As has been the case for a while now, Nintendo dominated the Japanese gaming charts once again last week, taking every single top-ten spot and securing 17 of the top 20 chart positions.
Last week was Obon in Japan, a traditional custom that has become a major holiday in the region, so no new games were released into the market. That doesn't mean that the chart didn't see several shifts in position, however, with Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition taking the glory this time around.
Here's a look at the top 20 (first numbers are this week's sales, followed by total sales in brackets):
1) [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 25,948 (212,170)
2) [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 24,188 (2,556,846)
3) [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! (Bandai Namco, 07/19/18) – 21,109 (162,020)
4) [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 20,346 (1,708,892)
5) [3DS] WarioWare Gold (Nintendo, 08/02/18) – 20,142 (70,344)
6) [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces (Nintendo, 06/22/18) – 18,520 (315,658)
7) [NSW] Pro Yakyuu Famista Evolution (Bandai Namco, 08/02/18) – 13,259 (71,776)
8) [NSW] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo, 07/13/18) – 12,111 (102,235)
9) [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 9,682 (1,084,321)
10) [NSW] Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 8,707 (596,203)
11) [3DS] Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (The Pokemon Company, 11/17/17) – 8,447 (1,703,711)
12) [NSW] Octopath Traveler (Square Enix, 07/13/18) – 8,002 (183,627)
13) [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 7,006 (1,795,879)
14) [PS4] Yakuza 3 (Sega, 08/09/18) – 6,753 (32,800)
15) [3DS] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo, 07/13/18) – 5,766 (39,742)
16) [NSW] Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires’ Conspiracy DX (Level-5, 08/09/18) – 5,101 (14,805)
17) [NSW] Okami HD (Limited Edition Included) (Capcom, 08/09/18) – 4,758 (18,848)
18) [NSW] Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit (Nintendo, 04/20/18) – 4,703 (222,514)
19) [PS4] Jikkyou Pro Powerful Yakyuu 2018 (Konami, 04/26/18) – 3,449 (227,851)
20) [PS4] Fire Pro Wrestling World (Limited Edition Included) (Spike Chunsoft, 08/09/18) – 3,326 (23,544)
Things are still looking pretty great on the hardware front, too, with Switch leading the charge once again and improving on the previous week's sales. Here are this week's figures, with last week's in brackets.
1) Switch – 54,647 (50,143)
2) PlayStation 4 – 20,911 (16,982)
3) New 2DS LL – 7,872 (7,628)
4) PlayStation 4 Pro – 4,932 (5,044)
5) New 3DS LL – 3,316 (2,784)
6) PlayStation Vita – 3,083 (3,507)
7) 2DS – 708 (498)
8) Xbox One – 51 (31)
9) Xbox One X – 45 (43)
< Last week's charts
Any surprises this time around? Are you happy to see the Switch take all ten of the top chart positions? Let us know with a comment below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 55
First the top 10, next the top 20, and after that... THE WORLD!!!
That's some dedication!
Smashed it!
I'm genuinely curious as to what the japanese are building in Minecraft.
Don't think I've ever visited a Japanese server.
Doomed
Looks like Mario Kart is eventually going to overtake Odyssey - Cappy needs to chuck out a banana or something.
Salesbowl grand slam!!!
@Pod 80% Giant phallic objects. Just like NA
@Krull Mario Kart overtakes everything.
Am i dreaming ?
Nintendo Switch games dominated on Top 20 ?!
PS4 just Prrrrrt.... 😝
@roboshort Apart from Splatoon 2 that is. That game seems unstoppable in Japan!
@DockEllisD Ah, apologies. Pro Yakyuu Famista Climax was the 3DS entry, whereas 'Evolution' is the one on Switch. We've changed this now. 😊
The big news here is actually that Microsoft are topping the charts in Japan! 😂
Japan was late on the Minecraft bandwagon because PC gaming in Japan is smaller than in many other countries. Largerly because dedicated personal computers are simply less popular. Many people in Japan went straight from no PC to a smartphone or tablet and their gaming was based on consoles. Not to say there aren't PC gamers or people don't own PCs here, it's just as ubiquitous as it is elsewhere.
Anyway, Nintendoomed, time for share prices to fall again.
@Clayman most kids don't know or care, it's just another game on their Switch.
Wow, Japan just isn’t Microsoft’s forte
It would be a crime if Kirby Star Allies ended up selling more than Breath of the Wild.
There are as many 3DS titles as PS4 titles in the charts
Every so often I like to take a moment to appreciate how different things are now. Do you all remember when it was a “great week” when the Wii U managed to sell console figures over 5,000 in Japan? Things certainly have changed.
@ryancraddock Would you please clarify the sales numbers for the Xbox One? "Xbox One – 51 1(31)"?
Dang, and all but 3 spots in the top 20. That is pretty crazy.
Switch evergreens are doing great! With SSBU and Pokemon Let's Go we could have a Switch top 10 soon!
Well done, 96 people in all Japan that bought an XBox this week, you rebels, you! So if a Westerner who buys Japanese things just because they're Japanese are "otakus" and "weebs", I wonder what the Japanese word is for people who buy Western things just because they're Western?
@chiefeagle02 IIRC the number in parenthesis is last week's numbers. XBox sales are up almost 30% this week! 22 more units sold........
@Alpha008 What do you mean? Microsoft took the #1 spot on the software charts!
@Palom Sega is launching the Nintendo Switch version of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy in Japan this October.
the land of the rising Switch
Btw, in my opinion, Portal Knights is MUCH Better than Minecraft in term of Aestethic aspect.
Minecraft = 100% Blocky
Portal Knights = Only Ground / Wall are Blocky. The other things are NOT Blocky (Trees, Bushes, Furnitures, Characters, etc)
Let we compare, shall we ?
Portal Knights
Portal Knights just need More LOVE from Japanese audiences.
That game is Kawaii enough for Japanese gamers.
@Andrew5678 NARF!
Notice the top 3DS game.
It is the same one for which its poor sales last "month" in US (two days in NPD) were being lamented.
@ricklongo @Alpha008 haha yeah I was about to say the same thing.
Minecraft is #1.
@Yosheel
Funny.
Portal Knights is my Numero Uno on my Switch.
190+ hours playing.
I want Pro Yakyuu Famista Evolution to come to america so bad. We need an awesome switch baseball game and this looks soooooo good!
@NEStalgia At that low a number, it's probably just the hardcore collectors that own a Switch and PS4 already. Though I'm sure a few could be whatever Japan's version of a western-weeb. I wouldn't be surprised if half of those systems never end up being used. Lol
Now that’s a dominant position.
@Regpuppy I figure 90% of the XBoxes sold in Japan are sold to Westerners living in Japan. And even most of those won't buy them, apparently.
Shame, it really is a good machine.... XBox is the new WiiU confirmed.
"Minecraft is dead"
I imagine the whole reworking of the game has something to do with it. I had no interest in minecraft after playing it years ago. I have it on my switch for my nephew but I almost feel compelled to play it again.
@Anti-Matter Admittedly, Portal Knights not doing that well might be the developer's fault for not advertising properly, maybe? Honestly I've never even heard of the game until you mentioned it here and I visit Nintendo websites pretty much daily. Do you think they could've done a better job on making people more aware on their game? You probably know better considering how much time you've put into the game and all.
hello my name is johnny lee from osaka. does any fellow japanese wanna play on xbox live?
hello..... helllooooooooo , is there anybody outhere!!!
his voice echos through a void
btw, is it strange that the switch outsells the ps4, in mind most gamers all around the world already own one.
24.000 units is still impressive 4 years after release, with more then 80 million sold.
nevertheless,still great to hear and see nintendo is doing great:) its becoming more and more popular in my country to, wich is no nintendo region for almost 24 years.
@chiefeagle02 The base Xbox One sold 51 copies. It looks like Gematsu (which is where NLife got their data from) made a typo when they got the data from 4Gamer.net. Here's the link to the 4Gamer site:
https://www.4gamer.net/games/117/G011794/20180822094/
Answering the question, no, no surprises here. Japan is very Nintendo. Only a few PS4 games can compete with Nintendo over there and they go crazy about Pokémon and Dragon Quest.
It's nice to see Microsoft and Nintendo cooperative effort on top.
@Yosher
Well, about Portal Knights, you better check on Youtube about Creative Mode.
You will like it a lot.
Man, it doing this well with no new games either. Smash and Pokemon are going to be huge.
I'm genuinely curious if Microsoft will again dump money into launching their XB1 successor in Japan, or if they'll finally cut their losses in the region. They can't be making money shipping that low of numbers, right?
@link3710 If they stopped distribution there they'd better ditch everything including the Surface line so they don't have to pay taxes and distribution there for anything. Probably, just selling the hardware and digital software would still make sense if they also sell other devices there.
@BlueOcean It's not just distribution. Presumably, there's at least some level of marketing involved, japanese support in games, making regional variants of all the packaging, the Japanese rating board, and if I recall correctly they can't even publish their own games in Japan because they aren't a Japanese company so they're likely working with a partner on that.
"Nintendo Grabbed Every Top Ten Spot In Japanese Charts Last Week, Minecraft On Top"
No they didn't. Last I chacked Minecraft is published by Microsoft. And there are a few Namco games in there, too. Did Sony "grab" 14th spot? No, it's a Sega game.
Yes, Nintendo's consoles are doing extremely well, but this is a software top 20.
@link3710 Not sure if they spend money on marketing there but you are right about Japanese translations, although they are probably not that expensive these days with more people talking English and Japanese than in the past. The different packaging wouldn't be an issue if it's basically the same as everywhere else but apparently it wouldn't make sense to distribute physical games in there because of the added distribution costs.
Digital distribution and Gold/Game Pass is where Xbox makes more money so I assume selling consoles there makes sense to them even if they don't earn any money with hardware sales, like in most countries.
@RainbowGazelle Correct, the right headline would have been Switch grabbed every top 10, because it's the console, not the publisher or the developer that did that.
@BlueOcean Technically 3DS got 5th. 😁
But yeah, I agree.
@Anti-Matter While that trailer does make the game look good, and I do like what I see there, that's not what I asked. I asked whether or not you think they could've done a better job making people aware of it, because in my case, despite frequently visiting Nintendo websites, I had not heard of this game prior to you mentioning it here.
@Yosher
Keen Games as Portal Knights developer has released the newest update for Steam & Mobile version first while keep working the update for console version.
They had advertised their games so hard, there were some Youtubers played Portal Knights and showed their creativities.
But alas.... looks like most peoples still fond with the Blockiness of Minecraft rather than the smoothness on Portal Knights.
I think i knew what makes Minecraft > Dragon Quest Builder > Portal Knights.
Minecraft is still popular due the Blockiness, for some reasons was matched with kids interest and that's why Minecraft was become a role model of a new game on that time.
When there were some new games adapted Minecraft style, some peoples still were not really fond with the clones, despite the clones offered better features.
For Dragon Quest Builder, i think Japanese audiences got more attention for DQB rather than Portal Knights due to Akira Toriyama art style.
Japanese audiences will care a lot Akira Toriyama's art style games rather than Generic looking characters which hardly sold for Japanese peoples.
Portal Knights in my opinion was like Hidden Gem. Portal Knights offered better features than Minecraft / Dragon Quest Builder but the generic looking of characters was turned off some peoples to buy Portal Knights.
Well, at least i still care a lot about Portal Knights, unlike most peoples care a lot about Minecraft. I didn't follow popularity that didn't matched with my feeling. Sometimes, being Underdog offered alternative great satisfaction.
And for my honest opinion, i like Portal Knights better than Minecraft because..... Portal Knights is NOT All Blocky, unlike Minecraft (Everything is Blocky Cubes). Portal Knights characters are much like My Sims (EA) characters, from their cute proportion and their similar gibberish.
Portal Knights looked so cute with Additional animals as Pets, i can say Portal Knights looked 1000x better than Minecraft by logic.
But alas.... some people thought the Blockiness and the Ugly looking from 100% Blocky cubes / Pixels are more beautiful than the smoothness from Portal Knights.
Ah.... people nowadays... don't understand what it called something Beautiful.
Xbox One is climbing
@Anti-Matter
I see the charm in Portal Knights, though I'm not a fan of how the blocky vs un-blocky parts makes for a disparate art style, and both the lighting and water effects are poor choices in my eyes.
Minecraft is not without its art style inconsistencies though, and they've certainly been making it uglier and uglier since Microsoft bought it, if you ask me.
Alright, that's enough of me being condescending towards everything.
@FlimFlam @NEStalgia Thank you both!
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