Japanese Charts: Yo-Kai Watch 4 Takes Number One Despite Lower-Than-Usual Series Sales

I hope YW4 get localized and more expeditiously than YW3. Looks really fun.

Switch still killing it. 9 of the top 10. Impressive.

YW4 has been great since importing it last week. My kids and I are enjoying it immensely and it’s still littered with that remarkable Level-5 charm as the first 3 (7) titles were.
The battle system is so much better compared to the first, a boon for any of the naysayers of the 3DS titles whom griped about the mechanics. News is that Level-5 will be hosting a panel at Anime Expo next month, so here’s hoping we get localization news

I think gameplay looks so much better than previous instalments. The graphics are quite charming too. I would import this in a heartbeat if i could understand Japanese.

really looking forward to trying this.

Waiting on Yokai Watch 4 localization. Snack World is announced to be coming west, so it's a start. But they are SOOOO slow bringing titles to the west.

Also, Idk what's up with the JP Switch market. Seems only 1st party titles sell well there. 3rd party titles not as well as you'd expect. Whereas in the west 3rd party titles on Switch are doing incredible.

Well, that is lower. It also didn't help sell any Switch (Everyone waiting for MM2 I guess)

"Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki managed an impressive 333,240 sales when it first launched in 2016"

In 2016 the 3DS had like 22million install base in Japan I think, and 3DS games sold at a lower price.

Japan is Basically the inverse of Western charts (Mars and Venus). Every 3rd party (and Indie) developer would go bankrupt if not for us 😅

Please please pleeeeease localize it!!!

This might be the game I start the series with. (Or I may cave and buy 3 digital.)

At this point, a swift localization seems even more likely. They need to make up for missed Japanese sales. At the very least, I hope this is the case - the game looks really excellent and I'd love to get the chance to try it out.

Please Localize It and please dont make it take ages.

@Agramonte it may be the start of a 3k yen e-shop voucher Switch bundle that goes live this week, and has been promoted for a week or two, skewed any Yo-kai HW number bump somewhat but even taking that into account it didn't move the needle much.

@toffeecrit Yeah, I forgot about the voucher also.

Install base, price, relative age profiles of console owners - these are all good reasons why the last Yokai Watch on 3DS sold so much better than the latest release on Switch. And 150,000, while disappointing, isn't disastrous. Doraemon would kill for 150,000 sales...

I think this game will sell much less than the previous ones in Japan, but much more in the West lol. So BRING IT OVER already!

graphics wise it looks really good

@Agramonte There seem to be Switch shortages in Japan right now.

I imagine it is because they’ll be rolling out the new models soon.

YOKAI WATCH 4 IS OUT!?!?!? I haven't seen any news about this game at all since the 10 minutes of gameplay/story cutscene trailer. I hope this gets localized far sooner than other Yokai Watch games.

Terrible Yokai Watch 4 launch sales. All of the Yokai Watch Busters titles sold better at launch, let alone Yokai Watch 2 and 3.

It's sad to see the only legitimate Pokemon competitor die out like this. Looks like Gamefreak/TPC will remain winning...

Localization please. This game looks gorgeous and fun. This is how you get a game from 3DS to Switch, keeping the essence and charm of the ones before but evolving everything else. Hope it sells more in the coming weeks, this game really deserves it.

Remember that the switch and Japan are much more suited for online purchases now than in the 3ds era, and when YW3 lunched, the 3ds install base in Japan was 3 times larger

I wonder how much this list will change with added digital sales

lmaoo i didn't see one article of y'all talking about all the flaws of the garbage that pokemon sword and shield is despite all the hate it's being getting. but god forbid yokai watch 4 sells a little less than it's previous titles and y'all don't miss to point it out. i smell bs.

Ok just checked, and YC4 is second place is second place in the Eshop in Japan after Cadence of hyrule, despite YC having a 10% discount

I am not sure if that’s means that YC is underperforming or if COH is selling just that amazingly

For the Xbox One X to beat the PS Vita in Japan is a great once in a life time achievement.

I've been playing it. YW4 is great.
Sales do look disappointing though. I wonder how much they were expecting.

@Nintendrone
As a huge fan of the franchise, even I can see this is a LOT more than 'a bit less'.
It's one-fifth of the sales of YW3 opened with.

The lower sales don't surprise me. The series isn't as popular as it used to be. At least not among my students. It was as big as Pokemon and Dragon Ball when I first came here but now it's kinda dwindled down to "just another anime". Popular among a select few kids and that is it.

Level 5 hasn't been doing very well lately. But most of it can be blamed on their inconsistent strategy. Yokai Watch Dark Side hasn't received the success they hoped for.

>"Low Sales"

>Still 3 times bigger sales that the first game in its first week.

Do westerners just have some dumb delusion that a game HAS to break 1 million in week 1 to "not be dead and be a success"? Cuz that would certainly be a very silly way of thinking given Zelda BOTW didn't exactly sell much better week 1 compared to this and THAT was a worldwide release. Yet you certainly don't see people clamoring to call Zelda a dying franchise.

Watch the free DLC act as free advertising. Won't be remotely surprising when sales make a big jump when the 6th movie comes out and the free DLC that ties into it releases.

Looking forward to getting my bois Urnfulfilled, Putasockinit, Hoppy Go Lucky, Blownhistoppa, Mermother, Azure Dragon, Draaagin, Beetler, Quagmira, Shakey, Snitchin, Tut'n'K'mon, Cocobanana, Chymera and all my favorites coming back once their free DLC gets released. Sure is nice I'll get to have every monster in the series in a single game without having to pay extra.

@Vectorman Japan. I live and work in Japan. I'm from the US originally though.

@Vectorman Probably because the head CEO of Level-5 Akihiro Hino made it pretty clear on release during a stream all Yo-Kai would be returning in future free DLC.

@Heavyarms55
You should probably stop using the small sample size of a single classroom as a reference point then. YKW4 was the top preordered game on Amazon Japan. I don't even live in Japan and even I could look that up.

@ZionWario I will stick to real world experiences but you do you.

@Heavyarms55 I'l stick to statistics and facts based on a far larger scale of the said real world experiences as opposed to going off an an extremely limited and narrow visioned scope of data but you do you as well.

So nothing exciting then this week.