Japanese Charts: Pikmin 4 Maintains Dominance As Switch Surpasses 30 Million Units

Happy 30 million Switch

~78000 consoles in one week? Not enough for me! I want numbers like ~120000-90000 again. Yes, Nintendo Switch is 6 years old, but I don't care about it!

Those are some impressive figures, no need for a Switch 2 just yet, not for another 2 years atleast. Just keep bringing out amazing games.

Does this mean pikmin has hit the big time? So pleased, it's been a favourite series since day 1 and i want it to continue.

Anyone else get confused and thought that Pikmin 4 had somehow already sold 30 million copies?

Final Fantasy XVI dropped out of the top 10. Final Fantasy series is dead in Japan, and Square Enix has to wonder if future Final Fantasy games are worth it to be exclusive to PlayStation. The Japanese obviously don't like buying PlayStation games. As for the Nintendo Switch, it was expected that more than 30 million units would be sold in Japan.

@Dark_Knight That's the problem, even if Final Fantasy 16 wasn't exclusive to playstation and released on xbox it wouldn't have made the slightest bit of difference. If they want more sales they need to scale back the visuals and release it on Nintendo's console as well, there's no need for FF games to have hyper realistic visuals, dragon quest 11 sold well on the switch with cartoony visuals.

@Dark_Knight japanese sure like buying ps5 console though..

@UltimateOtaku91 i am sure final fantasy 7 remake part 2 will sell well.. when it comes out early next year. then again japan is the 3rd largest gaming market ...

@UltimateOtaku91 16 will come out on pc soon...

@UltimateOtaku91 sony is easily winning world wide console sales this year over the switch not everything revolves around japan..

@Sequel Man i hear you. I beat 1 and 2 on GC. I played through 3 finally and beat it last week and was like dang i forgot how much i like this series

@johnedwin Well that depends if its cross gen or not, if it's PS5 only then sales won't be anywhere near Part 1's.

@johnedwin I know that not everything revolves around Japan but it's still not good when a huge popular "Japanese" made game can't stay in the charts for more than two weeks. No doubt in the west it performed better and will sell even more when it comes to PC, I wouldn't say its sold poorly overall, just in Japan. But that wouldn't of been the case of it also released on the Switch.

@johnedwin

Although the PlayStation 5 is selling well in Japan, PlayStation games are not selling well in Japan at all. Perhaps this is why Japanese people buy more digital PlayStation games than physical

Those are impressive second week sales for Pikmin4, and VERY well deserved.

@UltimateOtaku91

This is the reason why Japanese developers prefer Nintendo consoles more than PlayStation because japanse games will always sell better for Nintendo consoles than for PlayStation. It is Sony's own fault that the Japanese don't really like to buy PlayStation games because Sony has become too westernized.

@UltimateOtaku91

If Final Fantasy VII Part 2 fails in Japan then Square Enix is ​​in big trouble when it comes to the FF series in Japan.

@Sequel It for sure means This game is defo not a bust. I'm making the assumption now it will be the series biggest hit.

@Dark_Knight it wasn't always the case. During the PS2 era all of the quirky weird japanese games were on the PS. Then Sony abandoned their home country for the almighty western dollar. They had both now they don't. They made their bed.

so happy for pikmin 4 i adore this game

@johnedwin not as much as Switches though…😀

@Dark_Knight well the majority of ps games sold are digital..

@Dark_Knight
Its been fixing to drop out of the top 10 since its 2nd week on sale.
Its just fortunate that other game sales have maintained a humble figure.

This is also why it makes zero sense for Sony or MS to buy SquareEnix.

"78,326, meaning that total lifetime sales of the Switch in Japan have now surpassed 30 million, totalling 30,083,509."

Am I missing something with these numbers? Doesn't quite add up unless it was already over 30 mill.

I wouldn't be surprised if the LL's at this point come pre-patched with that final anti-piracy update. I'm a bit surprised actually that the final update didn't cause a spike in demand for non-updated ones.

@Dark_Knight whilst you are right, playstation has become more western oriented, the results speak for themselves. They have been posting record revenue numbers during the last year(8.8 billion in q3 2022 alone), eclipsing anything in their history.
They may have lost some of the Japanese soul, but at the end of the day they are a business. Gaming doesn't revolve around Japan.

@UltimateOtaku91 maybe the developers didn't want to scale back their game, have cartooney graphics. Apparently they went to multiple platforms with the game in early development and considered all the offers they received, before going with playstation and pc.
They obviously made the game they wanted to make, with the graphics, art style and combat that the ps5 enabled them to do. I know the FF traditionalists might not like it, but I think it's a brilliant game.
And you are correct, it's selling much better in the west. In North American charts it was the 2nd biggest game in June, and is the 9th biggest seller of 2023. (Though I will admit Nintendo don't release digital sales numbers for that region so the charts are not the most accurate).

@Thomystic The 3DS Homebrew community found a way to bypass the 11.17 update on New 3DS/2DS consoles, I think it’s only older 3DS models who have issues with Homebrew now

@johnedwin what percentage of Nintendo''s games are sold digitally?

@Dark_Knight I am pretty sure it’s just a timed exclusive….will probably come out later for Xbox and Pc…

30M Switches in Japan alone is quite the feat. Also nice to see Pikmin still doing well in week 2.

Im impressed with how well Pikmin 4 is doing in Japan alone compared to other big games like Kirby Forgotten Land, the Fire Emblem and Xenoblade games even Persona 5 and obviously Final Fantasy it's selling more faster than those games

@SBandy1 my math shows 30,073,509 using the total numbers from the chart, so I guess it's a typo

@CammyUnofficial

Cheers for doing the work!

Regardless 30 million is outstanding.

@Cashews we don't know since nintendo will not share that information..

@Dark_Knight facts are facts Final Fantasy sells best on Playstation than what it does on Nintendo so why would Square Enix regret anything? Also this is just Japan what about the rest of the world where Final Fantasy is doing very well

Maybe this is a sign that Pikmin will become a five year per entry franchise instead of a 10 year per wait franchise

@KBuckley27

I understand what you want to say, but Square Enix expects excellent sales in Japan as well, but obviously the sales in Japan are not going well and Square Enix is ​​obviously not satisfied with that.

@Serialsid

When it comes to Japanese games, it is expected that these games sell very well in Japan, and FF XVI is a clear example of the declining sales of Japanese games in Japan for the PlayStation.

@rockodoodle

My opinion is that future FF games should be available on all platforms, not just PlayStation on day one.

If Nintendolife covers the plane ticket I will travel across Japan to answer the question: where are people buying these 18 2DS LLs? I’ll then embed myself in one of the shops and write a long form feature about it. Hit me up NL!

Wait, Natsu-mon is already out ?! 😯
I will watch the gameplay video from YouTube.

@Dark_Knight That's what Square Enix get for trying to make a Dark Souls clone with the Final Fantasy name slapped on it. In the end Dark Souls fans ain't buying it cause it had nothing to do with Dark Souls and Final Fantasy fans ain't buying it cause the game plays nothing like Final Fantasy.

@johnedwin ah so you have no idea if Nintendo sells most of their games digitally or physically. Interesting you seemed to be so sure earlier.

Sony sells most of their games digitally. But it seems you have no idea how Nintendo sells their games. You simply assume.

@Serpenterror that's SE. They have boardroom meeting and spitball what is popular at that second - and make a forgettable copy of it.

The next one - the splatoon/fortnite spin. That will go over like mud in a diaper.

@Cashews obviously the majority of switch games would be physically due to collecting of carts and resale value..

@johnedwin Digital sales seem quite high for first party software according to this: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2023/230803_2e.pdf

Obviously every piece of software played on a Switch they will be able to track whether they're digital or physical.

@johnedwin Ah yes. Collecting carts. I bet the majority of the world's 129 Million switch owners are avid cart collectors and are interested in reselling their copy of Mario Kart 8 they were given for Christmas to buy Bayonetta 3.

How did I miss such an obvious reason that needs no data what-so-ever?

Sony users don't collect discs because they like sony best of all and switch users do collect carts because they like nintendo best of all. and reselling. I need to tell my 100 digital nintendo games THAT THEY DONT BELONG.

So. Obvious.

I'd really love to see Final Fantasy (and other AAA Square titles) return to Switch as long as they aren't cloud versions

Go Pikmin, go! So glas to see that.

Fantastic sales for Switch. Within 2 years it will become the best selling console ever.

It's funny to me the length some folks will go to damage control the software sales of the PS5 in Japan every week. 🤣🤣

@Dark_Knight could you show me where SE said they are not happy with the games sales numbers in Japan? Or is that you just making an assumption? So you know the numbers in Japan including digital?
SE did an interview where they said they are very happy with the sales numbers and the attach rate globally and they expect it to be a long term seller.

@Serpenterror so it's the number 2 selling game in North America for June, and the 9th best selling game of 2023 for the region but no ones buying it? With 8 days of sales. Yeah OK.
I get it, you don't like the game, but millions of people are loving it.
Again they made the game they wanted to make, nothing to do with Sony. The game was in early development when they pitched it to the different platforms to see who they wanted to partner with.
And even if they had made a traditional FF, nothing to say the sales numbers would be any different. Certainly looking at rpg sells on switch, I don't think it would have been a massive seller on the system.
I mean Xenoblade C3 is only at 1.86 million after all these months, with a 120+ million install base. Pretty awful for such an excellent game. FF16 did 3 million in 3 days with a 40 million install base but you seem to think its a failure?

@KryptoniteKrunch you can set your clock to it, it's quite funny. Reminds me of flat earthers when presented with evidence the earth is round, lot of gish galloping and goalpost moving...I think what gets lost sometimes is that the discussion here is just supposed to be about Japanese charts