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Famitsu: Japan's 21st Century Top 100 Selling Games

cafemomo

Member
I find it intresting that the strugglin Ps Vita has sold more than Xbox 360

WiiU & Vita will also outsell the upcoming xbox one

Japan will always be a loosing market for MS. No amount of my little kinects can't be this cute or moneyhatted jrpgs will save them
 
How many of those are not handheld titles and were released in the past 5 years?

I'm sorry, I love Nintendo, and I want them to do well. But looking at a chart dominated by handheld sales does nothing to brush aside the popular opinion that Nintendo has been failing in the home console market. No one has ever questioned their handheld prowess, but if they showed maybe a fraction of the marketing effort for their home consoles, we wouldn't see as many "Nintendo am doomed!" posts.
You'll note that outside of Nintendo, the amount of console games meeting that criteria is just one, meaning 3/4 recent console games on the list are Nintendo (and those 3 sold much higher than FFXIII, the one exception). The truth is that Japan has largely moved from consoles to portables, whether you like it or not. That's why it's a joke to judge a home console's success by Japanese sales nowadays. Like, I honestly doubt the ps4 will do that amazingly in Japan either because the state of that market has changed
 

Sinople

Member
I say bullshit. XIII sold that much on a system with over 11 million less consumer base. XIII's number are actually impressive considering.

You're missing the point.
FFXIII's number is impressive but so is the drop to XIII-2. More than half the people who bought XIII skipped XIII-2, whereas X-2 sold just a little less than X.
 

Oare

Member
how would i know? uh, because there's 10 million of them.

You have to take into account the fact that a sizable share of those 10 millions (including myself) are using their PS3 in a mostly casual fashion.
I remember SCEJ announced they had sold 1 million units of their PS3 TV recording peripheral Torne about two years ago, when PS3 total numbers were probably around the 9 millions mark.
Meanwhile, there is only one game that ever hit that same 1 million mark: FFXIII.
 

Yanikun

Banned
31 2,229,000 NDS English Training

WTF??? I mean, sure, learn English, but the 31st best selling game?

My sister-in-law is 17 and has, I think, four DS games, and I know three of them are English Training, Tomodachi Collection and Animal Crossing. I forgot the fourth one but I think it's another "Learn English"-type software.

= Japanese kids.
 

injurai

Banned
PSP vs Vita...

thats really a shame to see, and 3DS sales makes me think the Vita will be primarily a SCEE supported device. Not sure we will get many amazing JRPGs on it.
 

Toth

Member
You're missing the point.
FFXIII's number is impressive but so is the drop to XIII-2. More than half the people who bought XIII skipped XIII-2, whereas X-2 sold just a little less than X.

Not as crazy when you realize that even with that drop, 13-2 still sold to about 9.4% percent of its user base. That's only slightly below FF12's ratio of 11% to games/system sold. There are many ways to spin this into a positive as you could as a negative.

This does not even take into account digital sales, which to be fair were never heard of in the PS2 era.
 
Japan will always be a losing market for MS.
From the sound of it, though, the XBOX 360 was extremely poorly advertised in Japan. And that Japan lacked commitment in getting Japanese software on their platform.

Early on in the live of the XBOX 360, Microsoft tried very hard at getting Japanese audiences to buy the system. But it seems that Microsoft was very quick on give up on that matter. Past titles like Blue Dragon, the PlayStation 3 started taking off, and Microsoft stopped making an effort to get titles like it on their system.

I don't think it is impossible for a non-Japanese system to be very successful in Japan. Microsoft just handled it poorly.
 
Not as crazy when you realize that even with that drop, 13-2 still sold to about 9.4% percent of its user base. That's only slightly below FF12's ratio of 11% to games/system sold. There are many ways to spin this into a positive as you could as a negative.

This does not even take into account digital sales, which to be fair were never heard of in the PS2 era.
To my understanding Digital sales are pretty much negligible for the vast majority of titles in Japan. Animal Crossing New Leaf had quite a few, but it was an exception due to the nature of the game as well as a digital push made by Nintendo for that game. I doubt digital sales would have much of an impact on this chart
 

Kard8p3

Member
It's crazy how much software Nintendo has sold in the last decade in Japan. Seeing all this Nintendomination makes me wonder why the N64, Gamecube, and currently the Wii U haven't done well in Japan. I know Sony dominated with the Playstation and PS2 but based on these number you'd think Nintendo would've still done well.
 
Famitsu: Japan's 21st Century Top 100 Selling Games

  • Sales from Jan. 1st 2001 to Sep. 29th 2013.
  • Does not combined "best" re-releases
  • Does not include downloads bought directly on PSN, eShop or Xbox Live
  • Includes download cards sold by retailers
  • Includes copies bundled with hardware


  • Surely if they counted XBox Live downloads this list would be totally different.
 

narton

Member
Wii with respectable numbers. Melee with a little over a million at #51.I guess Japan didn't take too kindly to Brawl.
 

Shogun1337

Junior Member
  • Sales from Jan. 1st 2001 to Sep. 29th 2013.
  • Does not combined "best" re-releases
  • Does not include downloads bought directly on PSN, eShop or Xbox Live
  • Includes download cards sold by retailers
  • Includes copies bundled with hardware

OVERALL

Code:
   #   TOTAL       SYS  TITLE                                                     PUBLISHER              RELEASE
   1   6,424,000   NDS  New Super Mario Bros.                                     Nintendo              2006-05-25
   2   5,827,000   NDS  Pokémon Diamond / Pearl                                   Pokémon Co.           2006-09-28
   3   5,489,000   NDS  Pokémon Black / White                                     Pokémon Co.           2010-09-18
   4   5,337,000   GBA  Pokémon Ruby / Sapphire                                   Pokémon Co.           2002-11-21
   5   5,239,000   NDS  Animal Crossing: Wild World                               Nintendo              2005-11-23
   6   5,082,000   NDS  Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day               Nintendo              2005-12-29
   7   4,568,000   WII  New Super Mario Bros. Wii                                 Nintendo              2009-12-03
   8   4,503,000   PSP  Monster Hunter Freedom 3                                  Capcom                2010-12-01
   9   4,156,000   NDS  [b]Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies[/b]            Square Enix           2009-07-11[/QUOTE]

[B] So that's why Square Enix is so obsessed with mobile now...[/B]
 

Toth

Member
To my understanding Digital sales are pretty much negligible for the vast majority of titles in Japan. Animal Crossing New Leaf had quite a few, but it was an exception due to the nature of the game as well as a digital push made by Nintendo for that game. I doubt digital sales would have much of an impact on this chart

Ah, true but the heavy DLC of FF13-2 is an area that I really would love to see hard numbers on. If even half of the WW sales bought Sazh, Snows', and Lightning's DLC, they would have made like a sales equivalent of 300k more sales.

But alas SE is tight on it.


BUT a big shout out to FFVIII being one of most successful games of all time : ) Kneel before Triple Traid!!!!
 

Sinople

Member
Not as crazy when you realize that even with that drop, 13-2 still sold to about 9.4% percent of its user base. That's only slightly below FF12's ratio of 11% to games/system sold. There are many ways to spin this into a positive as you could as a negative.

This does not even take into account digital sales, which to be fair were never heard of in the PS2 era.

Percentage to user base is not the problem. X and XIII numbers are pretty close, which means the same fanbase was present in both case. PS2 had a far more varied and rich library compared to the PS3, so the user base was naturally higher.

As for digital sales, it's difficult to know much it sold but it wasn't probably much. If you insist to say it's important, then let's take into account XIII-2 was thrown into the bargain bin during it's first month in Japan, and so many people bought it for half or even a quarter of its price, me included.

XIII-2 sold very well for a PS3 title but the drop from the previous entry is something unseen before for the series. There's no arguing many, many players were disappointed with XIII looking at those sales numbers.
 

injurai

Banned
It's crazy how much software Nintendo has sold in the last decade in Japan. Seeing all this Nintendomination makes me wonder why the N64, Gamecube, and currently the Wii U haven't done well in Japan. I know Sony dominated with the Playstation and PS2 but based on these number you'd think Nintendo would've still done well.

I could be wrong in thinking this. But kids really abandon a lot of the gaming, manga, anime habits after college. Even if they want to, its so frowned upon and there is so much pressure on them.

It seems each generation sort of defines what the go to system is. On top of that Japan has had a mobile fashion industry surrounding their phones much longer than the US and Europe. iOS has been particulary embraced, and mobile iOS games are much more palatable than shoehorning more western titles onto touchscreen controls.
 

Sinople

Member
It can be spun either way. Lightning Returns numbers will be interesting.

I'm not spinning anything, I'm just looking at hard numbers and applying basic logic.
Product A sold such amount, its sequel, product A-2, sold 84% of A numbers.
Product B sold such amount, its sequel, product B-2, sold 46% of B numbers.
A was liked, B less so. Period.

Anyway, I agree it will be interesting to see how LR performs, especially compared to X/X-2 HD.
 

Faustek

Member
WiiU & Vita will also outsell the upcoming xbox one

Japan will always be a loosing market for MS. No amount of my little kinects can't be this cute or moneyhatted jrpgs will save them

From what I get it the companies lost more than they gained when they teamed up exclusivly with Microsoft. At least if I should believe the so called "hardcore" group on a certain chan board.

From the sound of it, though, the XBOX 360 was extremely poorly advertised in Japan. And that Japan lacked commitment in getting Japanese software on their platform.

Early on in the live of the XBOX 360, Microsoft tried very hard at getting Japanese audiences to buy the system. But it seems that Microsoft was very quick on give up on that matter. Past titles like Blue Dragon, the PlayStation 3 started taking off, and Microsoft stopped making an effort to get titles like it on their system.

I don't think it is impossible for a non-Japanese system to be very successful in Japan. Microsoft just handled it poorly.

As I mentioned above, how true can that be? If your tag is valid that is :D
 

Ratrat

Member
PSP vs Vita...

thats really a shame to see, and 3DS sales makes me think the Vita will be primarily a SCEE supported device. Not sure we will get many amazing JRPGs on it.
The vita has pretty good third party support already. As for great jrpgs, have you heard of Falcom?
 

Faustek

Member
The vita has pretty good third party support already. As for great jrpgs, have you heard of Falcom?

Add Atlus to that.

I will seriously feel offended if P5 doesn't end up on it...for about 30 seconds then I'll just be offended by the dreary wait time for localization, then offended because I had to import it and finally offended a last time because I had to double dip because they changed the European LE and I want that one as well.
 

Keyouta

Junior Member
Pokemon Black/White was really crazy, so close to beating Diamond/Pearl if its legs weren't cut short by launching so close to the 3DS along with X/Y coming 3 years after it.
 

mantidor

Member
What I'm most shocked is that the best selling game is only in the 6 million mark. This is a country of 127 million people, heavily technologically inclined, I would have expected a bigger number to be honest, maybe the market in Japan is really dying, how did previous generations perform there?

fake edit: ok this is usually how games perform there, this is eye opening, I was always under the impression worldwide gaming sales were half the US, half Japan, rest of the world gets the scraps.
 

CHC

Member
Oh my God those Vita numbers are terrifying next to the juggernaut that is Nintendo. Don't get me wrong I love my Vita but damn I feel like kind of a bum now, like I'm off the map here.
 

terrisus

Member
Very comprehensive listing of various things there. Thank you very much for sharing with us Road.

EDIT: Looking over everything, I think the most surprising thing to me is how much Super Mario Land sold. I didn't realize it had sold nearly that much.
 

starmud

Member
it still amazes me what the ds did for animal crossing as a franchise.

also being a somewhat weak entry in the series to boot... >___>

thinking back to the original and all the confusion and non-game scorn it got on gamecube, to where it is grew a gen later... even while being a fan, thinking AC would be a system seller much less twilight other nintey franchises sans mario/pokemon...

also, nice to see some kirby hanging around. now only if LM2 can climb to that 1m...
 
Code:
         209,000   360  Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope                               Square Enix           2009-02-19
         204,000   360  Tales of Vesperia                                         Bandai Namco          2008-08-07
         204,000   360  Blue Dragon                                               Microsoft             2006-12-07
Kind of adorable how close they are. Gives you a good idea what the RPG playing audience on the system is in Japan. I must say I'm surprised of the attach rate of these titles though. Figured it would be higher than this.
 
D

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member
What I'm most shocked is that the best selling game is only in the 6 million mark. This is a country of 127 million people, heavily technologically inclined, I would have expected a bigger number to be honest, maybe the market in Japan is really dying, how did previous generations perform there?

fake edit: ok this is usually how games perform there, this is eye opening, I was always under the impression worldwide gaming sales were half the US, half Japan, rest of the world gets the scraps.

I think the upper limits remain the same but overall there are less games that hit the million mark. I remember seeing a comparison chart with top selling games from the 90s.

Also, FFXIII sales was really good for amount of PS3s that were in the market when it launched. It was around 4 to 5 million PS3s sold back then. The drop however does indicate that players who bought the first didn't want to return to the sequel.

The drop between PS2 and PS3 hardware sales also suggests that the market might indeed be moving towards handheld and mobile at the expense of consoles. We shall see in Feb 2014 and beyond.
 

javac

Member
Those 10 million didn't just appear in the last year, but the last 7 or so, hence you can't know how many of those are still active home console gamers. And considering that only 1 PS3 game makes the list, this isn't exactly the safest bet you're making.

So what your saying is home consoles in general from ALL THREE manufacturers don't sell very well in Japan these days. So why the extra burden on Nintendo? I get that the Wii U is selling badly everywhere so it needs to pick up the flack, but this is about sales in japan and let's be honest at least Nintendo have something that's actually selling well HW/SW wise in Japan handheld or otherwise.
 
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