Another week, another round of Famitsu sales numbers. The Nintendo Switch continues to dominate, being the best-selling console in Japan and having the top 10 in software sales all be for Nintendo’s hit platform. Through the week ending on February 21, according to Famitsu, the Switch sold approximately 77,000 units. The PlayStation 5, by comparison, sold approximately 25,000 units. That’s three times the number of units sold for the Switch compared to the PlayStation 5. On the software side, the Nintendo Switch decimated all their competition, landing the top 10 spots in Famitsu’s sales numbers. The top-selling game was Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury; second was Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!; third place went to Ring Fit Adventure; fourth place went to Animal Crossing: New Horizons; and fifth place went to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Also placing were Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 2, and Pokemon Sword and Shield. That’s significant, because it means seven of the top 10 games placing on the Japanese charts are Nintendo first-party titles. What’s even more important is that four of those titles, and about to be five with Animal Crossing, have been out for well over a year. This is one of Nintendo’s goals moving forward: have people buy their older titles and build interest in them. For this to happen though, at least in North America, Nintendo needs to reprint some games desperately. For example, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which has sold roughly 2 million units worldwide, is almost impossible to find for retail price. The same goes for several other first-party games like Octopath Traveler. That being said, Nintendo’s dominance of the Japanese market continues and it will be interesting, with last week’s Nintendo Direct and upcoming games like Bravely Default II, how the charts change over time this year. Will the older titles still continue to sell at a steady rate? That’s a total unknown as of right now. If they do, Nintendo will secure the Japanese video game market for quite a while.
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