Japan's 35 Best-Selling Switch Games In The First Four Years, According To Famitsu

Genuinely surprised that BotW sold 1.7 million. I thought it would be closer to the top of the list if I'm honest

Ring Fit Adventure is a monster! But I‘m not surprised, it‘s a JRPG.

The numbers are even more impressive if we consider that they are only the physical copies. In the case of some games, such as Fire Emblem: Three Houses, digital downloads accounted for about 1/3 of total sales.

@fox_mattcloud zelda has never been popular in japan. The fact that botw sold that many copies MashAllah is actually a huge feat! Here's to them breaking franchise records in japan some more!

Surprised by Link’s Awakening being so... low? Is that low? I’m not too familiar with Japan sales figures but just doesn’t seem much at all to me

@X-blades ah you basically answered my question too!

Animal Crossing has almost passed Super Mario Bros lifetime sales. After that only Pokemon green/red and pokemon yellow/silver have sold more. But technically those are two games, so....

@kaiofelipe are you sure these numbers are without digital sales?

Proud to say I've played 25 of those games and have all been brilliant

On a side note, whilst at first I was disappointed with BoTW sales, but this is just switch sales as it also sold on the wiiU which I I'd guess would top its total sales in Japan to over 2 million

@Friendly Yes, they are without digital

For example, FE3H is around 650k total, it was a voucher game so famitsu doesn't track it

@fox_mattcloud this is just switch sales, BoTW released on wiiU aswell which probably sold around a million atleast I'd guess

@UltimateOtaku91 Japan is not big on Zelda + no digital figures.

1.7m is stupidly impressive

@Primarina which monster hunter?

@Primarina MHGU was not a great seller in Japan due to the fact it had already had a 3DS release. It’s also the type of game that takes a lot of effort to play so you rarely double dip and start over.
MHR tho will sell well as it will be the first outing worldwide. It could do as well as any title in the top 5.

Only 8/35 of those are in my collection!

Real shame about Luigi mansion 3, FE3H as thought these would do better!
They are definitely in my top 10

Shouldn't be surprised at how many of those games are just by Nintendo

It would have been good to specify the console base in Japan in the article

I thought Fire Emblem was more popular than that in Japan.

@fox_mattcloud IKR? Zelda is #11? Looks like the "land of the rising sun" is more like "land of the filthy casuals..."

Of course, I'd be afraid to see what the top selling games in the US were...I'd probably have to eat my words!

Super Mario Party sold more than BotW in Japan? I know that the Zelda-series isn't as big in Japan as it is in the west but still, that's a shame

Where is Yoshi?! Did I miss it on the list?

Good to see Yokai Watch 4 made the list even if only just scraped in. Would love to see a western release

ARMS on 25th position. 😣
Need more love about Cartoonish Boxing games.

No Xenoblade?! That's surprising..

@Justifier Exactly...

I'd like to see eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2020 get an English localization.

@X-blades jesus christ, what in the name of god has religion to do with that omg? or what does „mashallah“ mean?

@lovesushi it just means god's blessing. Like I'm grateful it's doing well is all:)

Just a means of expressing gratitude is all

I'm surprised Dragon Quest XI S was so low. I guess everyone already bought it on PS4?

@fox_mattcloud @X-blades
How many WiiU copies of BOTW were sold in Japan?

To me, the most surprising thing is 1-2 Switch over many great titles.

@MarioBrickLayer 1.7 million, world wide, was the only figure I could find. That's as of Dec. '19 too. For switch: 16 million as of 1/20

@MarioBrickLayer couldn't find the japan only wii u numbers but by doing a proportional analysis we can get a pretty good idea of it.
So botw on switch has sold roughly 21.45M of that japan holds 1.78. so about 8% of all units sold are in japan. Now the Wii u world wide numbers sit at 1.69 M. So 1.69 * 8.25% = ~140k

@Kanbei exactly, that was super surprising to me as well!
But as you said, there was the PS4 version on sale for 2 years prior to the release of XI S, so that + digital sales might explain it.
Overall, I've read it has sold over 6 million copies worldwide, which is great!

Btw I'm really glad Pikmin 3 managed half a million in a few months, only physical, and just in Japan.
Surely that will mean Pikmin 4 one day?!

As others have said, the lack of Xenoblade is pretty disappointing. I’d have thought XC2 could have cracked the top 35. Octopath and Mario vs Rabbids are also surprising in their absence.

On the other hand, happy that Paper Mario scraped in. Quirky, inventive games deserve credit.

@Mossii And no Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze!

@kaiofelipe
Fire Emblem's digital ratio is closer to 45%.

@UltimateOtaku91
Breath of the Wild has sold below 150,000 copies on Wii U in Japan.

For anyone curious only 4 games have sold over 1 million physical copies on PS4 compared to Switch's 14. Those are:
1. Monster Hunter World
2. Dragon Quest XI
3. Final Fantasy XV
4. KH 3

For a bit before FFXV came out, MGS V was the highest selling PS4 game in Japan with 430k copies sold! Switch is doing stupendous.

@westman98 Yes, you're right, I just checked that the proportion of digital downloads, at least until December/19, was around 45%: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/f59wu8/fire_emblem_three_houses_have_sold_530k_in_japan/
I thought it was 33% based on this article here, but it only covered sales until August/19: https://nintendosoup.com/33-of-all-fire-emblem-three-houses-sales-in-japan-are-digital-downloads/

@Lord It technically also got released twice before the Switch release. The original Generations, then XX (the expanded release) on the 3DS 2 years later and then that got ported to the Switch only a few months after the 3DS version of XX.

@Toy_Link yes it’s amazing that kingdom hearts skips Nintendo systems as it would clearly perform well.

@UltimateOtaku91 Generations Ultimate

@westman98 oh wow thought it would of been higher than that

Definitely a surprise to see neither of the Xenoblade games make the list. The target of 284,876 set me Pro Yakyū doesn’t seem insurmountable. I mean, I know baseball is popular, but so too I had assumed were large-scale JPRGs with lumpy waifus and giant swords. Also a little surprising not to see Monster Hunter on there, but presumably that’s change with the release of Rise.

@Kanbei
You forgot about 3DS.

Dragon Quest XI S released one year prior to Switch in Japan, and sold about 1 million on 3DS, and about 1 million on PS4.

The fact the Switch version, with a paltry install base at the time, came along a full year later and still cranked out 560k, is incredible.

@Bydlak it had a captive audience, but still. I love most of what Nintendo does, even the weak sauce. This looked like a $5 game at most. Really should have been free. But I guess from the business aspect, Nintendo was right and I was wrong.

@Lord Your point about starting over isn't really applicable here since you could transfer your save from the 3DS version of MHX/XX to the Switch MHXX.

@fox_mattcloud Zelda isn't actually that big in Japan.

@kaiofelipe I think this is physical and digital sales.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Donkey Kong Tropical freeze is a Wii U port.

@UltimateOtaku91 Botw on the Wii U sold just over a million in total, in Japan probably only around 100,000 copies were sold, Zelda isn't that big in Japan.

@Mildly_Displeased So is Pikmin 3 but it's in there and sold half a million.

I love both Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild, and I appreciate people like different games/genres/playstyles...

BUT...

Animal Crossing selling more than three times BotW just makes me feel sad. I can't help it, even if it doesnt really matter as it has no bearing on Ninte do's future direction... in fact we already know BotW2 is coming, whereas a new AC is clearly very, very far away!

Game sales to consoles sales equals each owner has an average of 6 games each. That cannot be right. I have 240’ish physicals alone.

I’m surprised Splatoon 2 has sold more than Mario Kart 8 deluxe. I see them changing place this year.

@nocdaes,

The nature of Animal crossing games pretty much limit them to one game per console, and I still feel there will be significant updates to new horizons at some point, i guess it's a game you just live day to day, rather than trying to complete, which I feel is why some have issues with it.

As for breath of the wild, it's sold more copies on the Switch than any other game in the franchise, it's just not as big in Japan as everywhere else, and of course Animal crossing is so accessible, it was always going to be a hit in all regions.

@fox_mattcloud Breath of the Wild sold more in Japan than Final Fantasy 15 + Final Fantasy 7 added

@UltimateOtaku91
The Wii U was a historically unsuccessful console, so of course a multiplatform game released at the tail end of it's short life wouldn't sell much.

Dang, didn't at least one of the Xenoblade games used to be on these lists???

@Murbs Only 5 of those are in our collection, if I'm not counting older versions.

@X-blades Really? I didn't know that. I guess I just sort of figured that Zelda was a fairly popular series all around. Huh.

How can so many Japanese Switch owners not have BOTW? Im sure some got the Wii U version but not that many