Wii U Japan Sales

The Wii U has enjoyed an upward trend of sales in Japan in the last couple of weeks, a welcome respite from troubling figures and disappointing news. This week gives even more cause for optimisim, as Nintendo's home console achieved the sort of numbers we haven't seen since its launch weeks in late 2012; the 3DS XL / LL is still bossing matters, but that's been the norm for a good amount of time.

To kick off with software, the arrival of Dragon Quest X: The Sleeping Hero and the Guiding Sworn Friend Online has certainly been a contributing factor to the Wii U's improved performance, though the Wii version did nevertheless shift more copies; the latter prompted no real boost in Wii sales, showing that install base is King. Elsewhere there were reasonable début appearances for Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind and Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy Big Bang / Supernova, while Super Mario 3D World shows decent legs with another 43,844 sales. Bravely Default: For the Sequel had a decent start at best, though we should remember that it's a tweaked version of the game available in Japan for over a year, while Pokémon X & Y are unrelenting in third place. The top 20 below shows fairly healthy sales all round, with lifetime figures in parenthesis.

1. [PS3] Gran Turismo 6 – 204,784 (New)
2. [Wii] Dragon Quest X: The Sleeping Hero and the Guiding Sworn Friend Online – 117,432 (New)
3. [3DS] Pokemon X and Y – 111,790 (3,200,919)
4. [3DS] Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind – 93,471 (New)
5. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy Big Bang / Supernova – 91,643 (New)
6. [Wii U] Dragon Quest X: The Sleeping Hero and the Guiding Sworn Friend Online – 70,648 (New)
7. [Wii U] Super Mario 3D World – 43,844 (183,245)
8. [3DS] Bravely Default: For the Sequel – 35,617 (New)
9. [3DS] Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal: Duel Carnival – 26,497 (New)
10. [PS3] Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – 21,600 (358,755)
11. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 – 20,601 (3,002,358)
12. [3DS] Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 – 18,225 (106,933)
13. [PS3] Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – 16,920 (52,269)
14. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 – 15,523 (228,367)
15. [3DS] One Piece: Unlimited World R – 15,145 (123,374)
16. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 15,039 (3,496,578)
17. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection: New Life – 12,816 (1,523,528)
18. [3DS] Aikatsu! 2-ri no My Princess – 12,737 (99,261)
19. [PSV] God Eater 2 – 12,610 (338,544)
20. [PSP] God Eater 2 – 11,337 (161,939)

The hardware sales show increases over last week for all but one platform (the PS Vita TV is the only system with negative momentum), with big releases and seasonal momentum no doubt all contributing. The most eye-catching increase is that of the Wii U, which had a sales bump of over 20,000 units — it sold more than double this week to what it did two weeks ago. The 3DS XL / LL remains on top, meanwhile, continuing its relentless period of dominance in Nintendo's homeland — results are below with last week's sales in parenthesis.

3DS LL – 92,375 (82,409)
Wii U – 48,762 (28,518)
3DS – 32,894 (25,964)
PlayStation Vita – 25,594 (20,202)
PlayStation 3 – 24,085 (13,311)
PSP – 4,416 (4,232)
PlayStation Vita TV – 3,772 (5,391)
Wii – 767 (588)
Xbox 360 – 473 (309)

Another top three lock-out for Nintendo, then, and the company will surely be delighted to see continuing momentum for the Wii U; with a mixture of new releases and bundles it's now had three solid weeks of growth. As for the 3DS, it continues to be the dominant force in the region.

[source gematsu.com]