9. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, 10/18/19) – 9,387 (2,942,720)
    10. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield (The Pokemon Company, 11/15/19) – 8,998 (4,215,022)

    Here is the hardware breakdown:

    1. Switch OLED Model – 99,195 (492,172)
    2. Switch – 53,752 (17,575,223)
    3. Switch Lite – 49,990 (4,284,885)
    4. PlayStation 5 – 1,814 (997,605)
    5. Xbox Series S – 454 (52,870)
    6. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 423 (1,178,253)
    7. PlayStation 4 – 116 (7,819,013)
    8. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 105 (19,546)
    9. Xbox Series X – 104 (70,548)

    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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    8 Comments
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    Uloveme (on 09 December 2021)

    Switch sold 100× more than PS5 is reality and not a meme.

    • +5
    Kneetos (on 12 December 2021)

    The major problem here however isn't the chip shortages, it's more the fact that Sony is purposefully, deliberately putting its japanese playerbase in a "not as important" category compared to the Western world.

    According to this very site, VGC, the playstation 5 is tracking slightly ahead of the switch in sales alignment worldwide, yet by the end of the switch's year 1 it sold over 3 million systems in japan, which looking at the ps5, if these numbers continue it could take up to 3 years for playstation 5 to match that.

    If what people are saying is true, and Sony is prioritising other markets, my question to you becomes... "at what point do japanese players' demand for ps5 start falling off, will they continue to wait if Sony doesn't see them as valuable as the Americas, Europe & the UK?"

    • +2
    Kneetos Kneetos (on 12 December 2021)

    As a side to stop my origional post from getting even bigger...
    I hear that the ps5 is selling out every system it puts on store shelves, if that's the case then Sony could and should have sent more units to japan because, at the end of the day, they would have sold out anyway.... Unless there is worry that there might be consoles left on store shelves in japan, in which case, it becomes true. Either dedicated home consoles, OR Sony is becoming less popular in japan

    • 0
    aTokenYeti (on 09 December 2021)

    Is it too early to say the traditional set box console is dead in Japan? I’ve read there is still demand for PlayStations but Sony clearly does not consider it a priority market anymore.

    Switch riding the middle ground between handheld and regular console seems perfect for that market and Nintendo is also the only of the 3 console manufacturers that still treats Japan like a 1st class market

    • +2
    SvenTheTurkey aTokenYeti (on 10 December 2021)

    More likely just diverting almost all the units to the west during the big shopping season. This week is more the exception rather than the rule.

    • +1
    Greenfox (on 09 December 2021)

    99%... Wow. I'm currently a Switch+PC exclusive consumer, but I definitely don't like this news. Such an exaggerated monopoly can never bring any good. Let's hope PS5 and XSX/S can recover both in supply and demand.

    • 0
    Kakadu18 Greenfox (on 09 December 2021)

    If there was enough supply the PS5 would have likely been able to sell 30-50k I think. It's just the chip shortages and Sony prioritizing other regions.

    • 0
    SvenTheTurkey Kakadu18 (on 10 December 2021)

    Exactly. Just supplying the west with most of the units for the big shopping season. Only so many units to go around.

    • +1