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As we head into 2017 facts and figures are starting to emerge for sales over the festive period, which are always valuable in the gaming industry. As we skipped a week of Media Create results in Japan during the break, this time we're going for a bumper post with two weeks of results, along with some end of year details via Famitsu. All told Nintendo, The Pokémon Company and Game Freak in particular have a number of positives to celebrate.

First of all, below are the Media Create software and hardware sales covering 19th - 25th December.


Software Sales (lifetime sales in brackets)

  1. [3DS] Pokémon Sun / Pokémon Moon (Nintendo, 11/18/16) – 279,436 (2,858,396)
  2. [3DS] Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 12/01/16) – 269,368 (717,528)
  3. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki (Level-5, 12/15/16) – 174,180 (512,159)
  4. [3DS] Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon! (Nintendo, 12/22/16) – 132,875 (New)
  5. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SIE, 03/19/15) – 51,723 (1,018,699)
  6. [3DS] Miitopia (Nintendo, 12/08/16) – 47,688 (75,621)
  7. [PS4] Final Fantasy XV (Limited and Bundled Editions Included) (Square Enix, 11/29/16) – 39,438 (854,041)
  8. [Wii U] Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Mojang, 06/23/16) – 32,213 (247,941)
  9. [PS4] Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (Sega, 12/08/16) – 29,917 (292,677)
  10. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi Mura wo Tsukurun Desu (Nippon Columbia, 07/21/16) – 25,442 (131,167)
  11. [3DS] Mario Party: Star Rush (Nintendo, 10/20/16) – 23,708 (127,887)
  12. [3DS] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Heroes (Konami, 12/15/16) – 22,412 (49,085)
  13. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome Amiibo (Nintendo, 11/24/16) – 22,289 (74,984)
  14. [3DS] Osomatsu-san: Matsumatsuri (Bandai Namco, 12/22/16) – 16,911 (New)
  15. [Wii U] Splatoon (Bundled Editions Included) (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 15,860 (1,532,079)
  16. [3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot (Nintendo, 04/28/16) – 15,359 (511,880)
  17. [3DS] Monster Hunter Stories (Capcom, 10/08/16) – 15,021 (n/a)
  18. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Bundled Editions Included) (Nintendo, 07/28/12) – 14,754 (2,502,935)
  19. [PSV] SaGa: Scarlet Grace (Square Enix, 12/15/16) – 14,499 (79,464)
  20. [Wii U] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, 9/10/15) – 14,364 (n/a)

Hardware Sales (previous week's sales in brackets)

  1. New 3DS LL – 111,513 (84,823)
  2. PlayStation 4 – 90,140 (70,031)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 57,170 (36,214)
  4. 2DS – 51,077 (39,218)
  5. New 3DS – 13,694 (9,149)
  6. PlayStation 4 Pro – 10,098 (9,317)
  7. Wii U – 8,348 (5,095)
  8. PlayStation 3 – 1,234 (925)
  9. Xbox One – 830 (1,872)
  10. 3DS – 169 (226)
  11. 3DS LL – 109 (62)

Now we have the sales for 26th December to 1st January.

Software Sales (lifetime sales in brackets)

  1. [3DS] Pokémon Sun / Pokémon Moon (Nintendo, 11/18/16) – 90,891 (2,949.287)
  2. [3DS] Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo) - 73,002 (790,530)
  3. [3DS] Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon!! (Nintendo) - 63,577 (196,452)
  4. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki (Level 5) - 49,350 (561,508)
  5. [PS4] Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix) - 30,381 (884,422)
  6. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (Sony Computer Entertainment - 23,765 (1,042,463)
  7. [PS4] Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (Sega) - 19,822 (312,500)
  8. [3DS] Miitopia (Nintendo) - 18,259 (120,971)
  9. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo (Nintendo) - 10,858 (85,842)
  10. [3DS] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Heroes (Konami) - 10,710 (59,794)
  11. [Wii U] Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Microsoft Game Studios) - 9,713 (257,654)
  12. [PS4] Watch Dogs 2 (Ubisoft) - 9,466 (89,237)
  13. [PSV] SaGa: Scarlet Grace (Square Enix) - 9,208 (88,673)
  14. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price Edition] (Take-Two Interactive Japan) - 8,429 (225,839)
  15. [3DS] Mario Party: Star Rush (Nintendo) - 7,137 (135,024)
  16. [PS4] The Last Guardian (Sony Interactive Entertainment) - 6,452 (108,836)
  17. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi: Mura o Tsukurundesu (Nippon Columbia) - 6,413 (137,580)
  18. [PS4] Battlefield 1 (Electronic Arts) - 5,791 (237,636)
  19. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo) - 5,741 (2,714,357)
  20. [PS4] Resident Evil 6 (Capcom) - 5,701 (19,814)

Hardware Sales (previous week's sales in brackets)

  1. PlayStation 4 – 73,421 (90,140)
  2. New 3DS LL – 45,809 (111,513)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 25,487 (57,170)
  4. 2DS – 20,259 (51,077)
  5. PlayStation 4 Pro – 9,916 (10,098)
  6. New 3DS – 4,342 (13,694)
  7. Wii U – 2,589 (8,348)
  8. PlayStation 3 – 1,002 (1,234)
  9. Xbox One – 221 (830)
  10. 3DS – 72 (169)
  11. 3DS LL 40 – (109)

Pokémon Sun and Moon and Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS had particularly strong weeks over the Holiday period, while the New 3DS LL (XL) did rather well, albeit with a notable drop-off in the most recent results.


Moving on beyond those Media Create results, Famitsu has released some of its own figures for 2016 as a whole in Japan. Releases on Nintendo hardware accounted for eight of the top 10-selling physical retail games over the year, with Sun and Moon leading the way. In terms of hardware, meanwhile, the 3DS 'family' of systems edged out the PS4 and PS4 Pro.

Famitsu software sales for 2016 (December 28th, 2015 – December 25th, 2016)

1. Pokemon Sun / Moon (The Pokémon Company, 3DS) – 3,246,222
2. Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sushi/Tempura (Level 5, 3DS) – 1,397,436
3. Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix, PS4) – 860,127
4. Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 3DS) – 743,388
5. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 (Square Enix, 3DS) – 623,083
6. Yo-Kai Sangokushi (Level 5, 3DS) – 563,395
7. Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki (Level 5, 3DS) – 509,667
8. Kirby: Planet Robobot (Nintendo, 3DS) – 479,698
9. Splatoon (Nintendo, Wii U) – 398,251
10. Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (Sony, Vita) – 397,607

Famitsu hardware sales for 2016 (December 28th, 2015 – December 25th, 2016)

1. Nintendo 3DS (including 3DS LL, New 3DS, New 3DS LL, 2DS) - 1,874,457
2. PS4 (including PS4 Pro) - 1,790,883
3. PS Vita (including Vita TV), 865,002
4, Wii U – 336,151
5. Xbox One (including Xbox One S) - 8,897


All in all, Nintendo will no doubt be relatively pleased to see the 3DS and major releases leading the way. The downside, however, is that overall revenues from physical retail in Japan were down on the previous year - hardware saw a 10% drop, software declined 4%.

Plenty of figures there, with a number of positives for Nintendo; naturally it'll be hoping for big things in 2017 when the Switch is launched.

[source mcvuk.com, via gematsu.com, neogaf.com]