Japanese Charts: Final Fantasy XVI Dethrones Zelda: TOTK After Six Weeks On Top

Bit of an odd tagline for a Nintendo site...

I mean, yeah. Final Fantasy is still pretty popular in Japan. It'll be interesting to see if it has legs at all.

i am surprised the switch is still selling so well considering totk sales continue to decline week by week..

For reference FFXV did almost 700k in its first week. Pretty big drop tbh, but lot of factors in play to limit success on FFXVI this time.

Wonder how the legs will be for XVI since SE third party games tend to be very frontloaded in sales.

Honestly surprised PS5 didn’t get a bigger bump to 100k range. This IS an actual high profile PS5 exclusive rare week.

@Arawn93 The digital landscape has changed drastically since then, I'd imagine digital sales make up 40-60% of PS5 sales now depending on the title.

@Rob3008 It’s not just that otherwise it would not have been that big of a drop even if we are being generous and say digital sales was 50% in Japan of all places [this is what people here keep forgetting about: Japan isn’t as digitally inclined compared to Europe/NA] which definitely isn’t always the case even today.

One platform that not a lot of people in Japan relatively speaking owns, FFXVI gameplay direction isn’t traditional gameplay, Western target audience, etc

@Arawn93 less install base of ps5 compared to when ps4 when final fantasy 15 came out also the vast majority of sony sales now are digital as compared to when final fantasy 15 came out and the biggest factor of all japan gaming has changed their was no switch when final fantasy 15 came out..

digital gaming makes close to 70% of sony sales these days..

Not super surprising. Tears of the Kingdom has been out a while, and while FF16 is polarizing to some, its still the biggest new release since Tears.

these are excellent sales considering all the factors listed..

I am curious as to how FF will do since supposedly this version is a shake up (again). I dipped on FF after the 13 series (which I enjoyed but realized FF just wasn't for me...I'm more of a DQ gal myself).

There's some kind of glitch in the headline so it makes the 16 being displayed as XVI instead.

Really great to see final fantasy doing so well, a really brilliant game. I know it's not one for the purists, but I'm loving the storyline, characters, gameplay and it looks amazing. Much more adult orientated, hence its 18 rating.

29 million switches in japan and only 3 million ps5...more then 10% of final fantasy sales were in japan not bad at all..

After FFXV, I'm pretty much done with the series. It looks too much like Dark Souls to me. I'll be waiting until it's a $20 (or free on PS Plus) in 2-3 years.

Not surprised it's number one this week, FF still has a lot of legs as a franchise, so it will put up big first week numbers.

@jump you do know about roman numerals right?

@johnedwin the fact the OLED came out after the PS5 and it blew right by it, it doesn't seem to be able to catch it.

I just played the demo of FF16. I'm intrigue on the story so I'll get it eventually

Quite a large gap between Series X and S. They probably just ran out of X’s.

@Arawn93 Western influenced and higher (mature) ratings, and more digital sales are likely factors, though I still feel that they’re still slower to adopt digital in Japan as opposed to EU and NA. Otherwise the PS5DE would have been doing better.

@progx lol no way PS5 [in Japan] will overtake Switch. PS5 in early life [where they have stock now] is struggling to narrow gap against Switch numbers in late life.

Although this reminds me of that funny time here back when Switch was in shortage and PS5 had plenty of stock. PS5 outsold Switch for roughly a month. People here in these Famitsu articles unironically thought “Switch is over” and “PS5 will overtake now”. Even the writer of these articles here kept sensationalizing the rise of PS5/decline of Switch. Then once the “I want a PS5 just to finally own it” people finally dried out there was a sharp drop and Switch pretty much maintained lead again since.

As you said PS5 had a headstart in Japan compared to the OLED model and the OLED model alone blew right passed it.OLED should hit 5 million in about a two-three weeks at this pace.

@progx not true the ps5 had a 4 week stretch in a row in feb that it outsold the oled and just outsold it this week..

@masterLEON Yeah there are just multiple factors holding XVI. Yeah don’t agree digital was the only reason either especially in Japan. Not with that big of a drop and that is assuming XVI digitals was like 80% and XV digital ratio is like 10% which is ludicrous.

@johnedwin Switch combined outsold the PS5 combined this week even when PS5 got a high profile release this week. Even the article points this out.

Also who cares about one month? Switch outsold PS5 for years at this point.

Xbox outsold PS5 for a couple weeks in Famitsu too. Did that ultimately lead to anything in the end either?

ps5 is doing well in japan considering the changed japanese gaming market.. a year ago people said the ps5 was dead in japan so that did not come true..

I just finished Tears of the Kingdom after 145 hours. Truly a masterpiece and one of the most enjoyable and engrossing games I’ve played. I would say it’s in my top 5 games of all time (along with Ocarina of Time, my #1).

ps5 cost almost twice as much as the oled.. so i am sure the sticker shock in a huge factor in it's sales..

@johnedwin Depends on your standards of what you mean by “dead”.

PlayStation definitely not living its glory days in Japan anymore. A relatively newer console is still getting outperformed by a 7 year console. OLED alone already outsold all the PS5 models combined despite coming out later.

@johnedwin Even if you want to 2x the current PS5 sales because “cost almost twice as much” Switch still beats PS5 easily in total sales.

The console price definitely isn’t the excuse for why Sony is behind Nintendo in Japan.

@johnedwin what I was saying, the OLED came out about a year later than the PS5 and bounced on its problems.

@Arawn93 The PS5 will struggle to beat the Switch (if it ever does) in Japan. Sony made their priorities clear to the Japanese audience, they're not one of them. The consumers responded, especially when Sony moved PlayStation headquarters to Santa Monica. I don't see the Switch losing it top status anytime soon.

It's first week is pretty low for a FF game (granted, digital always is the unknown.) It could very well see big drops in week 2 and 3. We haven't seen the last of Zelda lol.

This new FF doesn't look like a game for me. I love all the FF's from I to XII, but this one doesn't interest me one bit. I'm happy for all the people loving it though.

Final Fantasy uses to sell 1.5-2 million copies at launch in Japan, while Zelda used to sell 300-400,000.

The situation has now flipped.

@westman98 I know right! On the week a new FF game is released, the Switch outsold the PS5! It's crazy. More games, please Mr Nintendo lol!

@progx Only way I can ever see Sony putting up a decent fight in Japan again is if they made a handheld which is very unlikely. Japan is all about mobile and handheld gaming, consoles have been declining since the PS3. They've basically accepted that and moved their HQ to America, with PS being the option for more demanding games like FromSoftware titles, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil that give it a small place in that market still. They will sell a few million systems there but their days of sales compared to PS1, PS2 and PSP are long gone

@Quarth from what little I’ve seen of it, it all looks a bit too westernised now methinks? More of an RPG than a JRPG?

The lowest launch for a mainline FF ever in Japan.

FF8 sold 2.6million in the first 4 days in Japan which is about what FF16 sold worldwide in 6 days.

The only reason FF16 can be spun as positive is because it launched simultaneously worldwide and the older games didn't. But in reality its in steep decline.

They've alienated classic FF fans for some Devil Mid Cry games of throne nonsense.

TOTK will reclaim the top spot and that will in part be due to the install base. I'm not getting into the debate of which is the better game though as I have preference based on personal taste and doesn't necessarily mean that something is better than the other.

Interesting how the series S is outperforming the X. Only just noticed that. I think if I ever do go back down the Xbox route, it would be series S with gamepass for me ...... I just want Nintendo to stay physical.

The Switch family selling around a 100,000 consoles, not too shabby for a console six years in and counting.

To be expected. Final Fantasy is an international institution at this point (not Dragon Quest levels in Japan, but extremely popular) and considering this one is radically different from previous entries and by all accounts top quality sales are to be expected. However, compared to the sales of Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII Remake these numbers are a bit concerning... Limiting release on the PS5 appears to have hurt initial sales and I wonder if it's legs will make up the difference. The real factor on if the franchise is on shaky ground in Japan is if Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sells more than XVI.

@johnvboy I was thinking the same thing. The Switch busting 100,000+ units the week FFXVI came out, with no major release at the same time, tells me that Squeenix made the wrong call making the game exclusive to the PS5.

It's seems this has certain people triggered and in defence mode.

Seriously though chill TOTK will be back top next week.

@Arawn93 I wonder what's up with Sony in Japan. The Switch is a monster over there, but Playstation historically has always excelled in Japan even during the early years of the PS3. Is it a demographic issue? But, the fact the Switch in total sales (OLED, base and lite) keep outselling it is a bit of a concern... One would expect at this point the Switch family to not be outselling the PS5 with a major exclusive title...

So 10% of Japanese PS5 owners bought the game on the release, and that's just physically.

Whereas Zelda TOTK had 1,119,502 sales on release which equates to 4% of the Switch total sales in Japan.

So Final Fantasy 16 has a higher attach rate (physical sales)

@johnvboy if this is what the Switch can do in a week in Japan in year 6 I wonder if it will catch the PS2 in lifetime sales. The system still has some bangers to close the year and I see the system easily pulling another 10 million internationally this year if these sales are any indication of the console's overall health.

Interestingly enough, across all models, the Switch is just shy of 30 million. In fact, if everyone who brought FFXVI went and got a Switch, it would cross 30 million. Looks like it will happen sometime in the next month.

Switch combined unit sales at nearly 100k in one week. It prints money!!

@Dr_Lugae by the end of 1999 (11 months on sale) FF8 had sold 6 million worldwide! After 10 years it sold 8.6 million in total on PS.
FF16 has just sold 3 million in 3 days world wide. Not much of a steep decline to me! I bet you it goes on to outsell FF8 in the end. Game is a success.

Apparently it's a good FF game. But I only have a Switch so I'll pass, haha.

Zelda TotK is still doing really well.

It'll probably only be here for a month, after July the chart will be back to the regular top 10 again. Unsurprisingly Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV didn't last long in the chart. Also this Final Fantasy XVI game doesn't feel like a big mainline FF game to me. The game felt too short and all the time you get through the game feels like fillers at best. It's enjoyable if you like a game like Bloodborne and Dark Souls but a true FF game this is not.

Even with a new mainline Final Fantasy, Switch hardware overall still outsold PS5 overall, that's quite good.

And yeah, as westman pointed out above, pretty interesting to see how the tables have turned on FF and Zelda sales in Japan.

@Serialsid gaming wasn't considered a normal thing in 1999. It was still very much an outlier.

Square undoubtably projected sales of 6 million in it's first day and will tell us in the next month or so we have to buy NFTs of a nude Cloud riding a featherless chocobo or else they will do another re-release of FF 1 - 6 by Christmas just to spite us.

@Serialsid I doubt it. FF8 launched in October/November in the US/EU so it was only 2months of international sales.

Like FFVIIR sold 3.5million in 3 days. More salea faster than FXVI, and released on PC and 3 years later still hasn't reached 6million.

It's not a flop but FFXVI being a worldwide simultaneous release would had to have crushed FFVIII's launch sales if it was going to outsell it. I don't think it will even reach 5million.

@Dr_Lugae I don't think it was ever going to crush 8's sales, price, rating and completely different gaming landscape to back in 1999. I think FF16 will sell more than 8.6 million in its lifetime. Time will tell.

i have always said that i think final fantasy 16 will sell over 15 million..

@WiltonRoots It's a full blown action game with light rpg elements. It's not even an rpg anymore.

@johnedwin
Maybe worldwide but certainly not in Japan

Quite a low start for a mainline FF game, for Japan and worldwide. Guest that’s what happens when you make it an exclusive.

@Serialsid Well it would need unusually strong long term sales to do that. JRPGs are usually incredibly front-loaded.

I bet this time next week in Japan it sells less than 50k. And the majority of its lifetime sales will be from this week's sales.

@Dr_Lugae but as everyone keeps saying, it's not really a jrpg. It's an action game with a game of thrones storyline. It probably will drop off in Japan, but I have a feeling it will have very good legs worldwide, especially in the west.

@EaglyPurahfan I didn't read anyone being toxic. In fact, everyone seems to have a clear understanding that it's expected for a new release of a huge ip to beat a game that has been out over a month! It will be below Zelda again in a week or two (and that;s simply going off the install base not because Nintendo is better than Sony or anything lol.), so I don't really get any over reacting.

Can we get a better comparison list?
I mean, Nintendo isn't a direct competitor to Sony, so we need some different metric here...

@EaglyPurahfan Oh, fair enough mate Vent away! It's good for you

kinda BS to count the three switches as three separate consoles tbf. VERY technical victory for sony. 😐

@Wexter

@Wexter

Changing market.

PC gaming finally took off in Japan back in the late 00s. They were the longest holdouts but they’ve now embraced it fully. That’s the high end of the Japanese market today.

Handheld and mobile gaming dominates there for the mainstream option. No handheld system has ever truly failed in Japan. Even the Game Gear did ok in the Japanese market back in 1990s. And the Vita did alright as well considering it absolutely bombed in the US and Europe.

Basically Japan is a very different market today than it was during the heyday of the PS2.

It's one of the most anticipated JRPGs of the year, ofcourse it did good in Japan. Big new titles usually do. But I'm guessing Pikmin 4 is going to destroy FF16 next month. And maybe sooner by TotK going back up to #1.

TOTK will still be on the charts a year from now… when FF XVI is long gone.

Always puts a smile on my face seeing the number of people enjoying all those great games.

Might last as long as Ganon's revival.

Uhhh what in the hell? 9/10 of those games are on Switch. And most are older titles. Nintendo is the king of Evergreen sales. Good lord.

@Exerion76 I haven't heard too many naysayers but it is definitely an ARPG. Some of my favorite games have been ARPGs, though. So, nothing wrong with that. What it isn't, is turn-based.

I’m convinced there’s one guy who goes out each week and buys 30 2DS XLs

I'll wait for the port to Switch 3 in 2035

@johnedwin Always enjoy your PS5 gymnastics in the Japanese charts, keep em coming!

@Manguy888A Instead of numbers, they could release names lmao!

Lol Sheesh triggered PlayStation fanboys here. The usual suspects though so not surprising.

Chill you all can still enjoy the game, but don’t pretend the numbers [or genre for that matter] is different then it actually is. Try to be a little objective please.

@UltimateOtaku91 lol lets not try to down play TOTK because it was only 4% attach rate. Those were still incredible sales.

10% for FF16 is nice but this early in PS5 life you can have those kinds of attach rates because only a few exclusive true system sellers so far.

Let’s not forget BOTW having a 56% attach rate with 187k sells in launch week in Japan. So by your logic TOTK is a complete failure since it came no where close to that kind of attach rate.

In reality overall sales matter far more than attach rate.

@PuppyToucher I'm by no means sayings it's a failure it's my game the year and I agree sales wise it's impressive, my comment was more a counter argument to those bringing down FF16's sales as poor.

@Cotillion "Can we get a better comparison list?
I mean, Nintendo isn't a direct competitor to Sony, so we need some different metric here..."

I'm in 100% agreement here. Clearly Sony sells adult video games from Japan and Nintendo only sells kid's games from Japan. Nintendo released in 2017 and Sony in 2020. That is almost THREE YEARS. How anyone confuses the two is CRAZY. It is like comparing car sales to sales of bananas. Not the same thing.

My suggestion: have all NSW sales in one category. Have Sony separated out because they are so different. What should we call it?

Japanese Baby Pool Video Games Sales For Mature Adults List?

The JBPVGSFMAL could make all of the Sony super mature adults feel safe that their console is winning it's own contest and no one gets offended.

No surprise, and I'm glad for FF16 topping the chart, it's well-deserved. But in general that number is quite a bit lower and you can't tell me digital sales are making that much of a dent. Even if it's 50%, that still means FF failed to reach it's 1million+ status as it did for earlier entries.

Its going to be short lived, Zelda will easily be selling for the rest of the Switches life.

@Exerion76 Nobody was saying that Final Fantasy XVI wasn't a JRPG, it's just not a true Final Fantasy game. For it to be a true Final Fantasy game it needs to have a dramatic story, a party of characters that the players (not the AI) could control, is called Final Fantasy, is made by Square Enix instead of a fan, must had the involvement of Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu (doesn't matter if the dev are western, Japanese, Chinese or Korean as long as those two are involve), must not have a prequel or sequel or interquel or expansion or DLC, and it must be turn based. Doesn't matter if it's 3D or 2D or on Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or Steam it just need to have all of those seven ingredients.

@PuppyToucher The hilarious part was there were even moments where BoTW had over 100% attach rate due to people buying the game before they got a Switch due to severe Switch shortages at the early life of Switch.

So pretty funny that people unironically trying to use attach rate to downplay ToK success just to artificially inflate FFXVI’s success. It’s not hard to realize that it’s much easier to have higher attach rates when the install base is low and PS5 install base in Japan is objectively low relatively speaking.

The ironic thing is that TotK's marketing was terrible and I was not hyped at all about it while being super excited for FF16. Turns out after playing the 16 demo I was very disappointed and cancelled my preorder. I got TotK kind of hesitantly and haven't been able to stop playing it about 70 hours in.

@Serpenterror Agree 100% on your definition of FF. FF9 is my favorite game of all time and in my opinion the last one that was truly great. Now that 16 is out I can declare with confidence that for me (an older fan of the classics) FF is truly dead and buried. I've come to terms with it.

R.I.P.
FINAL FANTASY
1987 - 2000

@WiltonRoots Yeah, or more like an action game than a JRPG. With a heavy Game of Thrones influence story wise (not my cup of tea), a more serious and darker tone overall (it feels like the whimsical and humorous fairytale tone of older FF's is missing), no playable party members (you're just... Clive), etc. It feels like a Western take on Final Fantasy, i.e. not Final Fantasy at all IMO. You can put Cid and some Chocobos in it, but the magic of Final Fantasy doesn't seem to be there, at least from what I've seen. But I haven't played the game myself, so can't say for sure that's the case.

@invictus4000 I would say X and XII are good too. But after that? Not sure...

Can we have a "Woo!" for the 33 2DSes sold?

@Serialsid Well we know it's down 74% from FFXV in the UK charts. Kind of indicates they haven't captured the Game of Thrones audience, but instead warded away a big chunk of existing FF players.

For it to outsell FFVIII it'd have to do far better than FF normally sells in the US and mainland Europe to make up for Japan tanking sales. And The UK would have to be a complete outlier for the west despite Game of Thrones being exceptionally popular UK compared to the rest of Europe.

That's why I think it's grossly underperformed, I doubt it's even close to selling it's initial 3million shipment unless they only sent like 40k copies to the UK despite FFXV selling 3x as much 1st week and than 350k copies to Japan despite FFXV selling 2x as much 1st week.

Their gamble of trading FF fans for DMC and GoT fans has failed.

@Dr_Lugae well since Sony's own financial results show their sales are now 70-80% digital we don't know the real UK sales figures. It sold more than diablo 4 and dead island 2 which were both multi format physically so its not the failed game that you state. Unless they failed too.
Square have stated it's already sold over 3 million in its first week, and there is no reason why it won't be a long seller as more ps5's enter the market. I think it will top 10 million, you don't. We're just going around in circles. Let's revisit at the end of the year and see.

Go on then, we'll let PS5 have its little victory for this week ha ha. It's strange to see just one PS5 title in the list and then every other slot is Nintendo Switch.
Switch still absolutely decimating the competition. Loving it.

@Quarth from what I’ve seen it all seems quite morose. Like they’ve strayed again in some attempt to capture a western market. They’ve failed at this numerous times. If they try the same with Dragon Quest they’ll have royally dropped the ball.

@GrailUK @EaglyPurahfan Totally of topic, but just wanted to say: It is really refreshing to read this kind of honest and mature discourse once in a while. Venting, reacting, reflecting, comforting and thanking all within a few interactions...thanks for that .

@EaglyPurahfan @Leon-San We have a good community here

@WiltonRoots I'm worried about Dragon Quest XII after reading this:
https://noisypixel.net/dragon-quest-xii-development-difficulties-adult-audience/

@locky-mavo It doesn't matter no one was going to buy it on Xbox in Japan.

@Quarth I'm adblocked up to the eyeballs so I can't get on that site, but they seriously shouldn't mess with its formula. It's a Japanese staple that they look forward to every release, I only got into it through XI but thoroughly loved it.

@WiltonRoots When they announced the game, they said it would be darker. And now there's talk about how to aim it at an adult audience. That makes me worried they will pander to a western audience by changing the artstyle, the music, the colourful world and characters in exchange for drama, blood and curse words, i.e. "realism".

I have all the DQ games (except X) on different Nintendo systems, love the series as much as Final Fantasy (or at least FF from I to XII).

@GrailUK @EaglyPurahfan

@Quarth Yep whenever I'm online and you pop up it's usually a Final Fantasy game you're playing!

@WiltonRoots Well, since I got hold on a physical copy of the Pixel Remasters, I decided I had to play through them all chronologically. 😁 I'm on V now, soon finished with that one. Saving the best one, VI, for last.

My rating so far:
FFI 8/10
FFII 8/10
FFIII 9/10
FFIV 10/10

I think V will be a 9/10.