Pokémon, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Nintendo Switch Lead the Way in Japanese Charts

Man it's refreshing to see good news about Nintendo, it seems the only times we need to use asterisks are in the UK charts.

Hehe, works everytime. Waifus4theWin

Very nice. For comparison, here the first week sales of the other two/three Xenoblade games:

Xenoblade Chronicles: 82.952
Xenoblade Chronicles 3D: 56.932
Xenoblade Chronicles X: 85.586
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: 97.732

And this is, of course, without digital sales, which should be much higher for XC2 than for the others.

PlayStation AND Nintendo doing very well overall, great stuff.

Good to see Xenoblade doing amazing in launch week in Japan too.

Love that the vita still sells pretty well, with not much support.

I'm glad Japan finally embraced a 3d Mario title. Also looking like Xenoblade will do quite well and just look at Splatoon 2 with those legs!!

Wow, top 5 all Nintendo, then 8 out of top 10. Brilliant!

Wow, Super Mario Odyssey will have outsold MK8 Deluxe in Japan by this time next week.

Compared to previous Xenoblade games, that's a solid start. Those Switch numbers continue to impress me. Good times at Nintendo right now.

Pretty good news for Monolith Soft considering Xenoblade Chronicles X was already profitable for them. And that's despite the low Wii U install base. Impressive.
Good for Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2.

Surprised the weird Kirby spin-off is selling well.

1-2-Switch still in the top 20!

why is the Western port of Nobunaga’s Ambition still missing!? PS4 got it, why not Switch?

USUM selling this much is utterly disgusting. Wake up and realize you’re getting ripped off people!

Another fantastic week for Nintendo.

Need More New 2DS XL supply !!
Later, New 2DS XL can say hello to ps4 & kick ps4 butt again.

Keep it up and Odyssey will hit a million and Splatoon 2 a million and a half before the year ends.

15. [3DS] Style Savvy: Styling Star (Nintendo, 11/03/17) – 6,450 (61,055)

16. [PS4] Star Wars Battlefront II (Deluxe Edition Included) (EA, 11/17/17) – 5,886 (55,389)

Let that sink in! Personally, I think the gaming industry would be in a much better state if this was replicated worldwide.

If Nintendo can keep up those figures then Switch will have a bigger install base than the PS4 by the end of next year.

That's still (obviously) very, very unlikely but it's no longer completely impossible and it does seem like Switch will comfortably overtake the PS4 in Japan at some point in 2019.

@Chandlero I hope Xenoblade 2 has legs. I know it has been received in Japan better than X. It would be nice to see it reach 300k in Japan counting digital.

Wow. Switch sold about double what everything else combined sold. Nintendo's manufacturers must shudder to think of the orders they'll be asked to fulfill once Pokémon hits.

May as well just rename Japan, 'NintendoLand'.

Switch outsold PS4 by 5 to 1.

Oh, I didn't know Nobunaga's Ambition was on Switch as well. Is that Japan only?

I know that it may sound weird, but I would love to see a third-party title on Switch be a mainstay in the top five/ten. By only having Nintendo titles at the top, this is really no different than the success stories of N64 and Wii. I know that it's most likely never going to happen, but I would love to see another SNES situation where games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat II, Mega Man X, Dragon Quest VI (Japan), Final Fantasy VI (Japan), NBA Jam, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, and Final Fight all found success (all sold over 1 million).

It's depressing that even when third parties offer support, their offerings are all but guaranteed to fail or (at best) they'll underperform.

@bezerker99 Unfortunately. I actually have been interested in the series ever since Pokemon Conquest, but good luck getting them localized on Nintendo systems.

Good stuff. A nice new Switch game on top of the chart.

Another old rehashed game on Switch fail - Now they can concentrate on new games like MM11.

Ha Switch is the only one in the 100K digit, everything else is struggling to catch up.

I have been in Japan for the past two weeks, and have been here often. The reason why Xeno 2 is doing well here is simple, they are spending advertising dollars on it. I see ads on the tube and on TV at every hour and the game as retail space ( the switch has a lot of retail space in general). This is very different from the UK where I see only big PS4 publishers investing.

Finally glad to see the XC series (and Monolith) get the respect it deserves. Very underrated and oft-missed series and company that produces awesome work.

So how long before we start talking about when Switch will outsell Wii U's lifetime sales in Japan.......

Switch is doing great but some info for 2018 is needed soon, although I'm sure a direct is coming late Dec or early January

It's a shame XC2 is an unplayable mess. Hopefully they patch it. 20-22fps is unacceptable.

@link3710 I remember playing Nobunagu's Ambition on SNES back in the day. Very fun game!

@crackafreeze I wish I lived in Japan sometimes lol.

I expect Odyssey to hit 1.0M and Splatoon 1.5M in 3-4 weeks.

It did feel that XC2 was a little more "Japanese" than XCX; definitely in the humour department like when Poppi was activated.

UK sales should never be taken seriously for Nintendo.

What's next? Brazil sales? Its clear that Nintendo just doesn't have the same impact in the UK as it does in Japan or the US. It was all Sega and now for a while Sony.

Can't believe the amount Pokemon UsUm sold. What do they see in it that we don't?

@Menchi187 Having played the game for over 20 hours now without knowing the exact framerate, "unplayable" is a very big exaggeration to me. Most of the time I don't even see any stutter at all and when there is a moment of stutter, it is minor.

My XB2 launch sales prediction (100,000) was pretty much spot on.

Splatoon 2...

Right on because the Xenoblade games are pretty much the only JRPGs that I play nowadays.

@Gerbwmu
The Switch is ~800,000 units away from outselling the Wii U.

Did [NSW] Resident Evil Revelations Collection (Capcom, 11/30/17) – 6,540 (New) release for PS4?

@crackafreeze Exactly. I could then download from the Japanese eshop. I downloaded the MHXX demo from there but I know how to play that game w/o having to read anything lol.

@JJ286 Nope, both games were released separately on PS4, RE:R was ported earlier this year, and RE:R2 was originally on PS4 among other platforms back on release in 2015

@justin233 Kirby is too cute to resist.

@link3710 ok thanks. Hopefully those numbers convince Capcom.

@westman98 damn man! Switch is an amazing success while Wii U was an utter failure.

@JamesR Indeed. Everybody should tell EA to suck it up.

"Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi, the latest entry in Koei Tecmo’s tactical simulation series, debuted at 27,230 units on PlayStation 4 and 5,636 units on Switch for a total of 32,866 copies sold."

So 17% of the total were on Switch. Considering the install bases thats pretty good imo. Hopefully Koei Tecmo thinks the same.

@JJ286 Got to bear in mind that most of the Resi Evil Revelations sales will be digital, so those physical sales are not really representative. I suspect Capcom has done pretty well out of it.

Is 300k copies sold for first week Worldwide too much to ask?

@Bolt_Strike Said the guy, with a black Kyurem from Pokemon Black 2 as a profile pic, which is the same as Ultra Sun/Moon.

lil witch academia bombed, wish it was on switch... they would have sold better.

@westman98 "The Switch is ~800,000 units away from outselling the Wii U."

So depending on how big that holiday boost is, it'll outsell it next month. Talk about your epic comeback story.

Nintendo Switch being big in Japan is no surprise. Did anyone seriously expect anything different?

It was the rest of the world that I got wrong.

@Menchi187 SAYS: "It's a shame XC2 is an unplayable mess. Hopefully they patch it. 20-22fps is unacceptable."

ANSWER: XC2 is an extremely wonderful playable game and obviously your Switch has a problem. My Switch plays the game at a constant 30 fps speed.

Yep pretty much as I expected. Doomed. Can't help but feel they threw the Xbox One X out there to die though. They should have saved their money and not even launched it in Japan.

@StuTwo At this rate, it's very likely that the Switch will outsell the PS4 in Japan in 2018.

@WinkSugoi
So true. It also highlights what a total mess (business wise) the WiiU was. Nintendo losing money was unheard of.

@Cosats You must have some magical Super Switch, because the rest of the world and technical analysis say otherwise.

@Krull hope so.

@Menchi187 actually no, Digital Foundry said that in certain areas the frame rate drop but rest of game is 30fps; still with a patch it should be good like what happen with Breath of the Wild.

@Menchi187 You watch too much Digital Foundry and it ain't good for you. As you see here, there are other NintendoLife readers that tell you the same thing with me, that the gameplay is a constant 30 FPS to their Switches as well. Unless a single frame drop in a scene once every 30 hours of gameplay makes a game unplayable to you.

@Cosats Nintendo fanboys opinions aren't worth the internet bytes they use up. But hey, magic Switch is magic Switch.

@Menchi187 I am not "a fanboy opinion". I am a gamer and just happens that my job has to do with 3d modeling and video animation so I may know one or two things more than you. The game runs almost perfectly. That's the fact. I am sorry to disappoint you. This game is not an unplayable mess. Enjoy gaming at its best and don't get stucked to what Digital Foundry says all the time. Thank you.

@Cosats lmao

PS4 holiday sales are surprisingly underwhelming, as it doesn't seem to be getting much of a holiday sales boost at all. The Monster Hunter World Limited Edition bundle will helpa lot, but it seems like only the absolute biggest games (FFXV, DQXI, MHW) + their corresponding hardware bundles and hardware revisions (PS4 Slim, PS4 Pro) can boost its hardware sales substantially (but temporarily).

@Cosats I have to agree with you on people really should quit getting sucked into sites like Digital Foundry, they try to make people think if a game is not 5k ultra 90 fps then it must be an unplayable mess . Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an amazing game to play and look at and its really amazing a title like this is on a portable device loooking amd playing as brilliantly as it does, I highly recommend it. Nintendo Switch really has just had the best first year line up for a new system in history and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was the icing on cake.

@Mando44646

ive been asking myself that question for years, imagine portable nobunaga ambition or romance of the three kingdoms! even the wiiu got a version but no translation. from memory the steam version isnt translated either. very disappointing

@readyletsgo

I wouldn't say the Vita doing a little over 6K is doing well. Japan was the Vita's strongest region by far, but judging by this year's sales, the Vita's actually fading away over there now. We'll most likely start seeing the Switch overtake the Vita as the powerful portable.

This is awesome, and we should really talk about how Animal Crossing New Leaf is STILL in the top ten after what, 4 years?

I would have liked to see 3rd party titles do a little better on Switch, particularly from Koei Tecmo... their games have struggled to even chart on Switch.

Hopefully as the install base grows and more and more people buy the system, that fanbase will assimilate.

@Bolt_Strike It's Pokemon man, kids ask their parents to buy it for them, it always sells. I am firmly in the "should have been a DLC" camp, but I fully understand why it sells and judged on it's own, it was still a solid game. Had it been the only gen 7 game I'd have loved it.

@Menchi187 Haven't run into the issues you are describing. How many hours into the game are you?

@Heavyarms55
I doubt he owns the game, or a Switch itself.

@Bolt_Strike

Can't get ripped off if I skipped the originals. Been Pokemanning since Blue, so I know a thing or two about GameFreak's tactics.

Good start, hopefully North American numbers for XC 2 will also be strong. On the NA E-Shop it just surpassed Rocket League on the best seller list, and the latter had been holding the top spot for a while.

Wish RE had done a little better but there are a lot of factors in play that probably led to that poor performance and both games are a bit older now, especially the original. Hopefully Capcom's expectations for it were realistic.

@WinkSugoi
Feels like we're seeing the exact samething play out that happened with the original Wii. Not sure if the Switch will reach the 100 mil mark in the end but if nothing else at least it's showing Nintendo is still extremely relevant.

@Gamer83

I'm not making any guesses about the final sale numbers but I will say that if I were a betting woman, I wouldn't bet against the Switch matching or even surpassing the Wii. I think the key thing here that's working for the Switch vs the Wii is that its selling point isn't something that's going to lose it's appeal in a few years. People are never going to get tired of the concept of playing games on the go. The very existence of the dedicated handheld and mobile markets proves this. And now there's a system out there that at the size of a tablet is 100% travel friendly for your commute, your workplace, your friend's place, your hotel, etc. It plays both the pick up and go games and the deeper experiences you may crave once in a while. Oh, AND you can play it on your television when you feel like it because it's also a home console? The Wii's selling point demanded that you stay at home and engage with it. The Switch's selling point is that it works completely on your schedule. Flexibility and convenience. The concept is timeless.

Now how much of a success it ends up being is completely on Nintendo. I don't expect every year to have a Mario + Zelda + Splatoon + Xenoblade 1-2-3-4 punch but Wii U type years cannot happen ever again.

@electrolite77 I reckon he's probably about 14, judging by the poor quality trolling he attempts to do.

@WiltonRoots I feel like he's the last of the Mohicans, we should preserve him because all the others seem to have left!

Good job Nintendo! Gotta reload my jpn eshop funds. Want Nobunaga’s ambition.

Switch sales are of course doing extremely well but im surprised to see Xbox doing better there.