The latest Famitsu Japanese charts are in, and the inevitable has happened — Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has overtaken Splatoon 3 to become the best-selling game of the year in Japan.
Topping the charts once again, Generation IX of Pokémon has sold a further 277,676 units in the weeks of 5th December to 11th December, taking its total sales to a staggering 3,702,482 units in under a month. And that's with Splatoon 3 still selling over 50,000 units this week. Geez.
Japan's RPG darling got a brand new release this week — Dragon Quest Treasures launched on the 9th, and in just a few days, it's already raked in an impressive 143,650 sales to put it in second. The week's other new release is Type-Moon's (Melty Blood developer) visual novel Witch on the Holy Night, with the Switch and PS4 versions taking up fourth and fifth respectively on the charts.
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Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope has seen a very slight dip in sakes to drop down to ninth, while Kirby and the Forgotten Land has snuck back into the top ten.
Here are the week's charts in full:
1. [NSW] Pokémon Scarlet / Pokémon Violet (The Pokemon Company, 11/18/22) – 277,676 / (3,702,482)
2. [NSW] Dragon Quest Treasures (Square Enix, 12/09/22) – 143,650 (New)
3. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22, 11/18/22) – 51,315 (3,497,714)
4. [NSW] Witch on the Holy Night (Type-Moon, 12/08/22) – 39,759 (New)
5. [PS4] Witch on the Holy Night (Type-Moon, 12/08/22) – 26,585 (New)
6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 21,583 (4,949,748)
7. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 21,094 (2,898,728)
8. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo, 04/29/2022)– 17,187 (810,251)
9. [NSW] Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 13,466 (31,113)
10. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo, 03/25/22) – 11,239 (938,508)
Hardware sales paint a familiar picture this week — Switch OLED sales are booming, hardly dropping from last week's numbers (some holiday season gift buying, perhaps?) and the whole Switch family takes the top three positions after a dip in PS5 sales. The PS4, amazingly, has outsold both Xbox consoles for the second week in a row.
- Switch OLED – 102,962 (3,390,128)
- Switch – 30,608 (18,958,786)
- Switch Lite – 24,536 (5,038,494)
- PlayStation 5 – 16,615 (1,936,173)
- PlayStation 4 – 3,150 (7,835,722)
- PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 2,207 (301,901)
- Xbox Series S – 1,306 (224,331)
- Xbox Series X – 218 (172,045)
- New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 64 (1,189,425)
Pokémon is here to stay over the holiday season, we think! Let us know what you think of the latest Japanese charts in the comments!
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 18
When this is only accounting for Japan and not even the entirety of Asia, Splatoon and Pokemon each selling 3.5M+ is INSANITY.
I imagine this guy'll be pretty happy about it though.
Amazing Switch numbers all around. Also, it's crazy how much Playstation has declined in Japan. From what I know, a lot of people in Japan live in smaller housing units, so it makes sense why portable gaming is king. But this also explains why Sony is trying so hard to block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal. This would be a huge blow to them, especially in North America, and then Sony would have to rely on the European market to carry Playstation.
This game deserves every sale. Keep it up Game Freak!!
Wow! Type Moon's A Magician's Night sold really well for both Nintendo Switch and PS4. I've hoped for a NintendoLife's review, but I've already seen and read Siliconera's review. And game have only one problem - there are a lot of typos and grammatical errors in the text.
This is why we can’t have nice things. If people keep supporting sub-par games the makers have no incentive to polish them as they should.
INSANE!!!!!!! Hype for more updates!
Nintendo is proof you can stay true to your Japanese roots as a console maker and still enjoy massive levels of success worldwide.
Crazy how even all PlayStation 4 + 5 models combined don't outsell the lowest selling Switch unit.
Heck, even putting all the other non-Switch systems on the list together isn't enough to match Switch Lite sales. Bonkers.
While 143K sales is pretty good for an average game, that's pretty low for Dragon Quest numbers comparatively, even if it is a spinoff. It's gonna be a while before a game dethrones Pokemon S/V for the #1 spot in the weekly charts in Japan, it will likely be Fire Emblem Engage when that comes out in late January
I mean Nintendo will always do really well in the holiday season so that’s not a surprise. Crazy how well both Pokémon and Splatoon are doing over there
@contractcooker This game is a "nice thing". It actually delievered what many people were asking for like an open world, better story and better animations. I have no idea how some of you guys think that things work, but if people passed on the game all it would have told them is that they should stick to the same formula and avoid making major changes even if people constantly nag about them. They wouldn't attribute it to polishing the game at all.
I get that the game should have been more polished, but unfortunately feedback doesn't work that way. If a product doesn't sell, it's simply considered unwanted and it would have been compared with previous releases, which were also full of performance issues (Sword and Shield). I'm not saying that the game shouldn't be criticized in that regard, it should, but the whole "pass on this entry" doesn't work that way when actual major changes are finally applied. You don't pass that entry if you want them to keep that direction.
Pokemon has evolved to absorb criticism and review bombing, it only grows stronger the more people try to attack it.
I remember anticipating Minecraft hitting one million physical in Japan on Nintendo Switch… it’s now a month or so away from hitting THREE million! Amazing.
How the heck do they not get tired of Minecraft yet?
Think its availability issue again for PS5
@dimi Maybe in part. But it's also showing the general trend of Japan turning away from consoles in favor of handhelds. The total sales of PS4 are only a fraction of totals sales for Switch. Taking into account how well the PS4 sold around the world and it didn't have the supply problems of the PS5, the only conclusion is that the Japanese just aren't buying home consoles the way they used to.
@Fizza 3.5 million PHYSICAL no less... there's a decent chance the total sales in the country are over 6 mil each counting digital.
Nice to see Pokémon still going strong!
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