Japanese Charts: Kirby’s Dream Buffet Makes Sweet Debut Thanks To eShop Cards

Alright Kirby!!! Truly a great year for fans!!

Wow! Finally Mario Party Superstars sold more than 1 millions units physically! Good sales for good games. And... I still can't understand why Minecraft sold so good on Switch in Japan. There is no physical copies of Terraria in Japan? Or Terraria is digital-only on Switch? Minecraft is overrated and overhyped...

If I could get one of those, I'd also have gotten the game that way.

I wish the kids games on PS5 (Kao the Kangaroo, Time on Frog Island, Zorro the Chronicles, Instant Sports Plus, The Smurfs Mission Vileaf, etc) get more appreciations, I mean they are still cartoonish and cute enough to play.

Switch's still selling really well in its home country and the US (if the list of best selling video game items on Amazon.com can be trusted).

When it comes to Europe though (and the corresponding best selling lists of Amazon UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy plus Pricerunner in my own country, Denmark) the Xbox Series X is selling really well overall (and Switch not so well).

It's really not surprising to me as we have a bit of economical crisis (especially) in Europe and Xbox Game Pass does deliver a lot of value for the money.

Why I'm interested in all this?
Answer: I'm trying to figure out when Nintendo will "pull the trigger" and announce the Switch's successor.

You could argue it won't anytime soon as the Switch is still doing really well in Japan (and probably quite well in the US too).

But Europe though.. Nintendo (and Sony too) could risk loosing the market to Xbox, because the latter simply offers so much value for the buck in a time where most people have a pressured financial situation.

But I guess time will tell what will happen..

But nobody wants a Switch! This is very upsetting!!!!

Smash Ultimate and MK8D are both gonna hit 5million physical in Japan soon. Fantastic stuff.

I thought we don't count digital download in the Japanese top 10. Yes it's a digital code in a card but that's still a digital copy. Get rid of Kirby's Dream Buffet and put back whatever was suppose to be a true physical number 10 (which I'm assume could be Live-A-Live).

@shgamer
Switch is the best-selling console in Europe in 2022, and by a large margin too.

Does Target have cards for Kirby’s Dream Buffet?
I've gotten cards there in the past for games I wanted to gift that were download only, I don't know if anywhere else carries download cards for specific games, but I wish the cards were more readily available.

Oh so that’s why some of the YouTube descriptions said it was an eShop exclusive…

@Anti-Matter Yes but the system is not that affordable to get just to play those kids games. Maybe if Sony got rid of PS4 backwards compatibility and dropped the PS5 price to $200 then perhaps it'll be worth it. Buying a PS5 for $500 to play kids games just seems too big of a gamble, maybe it'll be worth it for Kingdom Hearts but that's the only one. Sony needs to make more, maybe a new LittleBigPlanet or an Astro Play Room sequel.

@westman98 Maybe in 2022 on a whole, but not at the moment if you look at the various video game items best seller lists of the european Amazon sites.

Xbox Series X is actually number 3 at Amazon IIRC in France and Spain (and that's a list that also has games, accessories, PSN, eShop and Xbox (Live?) cards on it as well).

That's a really impressive showing for a console if you ask me (and Xbox Series X is also the best selling console on the UK, German and Italian Amazon sites too).

It could seem like Xbox Series X (and Series S to a lesser degree) is selling really, really well atm in Europe (and is available too), that could pose a problem for Nintendo (and Sony) on the bit longer term if it continues that way.

And you know what? I think the economical crisis is really only getting started. I honestly think it will become much worse when winter arrives.

@Serpenterror
Different peoples have different perception.
A $ 500 PS5 machine is still worthy for me with 35 PS5 kids games so far on my list.
Also, I prefer smaller GB size kids games from 3rd party or indie games so it will not taking PS5 storage space too much.

Kirby's Dream Buffet needs free DLC to keep it going,
there's already quite a drop off online.

@shgamer
Switch has outsold Xbox and PlayStation every month this year in Europe, not just the year as a whole.

Also, Amazon rankings don't correspond to actual sales across all retailers across the entire region.

I can't wait to see what splatoon 3 sales do to the charts, expecting a big increase in hardware sales as well.

@westman98 Amazon is pretty huge you got to admit. It does tell something about who's in the "sweet spot".

And besides the Switch has peaked imo; there's not a lot coming out for it except for Splatoon 3 (which may or may not sell as well as 2), Bayonetta 3 (pretty niche if you ask me) and then the Pokemons (will sell really well of course).

Other than those 3, what else is coming out? You have the Harry Potter game sometime in 2023 (but that's looks poor game play wise if you ask me), there's Alan Wake remaster/port at some point (I'm getting that myself if it runs decently).

But there isn't really that much is there? And 2023: Breath of the Wild successor and what else? Metroid Prime 4: no release date either. New 3D Mario or Mario Kart: not even a mention or hint.

I think Nintendo are gearing up for releasing the Switch successor at some point in 2023 with Breath of the Wild successor being a cross generational title and a new Mario Kart and 3D Mario releasing on it within the first half a year.

I think it's only a question whether it will be a spring or fall release (and if I were Nintendo I would go for a spring release, because there would be less competition for attention at that time of the year).

But we'll see as I said in a previous post.

I'm curious to see if the price increase in Japan has an effect on sales. And, interesting note, Japan is by FAR the region with the cheapest price once the currency is converted. If It was about 10-15K more Yen like it is in the rest of the world, how would sales be?

@Anti-Matter The issue is the audience who bought the PS5 isn't buying it to play those games. Yes they could be extra games some pick-up to kill time or on a budget while waiting for the big triple a titles to launch but they don't always get considered. The fact that the casual gamers could get them for far cheaper on cheaper platforms is another blow to them on PS5.

@shgamer,

The Switch was the top selling console in the month of July according to the NPD data, so still no sign of a Wii style sales slump.

@shgamer
Amazon is big but certainly nowhere close to being representative of the entire market. The fact is that as of July 2022, the Switch was the best-selling console in Europe in 2022, followed by the PS5 at a distant 2nd at under 50% of what the Switch has sold.

With regards to software lineups, if you think there isn't much coming in the way for Switch, then wait until you see the Xbox lineup this year that consists of 0 new first party releases and a fairly limited 3rd party release slate.

Strange no one ever looks at sales for North America. Just Japan. 🤨

@Kiyata Japan keeps track of physical sales way more precisely than NA. The best you'll get from here is a rough estimate unless an individual company reports their own sales numbers. NPD does a monthly total sales ranking, though they don't have actual numbers and Nintendo games are usually underrepresented because they're tight-lipped about digital sales.

@johnvboy NPD that's sales number for North America; I did say it seems like the Switch is doing quite good in the US.

I'm talking about where today the Xbox Series X is number 3 in France, number 4 in Spain and Italy on the their respective Amazon best selling video games items list (it actually means that the Series X is selling more units than the most popular eShop card on those lists).

It could be a sign of the times. And I said in a previous post, it doesn't come to me as a big surprise as Europe especially is in the middle of an economical (even an environmental crisis too, but that's another matter). And Xbox Game Pass does imo offer the best value for the more casual gamers atm.

@westman98 I know that there isn't coming anything really big for the Xbox's until 2023, but it doesn't matter imo when Game Pass offer such good value for most people, in a time when many people are short of cash.

@shgamer The Amazon rakings are hourly charts. All this means is that there was a restock. On Amazon Germany the Series X doesn't show up at all and the PS5 is really high simply because it got restocked. This isn't indicative of any trend or bigger development. I watch Amazon Germany frequently and this happens regularly with both the Xbox Series X and PS5.

@BTB20 I just checked and Xbox Series X is number 9 on the german Amazon list of best selling video game items (and it's in stock too).

I think many people especially in Europe have come the conclusion that, yes, the Xbox Series X is an expensive device, but it's state of the art hardware, and they earn in what they lost on the hardware by getting a steady stream of games, via Game Pass, just by paying relatively small monthly/yearly subscription fee.

The problem, as I see it, for Nintendo is that a lot of people could get accustomed to not paying much for their gaming experiences. And then they might not buy the next Nintendo console/hybrid, because the feel the games are too expensive.

I think Nintendo should act soon and announce their next console along with some really heavy hitters like Breath of the Wild successor and new 3d Mario and Mario Kart games. If they wait too long it could be to late. They need to secure a healthy install base before Game Pass completely takes over the market.

@shgamer,

The Switch should get to it's revised 20 million target this year, the big question is how long does Nintendo think it can keep going, my guess would be a Switch for late 2024 early 2025.

@shgamer Why do you keep using amazon charts as a basis despite them being an obviously inaccurate indicator of sales?

In every other source that closes keeps track of sales the Switch dominates in basically every reason. For the past couple or more years it has consistently been the best selling console whether its the US, Japan, Europe etc.

So there is no "sign of the times" as you put it and Nintendo doesn't need to consider a successor anytime soon with the Switch selling as if it just came out almost years in the market.

@iLikeUrAttitude When I saw how high up Xbox Series X was on these lists it honestly baffled me. I've never seen a specific console being that high up on these Amazon lists before.

But to me it makes sense with the economical crisis especially Europe (and many other places it's even worse, I admit - nobody will starve in Europe) face (and will continue to face in the coming month/years imo); people will go with the cheapest option. And Game Pass offers a phenomenal value for money for the more casual gamer imo.

And something like Starfield will be free for subscribers from day one, along with all other Microsoft first party games (and Microsoft has quite a lot of first party games coming - they have Bethesda and probably also Activision/Blizzard - AND almost most importantly, they have very deep pockets).

The good thing though for us who like Nintendo, is that they ALSO have deep pockets after all the success they've had with the Switch (besides I'm confident Nintendo has a plan - they're smart people - and I trust them more to deliver good gaming than Microsoft or Sony).

@Serpenterror I agree. It’s like Sony has almost just conceded this market to Nintendo. Yeah, there’s Sackboy, Astro and Ratchet & Clank….I wish they would at minimum expand Astro and have a cool exclusive party game….

@shgamer
Okay, but Xbox still isn't outselling Switch or PlayStation in Europe, so your entire argument from the very beginning was moot.

@shgamer Again, you just repeated yourself without addressing anything I said.
That whole whole reply you typed was a whole bunch of nothing.
So I'll ask you again - why do you keep insisting on using amazon best sellers as a basis for sales despite being shown multiple times its not an accurate representation of them?

@iLikeUrAttitude @westman98 Well goodnight to you both and sleep well (I mean it, I'm not trying be sarcastic or ironic or something )
I won't argue anymore (at least not today )

@Kiyata Actually they do, and for NA it's called "NPD", delivered monthly by Matt Piscatella (via Twitter). The numbers are typically only available via paid subscription so give props to Matt.

We also get UK sales numbers regularly, reported through NintendoLife.

It's not "just" Japan that the gaming community keeps track of game sales.

Xenoblade 3 does not seem to be selling well. Those are relatively low numbers and it's unlikely it will match the 2 million global sales of Xenoblade 2.