Japan: digital estimates for October 2016, 2016 best-sellers, more

In its latest issue, Famitsu provides their usual digital estimates for the Japanese market in October 2016 (September 26th to October 30th). October wasn’t that great a month for Nintendo on the digital front, with only one game on a Nintendo platform in the Top 10: Monster Hunter Stories.

The two entries in the Top 30, Mario Party: Star Rush and Paper Mario: Color Splash, didn’t do too well digitally, which isn’t all too surprising since they both had low sales at retail, and digital ratio for games on Nintendo platforms is generally not very high (unless there’s major shortages at launch).

Here’s the Famitsu digital estimates for October 2016 (compiled by Okami):

01. [PS4] Battlefield 1: 43.552 / 43.552 – (Electronic Arts) – {18/10/2016}
02. [PS4] Summer Lesson [PlayStation VR] [PlayStation Store]: 27.027 / 27.027 – (Bandai Namco) – {13/10/2016}
03. [PS4] KITCHEN [PlayStation VR] [PlayStation Store]: 23.454 / 23.454 (Capcom) – {13/10/2016}
04. [PS4] Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization: 22.823 / 22.823 – (Bandai Namco) – {27/10/2016}
05. [PS4] Blazblue: Central Fiction: 15.485 / 15.485 – (Arc System Works) – {06/10/2016}
06. [3DS] Monster Hunter Stories: 12.690 / 12.690 – (Capcom) – {08/10/2016}
07. [PS4] FIFA 17: 10.286 / 10.286 (Electronic Arts) – {29/09/2016}
08. [PSV] Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization: 9.391 / 9.391 (Bandai Namco) – {27/10/2016}
09. [PS4] World of Final Fantasy: 8.428 / 8.428 (Square Enix) – {27/10/2016}
10. [PS4] Persona 5 : 7.344 / 48.948 (Atlus) – {15/09/2016}
11. [PS4] Titanfall 2: 6.069 / 6.069 (Electronic Arts) – {28/10/2016}
12. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price]: 5.545 / 6.006 (Take Two Interactive Japan) – {08/10/2015}*
13. [PSV] World of Final Fantasy: 4.816 / 4.816 (Square Enix) – {27/10/2016}
14. [PS4] Berserk and the Band of the Hawk: 3.849 / 3.849 (Koei Tecmo) – {27/10/2016}
15. [PSV] Demon Gaze 2: 3.690 / 3.690 (Compile Heart) – {29/09/2016}
16. [PSV] Macross Δ Scramble: 3.170 / 3.170 (Bandai Namco) – {20/10/2016}
17. [PS4] Rise of the Tomb Raider: 2.978 / 2.978 (Square Enix) – {13/10/2016}
18. [WIU] Minecraft: Wii U Edition: 2.786 / 172.603 (Microsoft) – {17/12/2015}*
19. [PS4] Winning Eleven 2017: 2.431 / 11.825 (Konami) – {15/09/2016}
20. [PSV] Kangokutou Mary-Skelter: 2.417 / 2.417 (Compile Heart) – {13/10/2016}
21. [3DS] Mario Party: Star Rush: 2.339 / 2.339 (Nintendo) – {20/10/2016}
22. [PS3] Blazblue: Central Fiction: 2.323 / 2.323 (Arc System Works) – {06/10/2016}
23. [WIU] Paper Mario: Color Splash: 2.260 / 2.260 (Nintendo) – {13/10/2016}
24. [PSV] RecoLove: Blue Ocean / Gold Beach: 2.096 / 2.096 (Kadokawa) – {20/10/2016}
25. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition: 1.987 / 348.424 (SCE) – {23/06/2014}
26. [PSV] Yahari Game Demo Ore no Seishun Love-Kome wa Machigatteiru. Zoku: 1.879 / 1.879 (5pb.) – {27/10/2016}
27. [PS3] FIFA 17: 1.737 / 1.737 (Electronic Arts) – {29/09/2016}
28. [3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot: 1.699 / 20.458 (Nintendo ) – {28/04/2016}
29. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sushi / Tempura: 1.151 / 25.277 (Level 5) – {16/07/2016}
30. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons X: God Chapter / Dragon Chapter: 871 / 8.224 (Gung Ho) – {28/07/2016}

Next, here’s the best-selling games for 2016 so far (based on Famitsu data), without any real surprises:

1. [3DS] Pokémon Sun and Moon – 1.905.107
2. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 3: Sushi / Tempura – 1.306.293
3. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 – 609.603
4. [3DS] Yo-kai Sangokushi – 545.653
5. [3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot – 443.029
6. [PS4] Persona 5 – 353.882
7. [PS4] Dark Souls III – 321.931
8. [WIU] Splatoon – 304.142
9. [PSV] Dragon Quest Builders – 287.521
10. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition – 281.083

Unsurprisingly, Pokémon Sun and Moon landed directly at #1. The data shows just how week Software sales have been this year, as only two titles have sold more 1 million unis (and one of them massively underperformed, to boot), and only 4 more than 500 000 units…

Speaking of Pokémon and Yo-kai Watch, here’s how both franchises have been faring this year:

Yo-kai Watch

[3DS] Yo-kai Watch 3: Sushi / Tempura – 1.306.293
[3DS] Yo-kai Sangokushi – 545.653
[3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: White Dog Squad / Red Cat Team – 127.057

Total: 1.979.003

Pokémon

[3DS] Pokémon Sun / Moon – 1.905.107
[3DS] Pokémon OmegaRuby / AlphaSapphire – 174.841
Total: 2.079.948 (not counting Pokémon Red Version / Green Version / Blue Version / Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition on Virtual Console).

Unfortunately for Level-5, Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki is most definitely not going to help beat Pokémon.

Finally, some data for Minecraft: Wii U Edition, which has sold 344 701 units (retail + Famitsu digital estimates) so far. It will end up as the second most popular version in Japan, behind the one on PS Vita.

Source: Famitsu
Data compiled by: Okami