In recent weeks the Media Create Japanese charts have shown Sony systems and its releases nicking ahead of Nintendo's offerings, so with that in mind this week brings happier news for the big N. The company and supportive third-parties have topped the software and hardware results to reverse those recent trends.
To start with software, the top five is made up exclusively of Wii U and 3DS games, two for the home console and three for the portable. Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition has grabbed top spot for the 3DS with an impressive tally of 179,926 sales, while Dragon Quest X: Legend of the Ancient Dragon Online has claimed the number two spot on its début. Monolith Soft's Xenoblade Chronicles X, which also has a hardware bundle in Japan, made its début in third place with 85,586 sales; it's actually narrowly beaten the previous Japanese launch figures for Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii, an impressive achievement considering the Wii U's smaller userbase.
You can see the top 20 below, with lifetime sales in brackets.
- [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (GungHo Online Entertainment, 04/30/15) – 179,926 (New)
- [Wii U] Dragon Quest X: Legend of the Ancient Dragon Online (Square Enix, 04/30/15) – 98,923 (New)
- [Wii U] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo, 04/30/15) – 85,586 (New)
- [3DS] Bravely Second: End Layer (Square Enix, 04/23/15) – 20,195 (120,242)
- [3DS] Girls Mode 3: Kirakira Code (Nintendo, 04/16/15) – 20,103 (99,007)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 16,166 (125,951)
- [PSV] Sakeano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend -Blessing Flowers- (5pb., 04/30/15) – 11,202 (New)
- [PSV] ToHeart2: Dungeon Travelers (Aquaplus, 04/30/15) – 10,956 (New)
- [PSV] Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy (5pb., 04/30/15) – 8,104 (New)
- [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 7,955 (974,448)
- [3DS] Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Koro-sensei (Bandai Namco, 03/12/15) – 7,141 (63,814)
- [Wii U] Mario Party 10 (Nintendo, 03/12/15) – 6,888 (130,353)
- [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 6,427 (2,610,284)
- [PS4] Dying Light (Warner Bros., 04/16/15) – 6,277 (38,837)
- [3DS] Yokai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Level-5, 12/14/14) – 5,618 (2,597,320)
- [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 09/13/14) – 5,272 (2,220,527)
- [PS3] BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend (Arc System Works, 04/23/15) – 4,870 (20,420)
- [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 4,652 (146,633)
- [PS4] Tropico 5 (Square Enix, 04/23/15) – 4,495 (13,201)
- [PS4] Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II (Compile Heart, 04/23/15) – 4,369 (26,979)
Moving onto hardware, the Wii U has more than trebled its sales to seize top spot, an unfamiliar position for the system. That's a very welcome boost off the back of those two high-profile releases, while every iteration of the 3DS also saw sales rise; the 3DS family is back on top if you combine all units. The results are below with last week's sales in brackets.
- Wii U – 22,898 (7,210)
- PlayStation 4 – 19,782 (20,112)
- PlayStation Vita – 17,748 (15,467)
- New 3DS LL – 17,062 (13,981)
- New 3DS – 5,901 (5,329)
- PlayStation 3 – 3,956 (4,248)
- 3DS – 1,520 (1,095)
- 3DS LL – 1,465 (1,253)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 687 (558)
- Xbox One – 341 (201)
An excellent week for Nintendo, with positive results in both hardware and software. That old idea of 'games sell systems' has been proven once again.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 70
Cool. Can't wait for Xenoblade Chronicles X to arrive over here!
Good, back to Nintendo dominance in the top 5!
Oh and some nice Wii U numbers as well!
Wii U sales! It's over 9000!
Wow! I can't believe! To me Xenoblade X impact would be close to none! Amazing, this game deserves (probably) a lot of success. Great Nintendo and Monolith!
Wii U number 1! I could get used to this!
Very big jump on WiiU. I stated that I didn't think XBX was a system seller. Looks like I was wrong. Hopefully, this spike has legs.
That's below my expectations for Wii U sales.
Considering the time frame and releases, I expected 25k.
I think it's Golden Week in Japan this week.
Xcx AND Dragon quest in the same week? That's a lot of games sold. But will be interesting to see if they both can hold the sales next week too.
Same for WiiU.
Huh, I was expecting much bigger sales all round. Not because of Xenoblade but because of Golden Week. Doesn't everything usually go up, even without releases? Kind of like Christmas for us.
Good week. Can't wait for Xenoblade. I've given up on DQ X ever leaving Japan.
Xbone is holding on!
IT'S HAPPENING
T
S
H
A
P
P
E
N
I
N
G
Good to see the excellent sales, I really can't wait for xenoblade to come to the west! Also, it would be awesome if Nintendo and square enix brought over dragon quest x, that game looks amazing!!
I'm surprised that the vita actually gets sales in Japan, over here the system is a complete failure
@Peach64 I think (but could be wrong) that Golden Week was underwhelming last year as well. Tough economy etc in Japan may play a wider role at retail, potentially.
Good for Xenoblade X. The original Xenoblade sold far better in the west, so I expect the same for Xenoblade X, especially with its sci-fi themes.
@hydeks Most of the Vita's library is JRPGs, which is why it does fairly well in Japan. Most of them aren't localized though.
@ThomasBW84 I just checked and last year the top game was Youkai Watch with over 60000 (not new) and 3DS sales had a decent boost with a bunch of 3DS games out. 3DS sales were around 30000 while Wii U was 8000 (3000 more than the previous week).
http://gematsu.com/2014/05/media-create-sales-42814-5414
Now to see if any of this has legs......would be nice to see a strong May for Wii U off the backs of XCX, Dragon Quest and the soon coming Splatoon
@ThomasBW84 @Peach64 - Any chance we'll ever know how many of those 22k Wii U sales were that kick-@ss X bundle? Wii U has been selling about 7k a week the past 3 months so thats an extra 15k this week but I dont know how "limited" that bundle was. Would be great to see a US bundle even though Im not in the market for another Wii U. My son might want 1 for his room though.
And relatedly, do we know if the game in the bundle is counted among the 85k sold? I'd assume it is.
Squenix hates the US, and especially the US Wii U, so really not holding my breath on DQ.
Always look forward to this update, even it it hasn't made as pleasant reading more recently, from a Nintendo fan point of view. Great to see Wii U on top, very pleasing all round! Yeah Nintendo!
@rjejr Bundle sales are typically included by Media Create, as I understand it.
Not only number 1 on hardware, but 4 spots for Wii U software. Nice for a change.
Helped sales a bit, but those software sales aren't so great. XBX isn't the type of game to have legs, so I expect a massive drop off next week.
Things change. Nowadays there are very FEW games that have long sales potential (Yokai Watch). Even old staples like Mario Kart and Smash Bros seem to be having trouble keeping sales up when compared to past titles.
*slowly claps hands'' Good job nintendo
That's kinda a low figure for a Dragon Quest launch title, but I guess that it is an expansion and not a full new title?
Even so, I hope that Square Enix take the hint and give up the MMO model.
@IceClimbers
Most of them aren't localized?
A great deal of them ARE localized or are in the process of being localized. There are some that aren't, like you said, but I wouldn't call it most.
At least with Vita you can import the few games that haven't been translated from Japan or the Engrish translated Asian versions without having to buy another Vita.
@RupeeClock
FF14 is doing very well though, so I doubt they'll ever give up on MMOs.
Not surprised puzzles n dragon topped the chart seems like a shrewd bit of business by the big n.glad to see xcx doing well hopefully it's got some of those "evergreen" sales I hear nintendo have so much of.and how has mk8 still not hit 1mill?????
Looks like it'll probably hit about 1 mil overall. I assume that'll be a success.
@Spoony_Tech
I'm not sure a one-week top position exactly indicates Nintendo dominance when it's to be surrounded by weeks of near total Playstation dominance. That's like saying a professional sports team is "dominating" when they've only won 1 out of 4 games in a series.
Still, it is nice to see Xenoblade launch fairly strongly, brief though its time at the top will be.
Still baffled by Square-Enix and Nintendo's utter failure to bring Dragon Quest out of Japan.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS remains in the top 20, but not Super Smash Bros. for Wii U despite last week's great sales for the console?!
It's so nice to see the Wii U on the first spot. I hope sales keep over 10k through this month
@RupeeClock it's an expansion isn't it
Shame dragonquest and xnoblade launched in the same week, would have been better to spread them out
The more I see of X the more I want a time machine.
@Quorthon well the couple of weeks of PlayStation dominance were preceded by literally month after month of Nintendo dominance, lest we forget... let us enjoy this week, I don't think anyone is kidding themselves that all is instantly well again, but hey, enjoy the moment
Dragon quest, dragon quest, Dragon Quest, ........... Those are the game I want to see in the U.S. I don't care if it's 7 or 10. I just want it. I thought Xenoblade would do better. I think it has a better following in the U.S. Anyway.
Holy Cow! When will they finally ship Dragon Quest X over to North America and Europe. I have been saying for the last couple of years its a system seller! It would be over here as well. Xenoblade is also a system seller. Gosh by the time they get the game over here the servers might be just about ready to shut down. Puzzle Dragons is a great game too. I play it on my android tablet. I probably will get it at some point. Its nice to see the Wii-U take the top spot for a change. See what happens when good games come out.
Good to see there is some taste left in the world.
@TheWPCTraveler you are expecting a bit top much. I would have thought it would've topped out at 18,000.
Soon enough it'll crash and burn again, don't worry.
@Dankykong Get N or Get Out!
Was hoping it'd do twice that. Since Freedom Wars sold nearly 200k it's first week on Vita with similar install base. And, this looks to be a MUCH better game.
Anywho, I still expect decent numbers in N America, where Xenoblade sold the strongest. But regardless of what happens, I get to play this game. Be nice to see a significant number of others partake with me and share in that enjoyment, but whether they do or don't, I'm gonna enjoy this game to the uttermost.
Why can't they just make a Dragon Quest like they used to: OFFLINE?
DQ 9 on the DS has a preorder of over 2 million in Japan, it's the best game on DS. DQ 10 sales will never reached that number.
@Captain_Gonru - "I'd have something new to play this summer."
This summer's game is "Splatoon Assembly". Every few days, or weeks, Nintneod will put out another piece of Splatoon that should have been in there from the beginning - Freinds matches, ranked battles, tower level - and we get to slowly gather up those pieces and put them together via downloads, updates, restarts, reboots and who knows maybe even complete re-installs. Then by summers ends if you haven't missed any of the patches and updates and done all the installing correctly you can have a complete functioning game to play. Just don't mes anything up and lose all your save points in the process.
And no, after all I went thru for 1 MK8 DLC pack a couple of weeks ago I don't think I'm exaggerating too much.
Edit - Oops. Funnily I wrote this before reading your other reply to me, in which you just said all this, sorry about that.
Not that this line will be in your email so you probably wont' read it anyway.
@ThomasBW84 - "Bundle sales are typically included"
I figured as much. Guess the numbers only relveant though w/ the other piece of the puzzle. Did they sell 15k Wii U X bundles and 70k copies of the stand alone game or 1k Wii U X bundles and 84k copies of the game? I'm a stickler for details.
NOA should totally consider giving Dragon Quest X a shot over here.
It's exciting that Xenoblade X has this positive influence on the struggling WiiU sales figures, but I'll see what the following weeks bring us before getting my hopes up that it's going somewhere.
@Captain_Gonru - No silly, Nov. will be "Splatoon: amiibo edition" where each amiibo unlocks it's skin and weapon, like they just announced for Yoshi, and levels will be in various locations like in Smash. It will be sold $30 on disc or $20 as a download.
it was also confirmed that dragon quest x for wii made it to 4th place but they don't include the wii on thier charts anymore since 2015 started.
@sevex nintendo arn't the owners of dragon quest and the people who do make it if i recall thought about bringing it over to the west like north america but the server cost was to much for them.
Good Wii U news for a change.
Now give us a western release date for XCX, Nintendo!
By the way, what's the deal with Dragon Quest? It's an expansion to the online game, right? Few things would make me as happy as a new offline entry in the series coming to the Wii U at this point.
@Quorthon "That's like saying a professional sports team is "dominating" when they've only won 1 out of 4 games in a series."
Ah, so you've seen the Brewers this year, then.
@BinaryFragger people say that? Surely even diehard fanboys have to realise more 3rd party support or at least more 2nd party deals are desperately required since nintendo don't have the man power or working pace to produce enough games for the mass market.
Bad numbers for Xenoblade, Bravely Second and even Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros.
Hard times for Nintendo in Japan.
@edgedino They aren't the owners, but they published Dragon Quest 9. If Dragon Quest X has a chance here, it'd likely be with Nintendo's support.
@Vineleaf
Ha ha ha, no I have not. I'm a little more to the west, and our boys seem to have finally found their focus.
@MJKOP
The 3DS did really well at it's peak about a year ago (it's clearly in decline already on a global level), but the Wii U almost never dominated. The PS3 has held a lot of positions in the Japanese charts for ages, with the PS4 adding to that now. And the Vita, apparently.
I'm not complaining anyway, I'm happy to see XCX actually appear near the top, particularly since the predecessor was apparently largely ignored over there on the Wii. My only note was that this is a very temporary victory--and I would not be surprised (though I hope it doesn't happen) if XCX isn't even on the chart next week.
Got that wrong. I never expected the Wii U to get above 10k. Then again I never factored in Dragon Quest, I was basing that solely on XBX.
Not bad software sales, though.
Cool to see X sell a lot, but Japan love their JRPGs so that's expected.
@DarkCoolEdge Try harder.
I was hoping to get in a quick quip about this before Quorthon crashed the party. Alas.
This is good for Nintendo. Gaining more top spots in Japan makes me feel somewhat reassured about the future of the Wii U. I assume there's a certain demographic that indulges exclusively in what is trending in Japan...some derogatory term, if I remember correctly.
Oh, isn't the Attack on Titan game coming out this month?
Decent week for Nintendo: good sales in a struggling game market in Japan and good financial report for the FY14-15.
@DarthNocturnal Also DQ6 is on the DS. We've basically got all the DQ games in some shape or form. 1-4 is on the NES. 5 and 6 are on the DS. 7 on the PS1 and 8 on the PS2. 9 on the DS but I kinda doubt Nintendo would bring 10 over like they did 6 simply because it's a paid online service and so far Nintendo has taken a stance against paid online for Wii U in NA.
YAAAY! One of those Xenoblade X box sets was mine!!! ...now if only I could manage to find time to actually play with the thing.
@DarthNocturnal IX on the DS was the only one that was properly promoted. (Or even stocked). Problem is the extra effort required due to Dragon Quest games actually having content. (Unlike say Bravely Default)
That's good news! I've been on a long journey, finishing about 400+ hours worth of games in my backlog to make sure I can take my time with this game. I can't wait! All I need is a release date.
Dragon Quest X in America when?
@Captain_Gonru - "tap a different amiibo to refill your ink tank"
You win
"pearls conveniently sold in the eShop"
I don't know about pearls, but the "sea snail" currency that the sea urchin accepts does worry me for abuse.
@Captain_Gonru - ""Everybody Votes""
Of all the things to bring back from the Wii's glory days they chose to bring back the most useless one of them all. Glad somebody else noticed.
The profit is in charging US gamers $60 for the same half game the rest of the world is getting for $40. And the $35 worth of amibo DLC. And the licensing fees from the Nick Jr cartoon if they do this right.
@Hy8ogen "Try harder"? Try harder what? I don't like Nintendo, I love it, but I say what I see. Might be wrong, of course.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...