
New Zelda weeeeeek!
Yes, a new Zelda game is out and, rather predictably, Echoes of Wisdom has topped the Japanese charts with a total of 200,121 units sold. It's a comfortable win for Nintendo and we suspect the game will retain its position for another few weeks at least with those kind of launch stats.
Otherwise, this week is almost exclusively made up of new releases. EA Sports FC 25 has performed admirably, with the Switch version beating PS5 and PS4, while The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki gives PlayStation another minor boost, coming in at number 2 for PS5 and 3 for PS4.
For the full breakdown, here's a look at the latest top ten in full:
Hardware this week is another indication of the firm grip that a new Zelda release has on the nation: the Switch Lite has actually surpassed the OLED Model to claim the top spot, netting a total of 34,924 sales. The OLED isn't too far off though, and with the OG Switch taken into account, Nintendo has shifted a total of 74,351 consoles.
Meanwhile, PlayStation and Xbox are still hanging on, but honestly, neither platform is performing particularly well at the moment. Especially Xbox. Jeesh...
Here's your look at this week's Japanese hardware chart in full.
Position |
Console |
Unit Sales (23rd - 29th Sep) |
Total Unit Sales |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Switch Lite |
34,924 |
6,098,660 |
2 |
Switch OLED |
34,464 |
7,937,041 |
3 |
PlayStation 5 |
8,978 |
5,202,821 |
4 |
Switch |
4,963 |
19,906,981 |
5 |
PlayStation 5 - Digital Edition |
1,821 |
855,321 |
6 |
Xbox Series S |
370 |
319,278 |
7 |
Xbox Series X |
187 |
307,457 |
8 |
PlayStation 4 |
31 |
7,928,508 |
What do you make of this week's charts? Let us know your thoughts with a comment down below.
[source famitsu.com]
Comments 52
Wait there is another legend of heroes? I am never gonna catch up.
Amazing start for EOW. Great game IMO and really enjoying it.
Poor old Playstation. We'll happily have a port of Astrobot if you want some extra sales. Game deserves better.
Legendary! Such is the Power of Zelda!
Great game so far. Awesome how we can use the many Echoes to progress through the world, overcome challenges, find collectibles and solve puzzles in different ways.
Congrats to Zelda!
@Ryu_Niiyama Personally, I think I'm just gonna play the Trails in the Sky First Chapter remake (and the remake of its sequel if it gets one) and maybe the Daybreak trilogy and leave it at that. I just can't bothered or interested to play every game in chronological order. It'd be like if every new Final Fantasy game was a sequel to the previous one. At least the Ys games can be played in whatever order you want.
@TheExile285 All I can think is, if I can still see, my retirement is gonna be amazing. I have enough backlog to carry me off the mortal coil.
I am heavily considering using the end of this gen to take a break from new game buying though so I can try to catch up (and save money. Time to start focusing on a house or heavy investment ).
totk 1.3 million physical copies japan first 3 days..2.4 million if you include digital..buy comparison link awakening sold 140 thousand its first week in japan but that was in 2019 when tens of millions fewer switches.. i expected a lot more echoes of wisdom first week sales for a zelda game then 200.000... especially since it is a zelda game..
Removed - trolling/baiting
A little bit better PS5 sales for this week. 🙂
@TheExile285 it's why I stopped with the series.
kinda sad that totk sold 1,119,502 in japan its first week compared to this. sure thatll itll be a million seller by the end of the month, but i feel like nintendo needed to promote snd hype this up way more cause its a new big zelda, even if its 2d 🙁🙁🙁
@johnedwin you realize this site is for video game enthusiasts? It's okay to be a dumb fan of a thing. I'm not interested in the EoW Lite but I was all over the Zelda Game and Watch. It's all silly.
Removed - trolling/baiting
@johnedwin There's clearly more fans of the newer designed Zelda games than there is of the "traditional" designed ones. The majority don't want puzzly dungeons they want big open worlds to explore.
But this games budget would have also been a fraction of the cost of BOTW and TOTK, so it will easily still make a profit.
Damn, the Switch really is the little console that could!
Man those Trail games never stopped coming do they. Daybreak II isn't even out on our shores yet and now we got Trails Beyond something (Kai no Kiseki) already in Japan. Also now I know why Astro Bot sell so well.
I still find it crazy how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe always stays in the top ten every week.
@TheExile285 Ooof, really? .. I don't want to gatelock anyone (I think that is the term?), but the Crossbell duology is some of the best story telling in any JRPG, ever. So play these two as well.
As much as I love Cold Steel.. you can probably skip these ones. I love them too bits, but yeah, all four of them are quite lengthy and I understand why you wouldn't want to invest in them. But Crossbell.. is a whole 'nother story
Wow that's a jump from first to second, love to see Echoes of Wisdom selling so well (physically so most certainly even better including digital sales) in Japan!
That said, also happy to see Kai no Kiseki in second and third (fingers crossed it will come also to Switch and/or its successor), Astro Bot in sixth and of course Switch still selling like crazy!
Im so glad astro bot is doing well. I dont have a ps5, but if sony keeps this kind of game output up i may have to consider making an investment!
@johnedwin So the install base discussion really needs addressing amongst fan communities, because it’s actually not how sales trends work on console.
As a platform ages, the number of games increases. So although the potential audience is greater, the competitive landscape is fiercer. In other words, yes there are more players to sell to, but there are also more games trying to sell to them. Including, on Switch, even more Zelda games.
For Zelda in particular, the core fanbase for that were there day one on Switch, too.
@UltimateOtaku91 speak for yourself. I rather have traditional ones then a big open world. Totk shows the fatigue that a big open world that’s technically the same from the first game only bigger and a long game at that can turn some people off after a while. traditional to me is better although that’s my opinion but I am definitely getting tired of open world Zelda. Eow seems ok but it’s clearly totk in 2d from what I have got.
I had fun with it. Glad it seems to be doing well.
@Riku3456 Sorry I didn't mean everyone, but it does seem the majority like the open world games since their sales are the most in the Series by some distance. I don't mind both open world and traditional so it's nice to get both, but it seems any "traditional" ones are going to be low budget and "toy like", id much prefer a traditional game but with the visuals of BoTW.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@johnedwin Traditional Zelda games have never been massive hits in japan.These are some pretty solid numbers.
@UltimateOtaku91 that’s true. I don’t disagree that the majority seems to like the botw open world concept but for totk, the fatigue of a big open world seems like it started to set in. Totk sales slowed down a lot after a few months of launch. It’s launch of course was amazing but it slowed down to a point that even I thought was odd for probably the most anticipated sequel. Also lots of people after playing botw noted that the dungeons in it were pretty terrible and wanted traditional dungeons at least in totk. Totk did get that though which was good. So some people definitely want the traditional too in Zelda games. We are kinda of seeing it in eow which is cool but I don’t like that you can go through puzzles(like totk). Just my opinion.
Like what you are saying, I do think that traditional and open world Zelda games can both be developed. My friends and I think they could still do open world 3D Zelda, 3D traditional Zelda, and 2d Zelda in the future. As hard as that seems. Also going off by aonuma’s comments it seems botw style gameplay and everything like that is done with totk. Looks like they are going to evolve it further with the next big title. Whenever that comes out lol
@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah they aren't even really in the same ballpark. The Traditional 3D Zeldas for consoles didn't sell even 1/3rd as well as BOTW. The topdown Zeldas can sometimes sell less than half the corresponding 3D entry (e.g. Minish Cap compared to Wind Waker on GC) even when they're on a more successful system
than the 3D one.
While BOTW and TOTK did raise Zelda's profile, they just aren't going to make a top-down Zelda games as popular as the Open World ones.
@johnedwin
2nd best first week of any Zelda game in Japan ever. Not sure what you was expecting but you should at least do some research before you start complaining.
Good launch sales for EoW.
@AmplifyMJ
I don't think he realises that "this very successful launch isn't quite as successful as the previous hugely successful Nintendo game launch" isn't the dig he thinks it is.
But considering the gibberish he was talking in the UK charts article I'm not surprised.
Great start for the game in Japan. Hopefully sales in the West will be very strong. Want more 2D Zelda games in the future.
Sales boosts like this make me think they will push out a Switch 2 announcement.
It's nice to see a week of mostly new releases. Only 2 games weren't released in the past month.
@Chibi He's not complaining; he's concern trolling. No rational person expects 2D Zelda to reach BotW/TotK numbers.
Removed - trolling/baiting
Nintendo casually flexing 70k HW and 200k Zelda game launch.
Is PS5 gonna be doomed to 10k range forever not counting temporary bumps like MH Wild releasing?
@Arawn93 i would be shocked if metaphor does not sell close to 200 thousand it's first week launch combined p4/ps5 it is that good..
@johnedwin Why would that game sell anywhere close to 200 especially when it’s not on Switch…? Did you forget how the last non Persona Atlus game that wasn’t on Nintendo did? Soul Hackers 2 PS4 + PS5 barely did 50k.
@Arawn93 because it wont be on switch for a long time since it will be a switch 2 game and it is that good it will sell very well its first week on the ps..
res evil 4 remake sold like 160 thousand it's first week on ps metaphor is a japanese rpg game it will sell well..
Right because remake of beloved Capcom zombie shooter classic (especially in Japan where RE4 was rated the highest) is totally the same thing as new IP jrpg on PlayStation.
I just gave you a more…closer realistic comparison with SH2, but I guess you just want to troll.
@johnedwin
Calm down.
@johnedwin Dragons Dogma 2, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon and Visions of Mana couldn't reach 200k in theur first week so what makes you think Metafor Re Fantazio will?
I believe only one playstation game has year and that was Final Fantasy 7 ReBirth.
Removed - trolling/baiting
@johnedwin Echoes of Wisdom is tracking higher than Link's Awakening Remake, which on it's own is currently the best selling 2D Zelda.
That's the key phrase, 2D Zelda, they're popular in their own right but effectively niche compared to the open world titles.
I really did a double take there wondering what The Legend of Zelda: Kai no Kiseki was and why it was on PS5.
@Seacliff link awakening came out in 2019 there were probably at that time 25 million switch consoles..
Someone in this comment section really needs to learn about the edit function lol. You know… instead of posting like three or four times in a row within a short time frame apart. This isn’t Twitch chat.
@Seacliff Echoes of Wisdom is also tracking closely with Link Between Worlds, which had ~224k sold in Japan its first week (and had a lower price). 😊
@Serpenterror I mean Daybreak 2 released 2 years ago in Japan. They had a year off for Ys X last year.
@Maubari The term is "gatekeep".
@fenlix Traditional Zeldas have been big hits in Japan. It was just a much longer time ago. Ocarina of Time sold 1.76 million copies in Japan and the first three Zelda's were also all million sellers and Phantom Hourglass sold almost a million in Japan.
@johnedwin At the end of 2019 Nintendo had shipped 52 million Switches. 25 million was reached in mid 2018.
@Arawn93 Holy cow, just popped in! @johnedwin uses posts as commas, he's probably got thousands of posts on here but they could easily be hundreds if he just condenses his thoughts down into one or two posts, like I am doing now. I never thought I would still see playground level trolling like this from the guy, this far into the world of the internet but here we are...
Great numbers for Zelda, still in cellophane on the arm of my couch and hope to jump into it this weekend, that price hike is really hurting the Playstation, good to see Astrobot still hanging in there too.
@DwaynesGames Digital Sales are also significantly larger in this era of games too. No hard numbers, but noticably more than the 3DS days and even noticably more compared to five years ago when Link's Awakening released.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...