Japan: Famitsu sales for February 2019 (Software, Hardware, Publishers)

Yesterday, Famitsu shared their monthly report on video game sales in Japan, this time covering February 2019 (to be more precise, the period going from January 28th to February 24th, so 4 weeks in total).

Let’s start with Software sales. February was far from being the most exciting of months, and as reported by Dengeki last week, sales were dominated by games released in January (and earlier). There is no entry on Nintendo platforms in the Top 5, just a couple of games from December and January respectively.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe sold 129 303 additional units (465 742 units since launch), which is 62% less than in January: a pretty good drop for such a slow month. The drop is even steeper for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (-73%), but still not enough to make it drop below the 100 000 units/month threshold. The game has now sold 2 885 281 units since launch, and should reach 3 million units at retail in early April at the latest.

Here’s the Top 5 Software for February 2019 in Japan, courtesy of Famitsu:

01./01. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III # <RPG> (Square Enix) {2019.01.25} (¥8.800) – 139.950 / 780.356 (-78%)
02./03. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe <New Super Mario Bros. U \ New Super Luigi U> <ACT> (Nintendo) {2019.01.11} (¥5.980) – 129.303 / 465.742 (-62%)
03./02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate # <FTG> (Nintendo) {2018.12.07} (¥7.200) – 110.534 / 2.885.281 (-73%)
04./04. [PS4] Resident Evil 2 # <ADV> (Capcom) {2019.01.25} (¥7.800) – 103.054 / 368.378 (-61%)
05./00. [PS4] Jump Force <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2019.02.14} (¥8.200) – 98.494 / NEW
06./00. [PS4] Anthem (Electronic Arts) – 81 000 / NEW

The Nintendo Switch gets only two spots in the Top 5, due to a lack of notable releases.

PS4 – 3
NSW – 2

Despite not releasing anything at all, Famitsu reports that Nintendo was the most successful publisher in February with 461 000 units sold. It’s actually more than the publishers ranked #2 and #3 combined! Square-Enix sold 238 000 games in February (with most sales coming from Kingdom Hearts 3), while Bandai-Namco (the only publisher that managed to land a new game in the Top 5 Software) sold 215 000 units. Combined, they sold 453 000 games.

Nintendo – 461.000
Square Enix – 238.000
Bandai Namco Games – 215.000

Hardware-wise, sales dropped noticeable for all platforms. But despite that, Nintendo Switch sales remain quite strong… stronger than you would expect given the line-up of new releases. But thanks to the strong line-up of evergreen titles (not just the two games in the Top 5), the Nintendo Switch sold 240 942 units in February, which is nearly 70 000 units more than last year during the same month. 2019 sales are now ahead of 2018 sales by roughly 230 000 units.

Of course, the drop is quite steep compared to January (432 062 units vs 240 942 units), but that was to be expected for February.

With 673 004 units sold as of February 24th, it looks like we can safely expect the Nintendo Switch to reach 1 million units in 2019 alone sometime in Q2 2019 (around May, probably). When exactly this happens will depend on how strong (or weak) sales are in March, and more importantly during the Golden Week. And with 7 562 550 units sold, the Nintendo Switch should reach the 8 million units milestone before the end of the first half of 2019.

Famitsu reports that it’s the 12th month in a row that the Nintendo Switch is the best-selling console in Japan. Also, it took the console 103 weeks to reach the 7.5 million units milestone, which is one week earlier than the Wii (104 weeks).

Meanwhile, Nintendo 3DS sales dropped to 15 551 units this month, which is 3 times less than in January, and over 3 times less than in February 2018. After two months, the Nintendo 3DS has barely sold over 50 000 units in 2019 (59 606 units to be precise), which is nearly 3 times less than last year after the same amount of weeks (164 505 units). Unfortunately, it’s become clear the Nintendo 3DS is most likely never going to reach 25 million units LTD (it’s currently sitting at 24 364 570 units).

Source: Famitsu
Data compiled by Chris1964

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