Japanese Charts: Astral Chain Just Misses Out On Number One As Switch Sales Soar

huge hardware sales! likely to do even better when the lite gets launched.

Astral Chain is, together with FE: Three Houses, my GOTY so far.

looks up what Azur Lane: Crosswave is

Lol at those PS4 figures - gonna get outsold by XB1 some week soon...

Why aren't Platinum's games that popular in Japan?

@AlphaElite Chinese mobile game gone 3D on PS4. Looked at a trailer, it felt like something Japan would enjoy, LOL.

What a fiasco!. Azur? And that is with the extra Million install base on Switch. So much for Japan having better taste in games than the UK this week 😉

NieR: Automata (Square Enix, 02/23/17) – 198,542 🙄

It didn't even do Vanquish numbers.

Well can't go wrong with busty anime girls...( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

There are rumors that Astral Chain was out of stock in Japan. Next week we will see better numbers normally.

A Compile Heart game taking the top spot is just sad.

Hope that Astral Chain does well enough. Amazing game, deserves success.

And wow at those Switch numbers.

I still find myself in awe of the Switch’s continued sales momentum. It was just a couple years ago when we’d find ourselves saying the Wii U had a “good week” when it would sell over 5,000 units.

I think this game is probably selling more from then eShop.

In Japan the physical copy is ¥8,000 while you can get the download for ¥4,900 with the Nintendo online coupons.

That's how I got my copy.

I'm curious to see hardware numbers for the Switch Lite once that launches. Japan loves its handhelds, and I can see a lot of parents and budgeters getting drawn in by the lower price point.

Oh god, Manga Girls game beat Astral Chain? that will drop out by next week.

dang, switch selling 9x of PS4

what is with the negativity? the game doesn't have to be so good in Japan, it can't do good anywhere else. Just because it is number one in certain regions, doesn't mean it will be number one everywhere.. Why don't you look at the final numbers, then make your judgement.

Kind of strange that both FE and astral chain don't sell lots in japan

any numbers for astral chain in the west.

Looks like the better battery life Switch had a decent amount of hype behind it.

Anyways...
> Astral Chain retail price: ¥8,600
> NSO Voucher price: ¥10,000
Unless you are slavishly dedicated to buying games at retail, you probably bought Astral Chain digitally in Japan.

Lol, even with a larger install base, it lost to a title i haven't evergreen heard about before now. XD

Cya
Raziel-chan

@Agramonte
If you include digital sales then Astral Chain could have very well surpassed Vanquish numbers.

It was obvious that it's would never touch Nier Automata or Metal Gear Rising launch numbers.

@westman98 You provide some of the best comments on here. Keep up the good work!

I think digital sales will be higher for Astral Chain. It was a little on the expensive side in Japan.

Those are quite bad sales for Astral Chain's first week. Especially given that it's incredibly japanese in its style.

Astral chain was first place by a huge margin if it was to release on the 29th instead of the 30th

This game that took number one is.... weird
The software sales doesn’t really reflect the hardware sales which is odd.... were is Zelda BOTW and Mario odyssey?!

Did anyone see how #2 -#10 are all occupied by Switch? That's kinda funny.

At least Astral Chain is getting the attention it deserves. The game is seriously incredible, and that soundtrack is a banger.

Huh, I expected FE to be doing better in Japan, though as someone mentioned these numbers may just be physical carts which were sold

Wow, Japan really do love fishing. It always perplexed me that every open world game had fishing in it but there we go, they buy dedicated fishing sims too.

Okay, I may be a Nintendo fanboy and focused on Nintendo only, but I’ve never even heard of that no. 1.
While Astral Chain was all I’ve seen on social media the past few weeks..

@puddinggirl kind of regular for the switch to have 8-10 games out of the top 10

This might be off topic but has anyone played the Dragon quest demo and found the music really annoying? Does it get any better? Even at night it's the same stupid band playing on loop over and over. Really putting me off buying it

Well if this doesn't prove the poor taste in gaming in Japan I don't know what will

@Varkster #1 doesn't make sense. Well, ok, it does. Everything else was pretty predictable, IMO.

@talocaca ¥8,000 ?!? That's nuts!

@gcunit Lots of PS fans hate you now. But they should look on the bright side....it's at least selling 1/9 as well as Switch! That's something!

In other news, XBox just barely outsold Vita. HYPE!

Prediction: Pokemon Sword and Shield will sell more in the first week than Let’s Go has done so far. Is that realistic?

Also, is 30,000-ish copies any good for a third-party Switch title? It’s not that impressive, but it actually seems about par. How many have topped that? Octopath and the baseball games, I guess, but not many others. Just wondering if Platinum will make any money.

If Azure Lane Crosswave received a 0/10 review I'd think it's plausible, unlike Astral Chain which I wouldn't believe any review under 7/10. Of course I haven't played Azur, just viewed a trailer with gameplay...

...Don't know why people are acting like Astral Chain did poorly. I would think 30,000+ for a new Platinum IP is pretty good.

Well ... Still kinda sad to see Azur Lane first I guess. But sales for Astral Chain are still really good, and that's a good sign. I'm glad that the game is selling, it's a really great game, one of the best on the console imho.

I still think it's very stupid to talk about "bad taste" about Japan. It's true that this kind of garbage seems to sell very easily, but don't forget that here too, there's a lot of garbage that sells too easily too, like Call of Duty that looks like the last one, AAAs that openly don't care about players, EA and Activision games too, in short you see the trick.
It's just a different market with different tastes, but like in our country, trash stuff sells best, it's just not the same trash.

If Nintendo had shipped more copies out, it would've sold more.

A PS4 exclusive outsold a Switch exclusive? Time to review bomb the PS4 exclusive

Well...or I could just play more awesome Astral Chain...I'll just do that.

There are several things to take into account to understand those (not bad at all) numbers.

1. Astral Chain is a new IP and, in gaming, Japanese don’t usually get hyped for new stuff until they’re completely sure they’re going to like it.

2. Astral Chain has shortages problems. Obviously PlatinumGames thought it was going to sell less than it did.

3. Astral Chain is one of the most expensive Switch games right now and using the Voucher can be bought for almost half the price. I’m pretty sure that a huge amount of people bought the game digital. Last time I checked it was number 1 on the eShop charts.

I bought the game physical because I buy all my games that way (and because it can be resold someday) but I actually lost money by going physical instead of digital... The voucher in Japan gives huge savings.

Poor PSVita. At least it can drown its sorrows with Xbox.

Those XBONE sales are lower than my self esteem!