When it comes to keeping the accountants and shareholders happy, Nintendo can always point to its 3DS sales in Japan. While there's undoubtedly improvement needed in North America and, particularly, Europe when it comes to sales figures for the handheld, Nintendo's homeland consistently shows healthy sales that simply blow the competition away; that hasn't changed this week.
Much of its thanks should probably go to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which has been flying off the shelves to the point that it was reportedly sold out. While Satoru Iwata gave a rough figure of 600,000 physical copies sold and 200,000 downloads earlier in the week, the latest Media Create Sales chart gives a total of 721,786 for its début week, which may account for sales of physical copies only. That's an impressive tally, especially when you consider that it's already over half of the lifetime Japanese sales of New Super Mario Bros. 2. In terms of the top ten software titles, 3DS games occupy three positions (lifetime sales in brackets).
01. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo) - 721,786 / NEW
02. [PS3] Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires (Koei Tecmo) - 67,358 / NEW
03. [PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (Bandai Namco Games) - 39,767 (371,300)
04. [360] Halo 4 (Microsoft Game Studios) - 31,467 / NEW
05. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo) - 18,799 (1,347,042)
06. [3DS] Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (Square Enix) - 13,404 (245,575)
07. [PS3] Okami HD (Capcom) - 13.357 (66,068)
08. [PS3] Silent Hill: Downpour (Konami) - 12,205 / NEW
09. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2013 (Konami) - 11,754 (46,240)
10. [PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition (Sega) - 11,414 (53,811)
The release of Animal Crossing has also contributed to a surge in 3DS sales, with the system easily outselling all rival systems combined and passing the eight million sales mark.
3DS - 187,077 (Lifetime sales - 8,089,518)
PS3 - 18,043 (Lifetime sales - 8,598,255)
PSP - 12,076 (Lifetime sales - 19,423,538)
PS Vita - 4,021 (Lifetime sales - 1,029,713)
WII - 2,921 (Lifetime sales - 12,589,845)
360 - 2,908 (Lifetime sales - 1,602,408)
PS2 - 1,187 (Lifetime sales - 21,825,926)
NDS - 424 (Lifetime sales - 32,873,783)
Big sales and a landmark, all in one week, is sure to please Satoru Iwata's team; as always the challenge will be to produce similarly impressive results consistently in North America and Europe.
[source gamasutra.com, via neogaf.com]
Comments 30
Very impressive how quickly the 3DS is closing in on those PS3 lifetime sales!
Give it another week lol
Hope they can reach the same numbers in the west.
Wow Animal Crossing is huge in Japan...what impressive opening numbers. Last week the 3DS hardware sales magically shot up which now makes me think that people were getting the system ahead of the launch of Animal Crossing. Go 3DS! The way things are going It should pass PS3 lifetime sales by late January at the latest if not sooner!
Let's see,
Animal Crossing is a big seller in Japan - oh it's not coming to the US until next year.
Monster Hunter is a big seller in Japan - oh it's not coming to the US until next year.
Fire Emblem was a solid seller in Japan - oh it's not coming to the US until next year.
Bravely Default is a solid seller in Japan - oh US doesn't have a release date.
There are a bunch of special edition 3DS in Japan - not so much in US.
Hmmm, I wonder why the 3DS is selling better in Japan....
Now what are the worldwide figures? I want to see these pre-holiday season so we can see how much it blows up after Christmas.
I know you can't get them unless Nintendo sends 'em out. Not trying to be impatient
Holy crap it's doing well in Japan! I wish Europe was equally crazy about it. Hopefully the holiday season will be a nice boost in systems sold. The more success the platform has, the more developers are interested in creating content for it. Meanwhile the Vita's having a rather hard time. I know the 3ds had a rocky start as well, but the Vita's up to a point where one could wonder if it'll ever recover.
I am tempted to get a 3ds XL over a Wii U at the moment. I'm going to wait until after Christmas to see what bundles/offers are available .
I just realised simply how well the 3DS is doing in Japan. It's amazing!
@PeterW77 i recommend you get the 3DS-XL first, and save up some money untill april for a wii-u because at the end of march all of those launch window titles will be available but the 3ds has SO MUCH to offer that you will regret not to pick it up first =D
is the worldwide-to-date number accurate for the PSP? 19 Million???
@Red_Kinetic These are not worldwide sales, they are Japan lifetime sales.
It's impressive that the 3DS's lifetime sales figures are quickly closing in on the PS3's in Japan, and it's only been out almost two years. If only Nintendo can maintain this momentum throughout next year, we could easily see it pass the 12 million mark.
However, they can't let this success overshadow the fact that they still need to address the system's sales in Europe and North America. But with the seemingly sturdy line-up of titles coming to us (especially high-profile titles like Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion), it could be somewhat likely to see something similar amount here, just maybe not as extensive.
@seronja Thanks for the tip. I really want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf but I'm happy to wait. Also New Super Mario Brothers 2,Paper Mario and the Professor Layton games look really good and I've never played any of them.
Also I know that Tesco here in the uk have a deal whereby you can purchase a 3DS XL and get a power adaptor (third party I assume) for £160!
still... Its very surprizing to see the PSP at 19 Million.
@Red_Kinetic
Why?
@Red_Kinetic You can mod the crap out of PSPs. There are probably more Nintendo games played on PSPs than PSP games. It's an emulation nightmare for both Sony and Nintendo. Vitas are better protected, hence why they don't sell.
Oh, and Monster Hunter is kind of a big deal in Japan. Until MH3 Ultimate/G, they were all on PSP (and the one on Wii).
In Japan, the PSP outsold the Wii and GBA.
@XCWarrior I think you might be onto something there.
Looking at how bad those Vita sales are makes me wonder...
if Microsoft sold a handheld in Japan would anybody buy it?
Good to see the Vita selling well.
Wasn't expecting to see Halo 4 up there.
Very, very, very impressive sales!
@A-Hungry-Banker Vita are not selling well (Unless you were making a joke.
I would be interested to see the US sales after the games that @XCWarrior mentioned are released here. Also, I, for one, would love to see some more special XL bundles here.
I wish people bought 3DSes here but NO! They love "Pow Pow" "Ninja Fruits" "weird birds and ugly pigs"
hope vita can fare better nintendo needs some competition...
@JavierYHL No, Nintendo dont need competition. They need to get monopoly on the gaming marked.
Wow Sony needs to do something with the Vita...
@Tobias95: I hope you are kidding.
Quit teasing us with that Animal Crossing 3DS XL!!!
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