One of the RPG highlights on the Switch, and in general last year, was Shin Megami Tensei V by Atlus. It arrived on Nintendo's system during the action-packed month of November and was praised as a "modern masterpiece" in our very own review here on Nintendo Life.
It seems the game has got off to a strong start in terms of sales - with Atlus revealing the game has already sold over 800k copies worldwide and thanking fans for their support.
"Happy New Year! In November 2021, Shin Megami Tensei V was simultaneously worldwide, and it got off to a good start, selling over 800k copies in total. Thank you very much for your support."
According to the most recent Sega Sammy Management Meeting 2021, which took place on 14th December, parent company Sega is very satisfied with the global sales of SMT V so far. In contrast, it took Shin Megami Tensei IV two years to achieve just 600k sales (thanks, Persona Central).
Have you contributed to the sales of Shin Megami Tensei V on the Nintendo Switch? Tell us down below.
[source personacentral.com]
Comments 59
That's amazing!
My brother may have contributed to sales, got this game for Christmas, and love it so far. Played Strange Journey Redux and SMT IV on 3DS before this one.
I don’t play rated m games but this is likely due to a lack of first party games in 2021. Not saying it is a bad game but it is not a mainstream one.
@blindsquarel That’s not how it works. If it’s not a mainstream game then it’ll sell the exact same regardless of whether other games came out at the same time. The people that are interested in SMT will get this game, the rest won’t. It’s not exactly the sort of game that parents would pick up on a whim like Mario Party.
@blindsquarel
I think it's more likely the sheer size of the Switch userbase had more to do with the good sales
It's a great game but Atlus hasn't really market the game that well is the main issue. Hopefully a port of SMT 1, 2, if, 4, and 4 Apocalypse make it to Switch.
This was my first SMT game. I've been enjoying it a lot, systems feel very balanced and fun, world is fun to explore but not overwhelmingly large, and power progression feels rewarding and organic. It's a game that shows it means business, without being totally unapproachable. At its meanest, it angers me just enough to remind me I care, but not so much I put it down for an extended period of time. And it's one of the few RPGs where every single option is a good idea to use sometimes -item (and most items are genuinely useful), status and stat-changing abilities, guard, even pass turn, have very important uses and you will get punished for forgetting about them. It makes every system feel very balanced, meaningful and deliberate, and every battle feel a little puzzle-like without feeling too predictable.
Excellent news. Personally my second favorite Switch game next to BotW. It's great to see third party exclusives like MH Rise and SMT V do really well last year.
A great RPG where almost anything is useful in some way and the game will constantly tell you to "git gud" in a good way. Had a ton of fun figuring out the tougher bosses.
Only complaint I have is that the story is nothing to write home about. It's an interesting theme and all, but the story is very barebones in its execution.
I knew this was going to be the best selling SMT game.
It was destined to be the moment the switch became a success.
But it deserves every sale it gets and I hope it passes the 2 million mark.
Cool cool, now people can stop buying it so the discounts begin.
I got this game for Christmas but it got delivered to the neighbors so I didn’t get it until a few days ago, and I’ve been really busy and haven’t been able to play much of it at all
Considering the 40% off physical sales I have seen, I guess this was to be expected. I am personally very disappointed with this "performance." It is definitely a game deserving of way higher sales. However, I recognize this is a fairly niche series. This clearly demonstrates that Atlus has failed to make it as mainstream as the "spinoff" series Persona. Guess there is still time to increase those numbers. Sucks it was released so close to Pokémon BDSP.
As a huge JRPG fan i'm happy when JRPGS are getting popular in the west. Hope we will see more of them. 800k in holiday season is not a breakthrough but its encouraging
@blindsquarel
I also don't play M-rated games, but I'm not sure how you can say there was a drought of first-party games in 2021. Not even accounting for ports, we had Metroid Dread, Mario Party Superstars, WarioWare: Get It Together, Mario Golf Super Rush, Pokémon BD/SP and more. Bowser's Fury stands on its own as a stellar 3D Mario adventure to me.
There were also lots of other great third-party games players could have chosen over SMT like Crash 4, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic Colors Ultimate (which I really enjoyed despite the controversy), Nick All-Star Brawl, two games in the hugely successful Monster Hunter series... I could go on.
Now if you were arguing there weren't a lot of other compelling M-rated Switch games to compete with SMT last year, I'd probably agree with you there. I can't think of much to the top of my head. You're of course entitled to your opinion, but if you mostly play family games like me, I thought we ate quite good. Definitely one of my favorite years in the Switch's life cycle, though 2019 reigns supreme in my book. And 2022 looks like it may already be better than last year--here's to hoping!
I’m sure people will still try to spread that it “flopped” just because “well when you compare to Persona 5…”
> SMTIV: 600,000
> SMTIII HD: 500,000 (more than the original SMTIII)
> SMTV: 800,000
Didn't take off as well as I would have hoped, but 200,000+ more sales in a month or so than the lifetime sales of the previous best-selling entry is still a success. SEGA seems happy with how it's selling as well.
I do think it'll probably creep over 1mil units over the course of its lifetime. Or vault over it if there's a re-release at some point.
I’m down to the last 3 or 4 bosses to go in the story, not a bad game at all but it is very grindy and occasionally kills you for no reason at all. A lot of the bosses demand you have the right party to face them from the get go, so you have to face each of them at least twice. I’m dermined to see the end credits of SMT5, but not bothered to see the beginning of SMT6.
Well deserved, it's a brilliant game. Doesn't 800k make it the highest selling SMT so far?
Will definitely reach 1m+ lifetime. Probably 2m+ if the rumoured PS4/PC ports are a thing.
Well deserved, the game is simply amazing, I had never played a SMT game before and was consistently impressed with how good it was.
Best game of last year in my opinion so very well deserved.
Got this for Christmas and having a blast so far!
I picked up the LE and I am still yet to open it.
My backlog is massive so it won't b any time soon either.
At least I can look forward to getting to it eventually.
Good to see it's doing well.
Currently 30 hours into the shin megami tensei 3 HD remaster and it is HARD
For SMT V I will wait another year to see if the ps4/pc version comes true
Meh. Too bad the game itself ended up being pretty disappointing, a far cry from just about all the earlier entries.
@dimi It definitely is a breakthrough for SMT since it's already the best selling SMT game and won't stop selling.
I got SMTV and "Bubble Bobble 4 friends: the baron is back" this christmas and I am having a blast with them both. Very well deserved success!
That is very disappointing it should have done at least 1 million by now
It will sell more when it release on other platforms.
@MrHonest @KirbysAdventure
But of course...we all know how bad Atlus is when it comes to trying to speak up about untold exclusivity deals, at least compared to most other publishers and developers.
If you’re looking for a good mature RPG, this one is a great pick. I’m so glad to hear it’s selling well. It’s good to remember that I’m sure the sales expectation for this game was limited and niche. 800,000 copies in 2 months vs 600,000 in two years is a stellar achievement. A Switch user base of over 90 million certainly doesn’t hurt too.
This is the first turn based role-playing game I’ve ever played and I don’t think I could have picked a better want to start with as I am addicted. Utterly brilliant game
impressive, considering Shin Megami Tensei is less popular then Persona, but the game would have sell better if Sega/Atlus decided to release the game on PS4/PS5 e PC.
Well deserved! My favorite RPG on a system with some heavy hitters. Hope Atlus continues to give love to the Switch and particularly demon love... Devil Survivor, Strange Journey, SMTIV, and Soul Hackers are all great candidates for the hybrid.
@whitemage You’ve done a great job explaining the appeal of the game and the series. Wonderful comment.
@ModdedInkling datamines imply that Shin Megami Tensei V could release on PS4 and PC.
https://mynintendonews.com/2021/11/14/datamining-finds-shin-megami-tensei-v-could-be-a-temporary-switch-exclusive/
@Specter_of-the_OLED 1, 2 and If are already on the Japanese Nintendo Switch Online. An official translation of the first game would be a nice surprise.
It was my first in the series and I actually just finished it off a couple nights ago (really proud of myself for completing it on Normal, given how hard it's generally perceived).
It could have used a bit more environmental diversity & I wasn't too hot on the few dungeons the game had (and I personally prefer a more story driven JRPG), but there's no doubt it's a great game. The large Xenoblade-esque areas (which are like 80 - 85% of the game) are really fun to explore and really gives you the sense of "just one more abscess, treasure, or other point of interest" (the difficulty adds some tension to this, but you get the ability to warp back to the last save point relatively early on so it's never too stressful). While I wouldn't like it for every JRPG, I can definitely see the appeal of the control the game gives you over your party's makeup & it was satisfying doing things like cooking up the perfect setup to completely null a boss' efforts (although endgame can get a bit annoying with bosses with no specific weakness & with attacks that ignore your own resistances).
It’s great!!
…except for the Demon Castle. What a momentum killer. I get that it’s a sort of throw back to SMT I and II with its blocky dungeon design. But boy… it felt like a slog.
@Giancarlothomaz
I'm well aware of said datamine. In my opinion, I don't believe it's ever going to happen unless Atlus ends their exclusivity deals entirely for the franchise, which would also mean Persona 5 loses its PlayStation exclusivity as well.
@UglyCasanova it's been marked down to the sub-$40 range frequently.
@RR529 Great comment! I also agree that SMTV was very influenced by Monolith’s Xenoblade and BOTW (which obviously was too). It’s a slow and subtle revolution of the JRPG I hope more devs take note of while the taste-makers like Square and Namco chase Western dollars.
That's nice....How'd censored Tokyo Mirage Sessions do on the Switch?
@ModdedInkling Nah, Nintendo lately is sucking at keeping third party exclusivities. The game has a good chance of being released on pc a year later.
The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console with 1,314,674 units sold for the week ending December 18, according to VGChartz estimates. The Switch has now sold an estimated 100.72 million units lifetime.
The Nintendo Switch becomes the seventh video game platform to cross 100 million units sold. The other platforms are the PS2, DS, Game Boy, PS4, PS1, and Wii
@MoonKnight7 Over 100 Million Now!
That's great to hear, happy for the creators and fans. I haven't played this series or Persona but would like to give them a try with a demo.
I got the steelbook edition and I'm loving the game!
@Spiders Aw thank you! Your feedback brightened my day.
@BloodNinja Indeed! Can't wait to get it!
@fenlix You mean like how Sony sucks lately at keeping exclusives on third parties? That still didn’t get Persona 5 ported despite the years of “leaks” it was gonna get ported to Pc
@Strumpan There IS an official translation of the first game but in typical Atlus fashion it was exclusive to the iOS port, which is completely unplayable on modern devices btw
@Giancarlothomaz The latest patch removed the PS4 reference
https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/rdwwkt/a_new_smt_v_patch_removes_the_mention_of_ps4/
Wow, how niche. Didn't expect that.
@Not_Soos
Should have explained that better. I like family friendly single player games. Like Zelda or ori
I'm still dissapointed he's not a girl
Love every minute of the game but if your grinding that does take a toll...but all the fun...
I love this game.
Maybe one day I'll actually play it.
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