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Japanese physical sales neared $3bn in 2023 | Japan Annual Report

Lucia

Lucia

Member
Oct 18, 2021
1,302
Argentina
www.gamesindustry.biz

Japanese physical sales neared $3bn in 2023 | Japan Annual Report

Almost $3 billion was spent on boxed games and hardware in Japan last year, according to Famitsu's annual report.The to…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz
Almost $3 billion was spent on boxed games and hardware in Japan last year, according to Famitsu's annual report.

The total sales of physical games products amounted to ¥403.8 billion ($2.7 billion) from December 26, 2022 to December 31, 2023 – a 7.8% increase compared to ¥384.6 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2022.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game of the year with 1.9 million boxed copies shifted since it debuted in May.

Super Mario Bros Wonder was close behind in second place with 1.5 million boxed copies sold since its release in October.

Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins With Hope saw a surge in sales in December. Since we reported Japan's best-selling boxed games of the year up until December 3 in our annual Year in Numbers report, the Konami title moved up two places ahead of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
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Every game in the top ten were for Nintendo Switch, with seven published by Nintendo (Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is published by The Pokémon Company in Japan).

In terms of hardware, Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling console in Japan with the Nintendo Switch OLED model being the most popular with 2.8 million units sold.

PlayStation 5 came in second at 2.5 million units sold, followed by Xbox Series X|S at 141,712 units sold.
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Below are the top ten best-selling boxed games along with their sales totals for December 26, 2022 to December 31, 2023, courtesy of Famitsu:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,929,603
  • Super Mario Bros Wonder (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,549,401
  • Pikmin 4 (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,119,027
  • Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (Switch, The Pokémon Company) – 907,432
  • Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope (Switch, Konami) – 795,681
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, Nintendo) – 617,223
  • Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Switch, Nintendo) – 514,581
  • Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (Switch, Square Enix) – 510,477
  • Splatoon 3 (Switch, Nintendo) – 503,312
  • Super Mario RPG (Switch, Nintendo) – 447,687
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Kouriozan

Kouriozan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,254
Dragon Quest Monsters 3 did well physical, despite how supply constrained it was (and still is)
 
cjelly

cjelly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,385
What games are PS5 owners playing? Strange there is not a single title in the top 10.
 
BassForever

BassForever

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,037
CT
Witchcraft said:
I mean 8/10 are all Nintendo first party titles. It's pretty obvious Nintendo IP takes up all the oxygen in Japan leaving not much room for everything else.
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I also think PS5 hasn't really gotten many games that appeal to the larger Japanese market. When those games come out like LAD8 they do well... but those games are still often cross gen and do well on the PS4 as well.
 
OP
OP
Lucia

Lucia

Member
Oct 18, 2021
1,302
Argentina
cjelly said:
What games are PS5 owners playing? Strange there is not a single title in the top 10.
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sites.google.com

Game Data Library - 2023 Top 100

Sales data from December 26th, 2022 to December 31st, 2023 Legend PS4: PlayStation 4 SWI: Nintendo Switch PS5: PlayStation 5 XBS: Xbox Series X
sites.google.com sites.google.com
If you look a bit outside the top 10 you can find some PS5 games:
  • Final Fantasy XVI (#12 - 429k)
  • Terf Wizard game (#19 - 187k)
  • Spider Man 2 (#21 - 166k)
  • Armor Core 6 (#24 - 154k)
  • RE4 Remake (#29 - 140k)
The list is still dominated by Switch games.
 
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