Mario Tennis Ultra Smash.jpg

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means - we're at the half way point of another gruelling week! Actually, it means Media Create Japanese chart results, though it could also mean the first thing; in truth, the results are rather grisly this time for Nintendo, but considering its strong run over the past couple of months a quiet week was due.

There are a host of new releases on Sony systems, with Dragon Quest Builders - a blend of the storied franchise and Minecraft, in a sense - absolutely cleaning house on Vita, PS4 and to a lesser degree PS3. Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash does break up the DQ party in third place, however, which is a decent result. Unfortunately the glut of releases on Sony systems means the next title on Nintendo hardware is Monster Hunter X (Cross) in 9th place, while Hyrule Warriors Legends dropped to just 15,174 sales in its second week. Considering the fact that a number of evergreen Wii U and 3DS releases held the top five for quite some time it's little surprise that momentum has finally dropped away; results are below with lifetime sales in brackets.

  1. [PSV] Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix, 01/28/16) – 178,016 (New)
  2. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix, 01/28/16) – 141,369 (New)
  3. [Wii U] Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Nintendo, 01/28/16) – 55,331 (New)
  4. [PS3] Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix, 01/28/16) – 53,154 (New)
  5. [PSV] Uta no Prince-sama Music 3 (Broccoli, 01/28/16) – 51,289 (New)
  6. [PS4] Yakuza: Kiwami (Sega, 01/21/16) – 20,260 (123,516)
  7. [PS4] Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 (Koei Tecmo, 01/28/16) – 20,101 (New)
  8. [PS3] Yakuza: Kiwami (Sega, 01/21/16) – 17,591 (78,019)
  9. [3DS] Monster Hunter X (Cross) (Capcom, 11/27/15) – 17,023 (2,661,523)
  10. [PS3] TV Anime The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls G4! Pack Vol. 8 (Bandai Namco, 01/28/16) – 15,720 (New)
  11. [PS3] Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 (Koei Tecmo, 01/28/16) – 15,431 (New)
  12. [3DS] Hyrule Warriors Legends (Koei Tecmo, 01/21/16) – 15,174 (69,653)
  13. [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 13,256 (1,228,409)
  14. [PSV] The Asterisk War: The Academy City of the Water Houka Kenran (Bandai Namco, 01/28/16) – 12,436 (New)
  15. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad (Level-5, 07/11/15) – 11,135 (2,183,566)
  16. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 10,733 (642,224)
  17. [3DS] Monster Strike (Mixi, 12/17/15) – 10,263 (779,754)
  18. [PS4] Just Cause 3 (Square Enix, 01/21/16) – 8,928 (42,588)
  19. [Wii U] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, 09/10/15) – 7,865 (784,211)
  20. [PSV] Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force (Bandai Namco, 12/23/15) – 7,429 (137,877)

Just like in software the hardware charts bring dominance for Sony's systems this time around, with the Vita nearly tripling its sales and PS4 enjoying a boost. The New 3DS LL (XL) is third despite a drop, though the new and old smaller models saw small increases; the Wii U, unfortunately, has continued to fall away with sales back into four figures. The results are below with last week's sales in brackets.

  1. PlayStation Vita – 45,114 (14,999)
  2. PlayStation 4 – 32,557 (24,441)
  3. New 3DS LL – 22,593 (31,452)
  4. Wii U – 8,931 (11,298)
  5. New 3DS – 4,978 (4,715)
  6. 3DS – 3,298 (2,813)
  7. PlayStation 3 – 1,993 (1,671)
  8. 3DS LL – 558 (697)
  9. Xbox One – 92 (52)

All told this wasn't a great week's results for Nintendo in Japan, but peaks and troughs are part of the market reality. We'll see how things shape up next week.

[source gematsu.com]