[Japan] Famitsu sales for July 2023 (Top 5 Software, Publishers, Hardware)
Here’s the latest sales report from Famitsu, with Hardware and Software sales for July 2023 in Japan (June 26th to July 30th 2023, so 5 weeks in total).
Famitsu
Top 5 Software
This year, the best-selling game in July is none other than Pikmin 4. It sold over half a million units (517,550 units to be precise) at retail alone: by far the strongest performance ever for a Pikmin game in Japan. In fact, with just two weeks of sales, it’s already outsold all other entries except Pikmin 3 Deluxe (and it’s only a matter of time before it outsells that one, too!).
For comparison, during the first two weeks, Pikmin 3 Deluxe sold “only” 239 000 units, and it went on to sell 658 000 units in total.
In July, Pikmin 4 did not have any serious competition to share the spotlight with. It sold over 5 times more than the game ranked #2, which is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game sold an additional 92,559 units in July: a fairly solid performance, especially as digital sales were also quite strong.
As for Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, it’s off to a great start with 74,008 units sold at retail during launch month. While sales are bound to be frontloaded (it’s a linear single-player adventure game, after all), it should have no trouble selling at least 100 000 units at retail alone.
Finally, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe keeps doing what it’s been doing ever since it came out back in April 2017: sell, sell, sell! Sales actually went up in July with over 50 000 units sold (up from 34,429 units sold in June), though that increase is partly due to the greater number of weeks for the July tracking period (5 weeks for July vs 4 for June).
01./00. [NSW] Pikmin 4 <ACT> (Nintendo) {2023.07.21} (¥5.980) – 517.550 / NEW <80-100%>
02./02. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom # <ADV> (Nintendo) {2023.05.12} (¥7.200) – 92.559 / 1.789.784 <80-100%>
03./00. [NSW] Master Detective Archives: Rain Code <ADV> (Spike Chunsoft) {2023.06.30} (¥6.345) – 74.008 / NEW <80-100%>
04./01. [PS5] Final Fantasy XVI # <RPG> (Square Enix) {2023.06.22} (¥9.000) – 68.862 / 404.889 <80-100%>
05./05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe <RCE> (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} (¥5.980) – 51.918 / 5.396.462 <80-100%>
Market share
NSW – 4
PS5 – 1
Publishers
Once again, Nintendo was the most successful publisher in Japan with nearly 1 million units sold at retail (947.000 units sold). The majority of those sales come from Pikmin 4 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with the usual evergreen titles (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc.) making up the rest.
Spike-Chunsoft managed to get in the Top 3 this month with 101 000 units sold, thanks to the strong performance of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code and the promising debut of Natsu-Mon! 20-seiki no Natsuyasumi.
- Nintendo: 947 000 units sold
- Square-Enix: 109 000 units sold
- Spike-Chunsoft: 101 000 units sold
Hardware
Hardware-wise, July was a great month for the Nintendo Switch with over 400 000 units sold. Sales are up compared to June, and while that’s pretty much exclusively due to Famitsu having 5 weeks for July (as opposed to 4 weeks for June), sales remain at an unusually high level for a platform in its 7th year on the market.
It’s not clear when a possible successor will be released just yet (though there’s already been quite a lot of credible ramblings lately), but it’s obvious Nintendo will not have to worry about Hardware sales in the lead up to that new console. With a fairly strong line-up for H2-2023 (Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario RPG, WarioWare: Move It!, a slew of third-party titles, and more), it doesn’t look like sales are going to slow down significantly any time soon.
As of July 2023, the Nintendo Switch has sold over 30 million units in Japan (6 years and 5 months after launch), and there’s little doubt now it will eventually outsell the almighty Nintendo DS (32.99 million units shipped in total). In fact, it should come pretty close to that milestone by the end of the year, so unless Nintendo outright discontinues the Nintendo Switch at the end of December, the console is already guaranteed to become the best-selling console of all time in the country!
- Nintendo Switch: 407.096 units sold in July (380.160 units sold in June)
- PlayStation 5: 243.383 units sold in July (212.521 units sold in June)
Coming soon!
Click here for more Japanese sales data!
Source: Famitsu
Some data compiled by: Chris1964 (Install Base)