Japanese Charts: Smash Bros. Ultimate Stays In Top Spot While Switch Maintains Momentum

Well done Nintendo!

Here’s to a great 2019!

I think Animal Crossing is my most anticipated.

Have they stopped selling Xbox One (standard) in Japan now? Or did they sell 0?

That is incredible stuff.

Why do we have Japan numbers only ?
99% of the people here live or in Europe or in the States...

I'd like to have worldwide numbers too...

If we stay in Japan :
Spider-Man Voted Game of the Year by Japanese Developers as PS4 Games Dominate the Top on Famitsu.

1.Marvel’s Spider-Man
2.Monster Hunter: World
3.Detroit: Become Human
4.Red Dead Redemption 2
5.God of War
6.Octopath Traveler
7.Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
8.Fortnite
9.Conan Exiles
10.Splatoon 2

@Cobalt
If you want to talk GOTY, then it was only last year that Zelda won. And Smash Bros. will be a contender for next year. I know it's hard to give Nintendo credit. They are the worst developers ever and always ruin everything.

But I think it's unfair to put a negative spin on this particular piece of news. It's amazing that Smash Bros. has sold over 2 million in Japan alone. The Switch is also selling great. This is all good news. Literally nothing wrong with it.

@NotAceAttorney

Except that Smash Bros Bros Ultimate is at the 14th place of the top already... ^^

https://twinfinite.net/2018/12/spider-man-goty-japanese-developers/

@Cobalt My bad, I was referring to the Game Awards. I should've made that clear.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is now the best-selling retail game of the year in Japan, beating out Monster Hunter World. It has also overtaken the lifetime sales of Mario Kart 8 DX and Super Mario Odyssey in under 3 weeks, though Splatoon 2's position as the best-selling Switch game should be safe from being overtaken...for now.

Switch software sales are amazing. Smash Bros Ultimate sold more during Week 3 than in Week 2, and Super Mario Party outperformed its launch week. Other Switch evergreens continue to perform amazingly well. Dragon Quest Builders 2 did okay, though it's total launch sales are down quite a bit compared to the launch sales of the first entry.

Nintendo sure is stomping all over sony in Japan. Great numbers.

@ritouf
Smash Bros Ultimate crossed 3 million copies sold in its first 11 days in the US vs <1.7 million copies sold in its first 10 days in Japan. Japan's gotta catch up to the US before the opposite can happen 😉

Great numbers, and I'd love to see how it's doing elsewhere?

@Cobalt maybe but just maybe is because it's the only market that shares its numbers...

@Cobalt they are just reporting on the data released. They also follow U.K. charts and NPD for USA but those charts don’t give numbers like Japan does. Only where they chart and percentage sales. I would also like worldwide numbers and we get those too, but they are from Nintendo and are usually released in a press release or earnings report.

Looks like Sliggy got Spider-Man for Christmas

@Kainbrightside it’s just a little annoying. I don’t know why cobalt felt compelled to bring up a story that casts the switch in a bad light.

Coming off the Wii U I think Nintendo fans care a great deal about the market and it makes sense. For a bit there this year it seemed like the switch had lost its momentum, so this seems like good news all around. Japanese developers specifically should feel quite compelled to support the switch for years to come. I am guessing it will be more complicated for western developers still given performance differences, etc.

This year wasn’t my cup of tea with the first party titles but next year looks promising (fire emblem and Metroid, esp).

No release date DQB2 for the West?

Oh, snap.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 PS4 sold more than Switch version because only one factor....
Frame Rate per Second.
PS4 version = 60 fps
Switch version = 30 fps
If Switch version = 60 fps, it will outsold PS4 version.
SquareEnix must fix that by upcoming update to upgrade from 30 fps -> 60 fps.
Wonderful game is deserve for better frame rate.
And... I guess i will take BOTH Switch & PS4 version for Dragon Quest Builders 2. 🤓

Btw, well done Nintendo !

@Cobalt
What are you doing here ?

@Anti-Matter won’t happen. The lower frame rate is simply and reflection of the performance differences. We’ve seen this game after game (doom, etc).

@Gerald LOL! And he’s so proud of it, he has to proclaim it on a Nintendo fansite.

Great news regarding Smash and Nintendo sales in general. And 2019 looks like it will be a great year!

@Cobalt
Your negativity on this forum really is something else.

The funny thing is, with Christmass we ended up playing Smashbros 😂 now everyone in the family wants one.

Very impressive numbers by Nintendo. Can’t wait for a new direct to see what’s coming in the first part of the year.

The continuation of phenomenal sales for Switch is staggering and to be honest I picked up my Nintendo Switch at launch and I almost didn't, I really was not that impressed with it at first but the games that Nintendo's been releasing have been spectacular and Switch has a fantastic library of titles available on and it's not even two years old yet. I can say I play my Switch daily at this point and I play mine docked more than not. Nintendo have turned me into a Switch fan

Nice debut for Builders 2, which makes me very happy - the original is one of my favorite games I got on my PS4. I guess at this point it's all but confirmed that it is poised to become a semi-evergreen spinoff series.

Even at 30 fps the Switch version can't even maintain the lower framerate. It's a shame since the prequel ran at a stable 60 with minimal resolution downgrade compared to the PS4 version. Cannot blame the Japanese here to prefer the Sony one.

https://youtu.be/kSumNIzW52Q

Switch already outsold the base PS4 + PS4 Slim combined in Japan, in well under 2 years - that's incredible!

@Lando_ I don’t really see the problem, to be honest.
This game doesn’t require anywhere close to 60fps to play well.
I only played the demo, so I can’t comment on the rest of the game, but I didn’t have any complaints whatsoever with it even with the lower fps...

@Cobalt It must be because the PS4 is rubbish mate. Honestly, it's the only reason I can think of that makes any sense.

Played the demo for dq builders 2. I really like this one.

Considering just how many PS4s are out in the wild compared to the Switch, the fact that Dragon Quest builders sold only a bit better on PS4 is very interesting. And with Pokemon, Mario Party over 100k and Smash still over 400k...

And the Switch sold more than double than the rest of the list combined... WOW!

I imagine Nintendo is having quite the new years party this year!

@Cobalt if you track the figures and give away the (commercially valuable) details freely I’m sure NintendoLife will be happy to report them every week.

Unfortunately, in the absence of you personally doing that for us, Japan is the only country where this level of data is available.

I’d suggest that Japanese data is more important for us to know than, say, the UK because success in that market determines whether or not a console gets major games from Japanese developers. Success in the UK doesn’t mean too much to players in comparison.

Of course at this point the Switch is clearly a success of historic proportions and exact figures of sales don’t matter too much anymore. Even for Nintendo themselves - the people who buy a lot of games are already on the Switch train. The stragglers are less lucrative (but still worth pursuing).

@Rodan2000 he's angry because this all flies in the face of what he really wants, which is Nintendo to go 3rd party.

@Thierry Yes, very impressive indeed!

@westman98 You do realize just how much bigger the US population is right? 126 million in Japan vs 325 million in the US. So proportionally, the sales in Japan are much higher.

@maruse Okay. For me personally, it is a big deal having such high dips in framerate or resolution (the dynamic one in Wolfenstein II for instance). I find it to be distracting. :/

@Lando_ It's all about each one's preferences, I suppose.
I guess my eyesight is not sharp enough to really notice much difference so the frame rate doesn't bother me much unless it is too extreme.

I didn’t realize Smash is popular in Japan

So much for Onimusha rehash - did not even chart on Switch.

Now time to have people pretend anyone in the west cares about this in January.

@LUIGITORNADO "I didn’t realize Smash is popular in Japan"

Sarcasm or not this is why business looses out on sales. Japan sales are data to be mined and tell of how success your consoles can be and that will determine the Developers level of support. And the very fact Switch is portable makes that even more of appeal to Developers. We call all talk of graphics all day long but if you can't take it with you on the go that has little value since everyone is mobility now and then come back to Dock at home and keep gaming. This true INNOVATION design and why the Switch will keep on selling against the naysayers.

@Agramonte that’s... all you can say? Wow.

@Heavyarms55
I never understand why people use population to judge market potential. I mean, Europe has 2× the population of the US, but Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft arent selling 2× more hardware in Europe compared to the US. China and India have populations that each top 1 billion, but the console markets in those regions have always been miniscule even prior to the introduction of government legislation in the former.

@Captain_EO
Switch had a massive holiday, so the only way to make it look bad is to find an irrelevant game (that for some reason actually got a retail release) and imply that its inability to top the charts in a hyper-competitive sales week must spell doom for Nintendo.

@Captain_EO What exactly is there left?... That Smash is #1?. As obvious as Red2 would be #1 in the west. Or that Builders did better on PS4? It has more systems, so irrelevant.

you could beat the dead horse that is "Super Neptunia RPG" but what basically looked like a Mobile game for ￥7,749 - so failing is not really worth mentioning.

@SwitchForce "Japan sales are data to be mined and tell of how success your consoles can be and that will determine the Developers level of support."

I don't know what you're trying to say here.

Try again.

@LUIGITORNADO typical reply when data is used they dismiss if it doesn't go with their mindset track. But don't worry Nintendo isn't worry and neither are it's buyers.

Has Smash always been this popular in Japan? Good lord, I didn't think any exclusive would give Splatoon a run for the money over there but it's closing in fast.

Let's Go should be passing USM within the next couple of months. SMP got a big boost and DQB2 sold just a little below the PS4 version despite Switch owners having more choices to play. Fantastic news all around.

@SwitchForce I have no idea what you're suggesting.

Are we talking about hardware in Japan as a test market for the rest of the world?

Because if your OPINION was steeped in facts the Xbox wouldn't have a market share around the globe.

Honestly. It's hard to take you seriously when your posts are riddled with typos and grammar mistakes. I can deal with a few incomplete sentences, but not incoherent blather.

Gotta love when people say "Japan charts don't matter" or some similar nonsense. Try telling that to Sony, a Japanese company. 😒
And I know, these people are just saying this just because their PlayStation just got outsold by the Switch in Japan and Smash and Pokemon have been killing it, but it's still ridiculous to say Japan is irrelevant.

@Cobalt I've never seen more insecure fans in my life than the Playstation fans. It's not enough that Sony does well, oh no. They have to dominate and crush everything (which isn't happening). I don't know what people like you will do if the Switch does end up outselling the PS4. Don't let it bother you, who cares who sales the most! Nintendo is my favorite, they don't have to sell the most to be my favorite. Why do some of you Sony fans get so insecure over another system's success? Geez, get over it.

@KryptoniteKrunch bingo! How about all markets matter. He comes on here to troll, so I just don't get it.

@Agramonte Smash is no 1 in the US right now.

@michellelynn0976 "they don't have to sell the most to be my favorite. Why do some of you Sony fans get so insecure over another system's success? Geez, get over it."
This is why they are so insecure that a under powered Switch can sell better. That's what they can't admit to-the Switch is doing this all under powered(they say) and still bringing on new developers and brand name developers. That in itself tells something about the Switch the others forgot.

@LUIGITORNADO just like I said when the Switch won't fit their narrative time to dismiss anyone saying anything otherwise. But if the Trolling days every work out tell the rest of us ok.

@SwitchForce You hit the nail on the head. I love the Switch not for the power, but for the games. We should all just be happy to play our games and enjoy them. The Switch is a powerhouse of a success for Nintendo and this only helps the video game industry. Great comment.

the switch's uniqueness is what selling systems. the games also

@SwitchForce you’re dellusional.

My original comment wasn’t sarcasm or trolling.

You just went into attack mode for no reason.

But thanks for answering my questions. Never change.

@KryptoniteKrunch well if you look at Sony's last decisions you indeed get the impression that japan does not matter to them.

@Kainbrightside well
The more Consoles they sell, the more 3rd party we will get since they will have more selling potential