The beginning of a new year is always a good time to take stock of what's happened in the previous 12 months, and Japanese publication Famitsu has done just that in publishing a report which sums up the state of the Japanese video game market in 2020.
The headline stats show that the market generated 376.38 billion yen, a 12.5% jump on 2019. Hardware sales were 185.66 billion yen, while software sales generated 181.72 billion yen.
Breaking down the figures a little more reveals that the Switch (along with the Switch Lite) was Japan's biggest-selling console in 2020, shifting 5,957,943 million units – an impressive amount when you consider the console was in such high demand for most of the year that stock shortages were commonplace.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that Nintendo’s system has outsold its rivals in the region. Amazingly, Japanese Switch hardware sales were 1.3 times more in 2020 compared to the previous year. Lifetime Japanese sales for the Switch (and Switch Lite) now total 17,340,374.
Nintendo's other console, the 3DS, only sold 62,761 units in Japan in 2020, but that was still enough to outperform both the Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox One in the same time period. Not bad for a dead console, eh?
In terms of software, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was Japan's best-selling game in 2020, shifting 6,378,103 copies. The rest of the top ten games is made up of Switch titles, with the exception of Final Fantasy VII Remake, which managed to shift 949,379 copies last year.
Japanese Hardware Sales 2020
- Switch (including Switch Lite) – 5,956,943 / 17,340,374
- PlayStation 4 (including PS4 Pro) – 542,647 / 9,290,890
- PlayStation 5 (including PS5 Digital Edition) – 255,150 / NEW
- 3DS (including all variations) – 62,761 / 24,558,908
- Xbox Series X/S – 31,424 / NEW
- Xbox One (including X/S) – 3,585 / 114,831
Japanese Software Sales 2020
1. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 6,378,103 / NEW
2. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure – 1,591,366 / 2,087,005
3. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa Heisei Reiwa mo Teiban! – 1,233,023 / NEW
4. [PS4] Final Fantasy VII Remake – 949,379 / NEW
5. [NSW] Pokemon Sword/Shield – 892,456 / 3,880,590
6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 798,174 / 3,457,183
7. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 560,122 / 4,013,174
8. [NSW] Minecraft – 556,982 / 1,702,921
9. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics – 519,649 / NEW
10. [NSW] Super Mario 3D All-Stars – 492,620 / NEW
[source famitsu.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 31
Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Especially after the significant stock shortages that they suffered for a while.
The Switch is pretty much a beast worldwide, but dominates Japan.
They destroyed the video game market but kind of made sense because japan is Nintendo's home but this makes sense because of the shortages and it continued through the year.
@EngineerMario,
What?
Ok I gotta get the new momotaro dentetsu.
Animal crossing new horizons lifetime figure is insane, no matter which way you look at it, the game only came out in March 2020.
@johnvboy
What do you mean What?
@EngineerMario Yeah, not like there are any other Japanese video game companies. 😆
None that start with S for example.
Im surprised by how many bought ring fit
@EngineerMario he means, there is no punctuation, so therefore the sentence does not make sense
The only really surprising thing here to me is FFVIIR not breaking 1 million.
@EngineerMario,
They destroyed the video game market?.
@johnvboy
oh I meant that the switch did super good not it destroyed the video game market its figurative language
@johnvboy Think he means "destroyed" as in "kicked butt", "dominated", "cleaned up", etc. rather than literally "destroyed" as in "ruined".
@johnvboy "Destroyed" as in "owned" or "dominated". Not as in actually destroyed and/or ruined.
@BenAV Good reminder. People will talk about PS5 shortages now with good reason, but the Switch had a lot of shortages throughout the Spring and Summer as well where retailers were sold out and not restocked for months. Impressive numbers, especially when reminded of that.
@EngineerMario,
I get it now.
@Yas,
I think that's what he meant to say.
@HeyItsFlapjack,
Understood.
There is a rational explanation for this.
Kid: "Mom I want the new gen console!"
Mom at the video game shop: "Hi, I'd like to buy the newest Nintendo for my kid"
Look at Ring Fit still going strong...I should look back at some of the hot takes when this was first announced, there was a few. All the graphics and power in the world and Japan chose a rubber band.
I wonder what the switch global lifetime sales are at now the Xmas numbers Q3 are in.
I think it was 68m at end of Q2? (Sept)
This is bad for Square-Enix. The original FF7 sold much more than that and very probably had a lower development budget. Not sure how the next parts will perform after the bad word of mouth of the first part.
IF Sony only has FF series going for it that is really truly sad here. It takes more then just the game to get market share and if you can't innovate and expand your games listing that will only spell Eternal Doom for you.
I used to think I knew what 'doomed' meant. Now, I'm not so sure hahaha.
@GrailUK Oh they're still doomed...
@WiltonRoots We all are, mate. We all are.
5.96 million units sold in a single year is the 3rd biggest year ever for any game system ever in Japan. Only the NDS managed to sell more back in 2006 and 2007 with 8.36 million and 7.17 million units sold respectively.
Switch sales in 2021 should decline compared to its sales in 2020, but it should still be able to sell more than it did in 2019.
@GrailUK That reminds me I need to upload a 2021 bingo card.
The Series X is doing better than I thought. It made five digits in a two-month period, which is practically a milestone as far as XBOX goes in Japan.
Yeap the pandemic had nothing on Nintendo, soon the Switch will beat the Wii's sale numbers.
Tap here to load 31 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...