News Article

3DS Leads Japanese Market to Year-on-Year Gains

Posted by James Newton

Nintendo dominates home country

Strong performances from 3DS software and hardware saw the Japanese games market grow for the first time in two years.

Between 26th December and 24th June, the Japanese market was worth 193.4 billion Yen, a 0.07% increase from 191.98bn over the same period last year. 63% of that figure came from software sales, up from 112.17bn to 122.67bn, while hardware revenues dropped from 79.81 to 70.73bn.

Nintendo ran the show on hardware and software. 3DS sold 2.22m units over the six months, bringing its lifetime sales in the country to 6.36m. Wii sold 265k to reach 12.43m, and DS chipped in with 20,239 sales and now stands at 32.86m.

Titles on Nintendo formats took four of the top five software slots, with Pokémon Black and White 2 topping the chart with double the sales of the second place title. The most impressive part? The Pokémon game was only released the day before tracking ended, a very smart (or perhaps just coincidental) move from Nintendo, Game Freak and the Pokémon company.

Here's the Japanese hardware and software charts from 26th December to 24th June. Life-to-date sales are in parentheses:

  • Nintendo 3DS: 2,219,548 (total 6,355,287)
  • PlayStation 3: 695,465 (total 8,112,613)
  • PlayStation Portable: 500,333 (total 18,737,441)
  • PlayStation Vita: 353,657 (total 756,451)
  • Nintendo Wii: 265,578 (total 12,433,321)
  • Xbox 360: 33,809 (total 1,554,547)
  • Nintendo DS: 20,239 (total 32,855,741)

1. Pokémon Black & White 2 (DS, Pokémon, 23rd June 2012): 1,618,621
2. One Piece Pirate Warriors (PS3, Namco Bandai, 1st March 2012 2012): 806,578
3. Dragon Quest Monsters Terry's Wonderland 3D (3DS, Square Enix, 31st March 2012): 743,967
4. Mario Kart 7 (3DS, Nintendo, 1st December 2011): 665,573 (total 1,747,964)
5. Monster Hunter 3 G (3DS, Capcom, 10th December 2011): 665,394 (1,474,716)

[via andriasang.com]

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User Comments (27)

James

#1

James said:

A fun maths game.

Take the number of 3DS sales for the past six months.
Subtract the sales of every other console.
The number you're left with is 350,467 — just 3,000 short of Vita's sales over the same period.

CommanderAudio

#2

CommanderAudio said:

■PlayStation Vita: 353,657
■Xbox 360: 33,809

The answer to why PS Vita is selling more than Xbox

Geonjaha

#3

Geonjaha said:

Sqeenix, get Dragon Quest Monsters Terry's Wonderland 3D over here pronto!
Monster Hunter would also be nice. :3

BudrSbastig

#5

BudrSbastig said:

Looks like the kid on the right in the photo has eaten his 3ds! I bet he can not wait for the XL.......just like going super sized!!!!

TruenoGT

#6

TruenoGT said:

I'm surprised the original DS dropped off so much. While it's the older model, it's no doubt cheaper and the library is so massive so I would have expected more than that. Perhaps they really cleared the shelves to make room for the newer systems... Seems different than in the US.

Samholy

#8

Samholy said:

the system is great. but it lacks of great titles!
just like nintendo systems since the n64 (the DS isnt in the list. it has a buckload of great titles)
but when there is a great title, its simply a masterpiece. so... long life to the 3DS !!!

seriously, my 3ds library is thin after a year.

C-Olimar

#9

C-Olimar said:

Vita only just just outselling the Wii, being outsold by the ancient PSP... must be pretty embarrassing for Sony...

Nin-freak

#11

Nin-freak said:

3DS is getting tons of great titles. The only problem is their all released during the holidays! Spread those releases out Nintendo. I don't save all my money up for an entire year.

Moshugan

#13

Moshugan said:

I'm expecting 2013 to start the coming of buck loads o' great titles for the 3DS.
It's selling so well it would be idiotic for developers to ignore it.

SaSoBe

#16

SaSoBe said:

I seriously hope the Vita will start selling better soon... Competition is healthy, and beneficial for us consumers.

Dev

#19

Dev said:

With all the steady growth over the months, this is to be expected. It does make you wonder what it'd be like if other regions were this fruitful too.

Hokori

#20

Hokori said:

Still wish people here would buy more 3DSs :( they'd rather play with iPhones :(

benandarchie

#24

benandarchie said:

I'm kinda wanting nintendo just to work on handhelds. Think of the amazing games they could produce only working on the 3DS

Mandoble

#25

Mandoble said:

Vita will hardly take off in Japan, most of the dev companies working for Sony are seated in UE or USA and I doubt they will aim at all at that market.

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