Japan: more sales data for Week 23, 2017 (Media Create, Dengeki)

Week 23 (Media Create)

Today, Media Create published their weekly report on video game sales in Japan during Week 23, 2017. It reveals that total Software sales topped 211 000 units, which is 64.29% of Week 22 sales. Due to the lack of notable releases, sales dropped sharply this week, making Week 23 of the worst weeks on record (even worse than the third week of May 2017).

Media Create also point out that Mario Kart 8 has now sold over 500 000 units (505 000 units), and that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn’t that far (495 000 units) from doing the same.

Finally, they compare the total amount of units sold (Software-wise) for the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U, 15 weeks after launch:

• Nintendo Switch: 1 526 000 (attach rate: 1.60)
• Wii U: 1 189 000 (attach rate: 1.45)

As you can see, the Nintendo is performing significantly better than the Wii U, and that’s with constant Hardware shortages, and without the Christmas holidays.

Source: Media Create

Week 23 (Dengeki)

This week, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe dominated sales for the first time in three weeks, with about 18 000 units. It’s now sold over 559 000 units since launch, and Dengeki note that it’s driving the Nintendo Switch market as a whole.

Hardware-wise, sales are slightly up: +0.9%, with 69 000 units sold. On the other hand, Software sales dropped sharply: -30.3%, with 216 000 units. This drop is obviously due to the lack of significant releases.

Dengeki then point out that so far in 2017, Hardware sales are fairly good, thanks to the strong performance of the Nintendo Switch. However, Software sales are not really improving… quite the opposite: 3.6 million units have been sold so far this year, or a 31.2% drop over the same period last year.

For them, the main factor for this drop is the lack of strong hit to lead the market, but also the widening gap between best-sellers and less successful title (which is as wide as ever).

For example, the number of games in the Top 200 that have sold at least 500 000 units hasn’t changed compared to last year. They give two examples:

• [3DS] Yo-kai Sangokushi (2016): 530 000 units
• [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017): 560 000 units.

However, the number of games that have sold between 200 000 and 500 000 units has dropped from 3 to 1. For games that have sold between 200 000 and 100 000 units, we’ve gone from 5 to 3. And for games with 10 000 to 30 000 units sold, the drop is from 50 to 38. Meanwhile, there’s more games than ever that haven’t even sold 10 000 units: 144 so far this year, as opposed to 122 last year.

72.5% of games released this year haven’t sold that much, a significant increase compared to 2016 (61%).

Once again, the Dengeki writer hopes that the popular upcoming releases (such as Dragon Quest XI: Sugisarishi Toki o Motomete) will help revitalise the market, though there’s also the risk the gap in sales will only widen. Hopefully, those popular titles help move the whole market up, not just a few key titles.

Next, here’s Software sales for each platform:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year (%)
PS4	67,134	31.0％	842,536	23.4％
PS3	3,230	1.5％	34,578	1.0％
Vita	31,470	14.6％	343,418	9.5％
Switch	38,309	17.7％	898,010	24.9％
Wii U	7,087	3.3％	101,881	2.8％
3DS	68,745	31.8％	1,378,651	38.3％
X One	262	0.1％	4,513	0.1％
Total	216,237	100.0％	3,603,587	100.0％

And here’s Hardware sales:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year (%)
PS4	19,878	28.9％	197,863	23.4％
PS3	516	0.7％	4,471	0.5％
Vita	4,402	6.4％	52,891	6.3％
Switch	29,020	42.1％	382,018	45.3％
Wii U	153	0.2％	2,198	0.3％
3DS	12,335	17.9％	169,846	20.1％
2DS	2,459	3.6％	33,822	4.0％
X One	88	0.1％	815	0.1％
Total	68,851	100.0％	843,924	100.0％

Finally, here’s the Top 50 from Dengeki:

Coming soon.

Source: Dengeki
Software sales compiled by: ZSaberLink (NeoGAF)

Click here for more Japanese sales data!