Japan: Famitsu sales for June 2022 (Software, Hardware, Publishers)
Famitsu have shared their latest monthly report on video game sales in Japan, this time covering June 2022 (to be more precise, the period going from May 30th to June 26th 2022, so 4 weeks in total).
Nintendo Switch Sports didn’t stay at the top of the Top 5 Software in June, and despite a good second month, it was outsold by two new games: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles sold 122 512 units during its launch month, which is quite good for a port that came out months after the second season of the anime series finished airing.
That performance is slightly better than that of the PlayStation 4 version (about 120 000 units sold during launch month), which is quite notable as (late) ports rarely do that well compared to the original release (unless there was a major audience mismatch with the initial platforms).
This port didn’t do better than the PS4 and PS5 versions combined (over 206 000 units to date), but if the game keeps on selling in the long run, then it does have a good shot at outselling them. At the very least, the upcoming Season Pass and the third season of the anime should help sustain sales.
As for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, it’s off to a great start with nearly 100 000 units sold at retail alone. With 97 538 units sold in only 3 days, this second Fire Emblem Warriors game did noticeably better than the first one (over 62 000 units sold at launch, with 40 606 units on Nintendo Switch and 21 548 units on New Nintendo 3DS).
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes didn’t sell quite as well as Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (over 173 000 units sold at launch), but then again, the game it’s tied to (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) didn’t sell over 2 million units in Japan alone like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! This second Fire Emblem Warriors game should have no trouble selling over 200 000 units at retail + digital (maybe even at retail alone).
Unfortunately, Mario Strikers: Battle League didn’t do too hot: with only 52 863 units sold, it barely managed to outsell Kirby and the Forgotten Land (even though it was the 3rd month on the market for the pink puff ball).
In comparison, the GameCube and Wii entries of Mario Strikers sold 70 000 units and 32 725 units at launch respectively, but they did manage to end up selling around 200 000 units LTD (195 000 units for the former, and 225 000 units for the latter). Therefore, as long as it enjoys steady sales, Mario Strikers: Battle League should be able to sell about as much as its predecessors.
Strong post-launch support will be key to ensure sales don’t just keep on dropping, though the upcoming Summer holiday season should (hopefully) provide a welcome boost.
Here’s the Top 5 Software for June 2022:
01./00. [NSW] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles # <FTG> (Aniplex) {2022.06.09} (¥6.800) – 122.512 / NEW
02./00. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2022.06.24} (¥7.200) – 97.538 / NEW
03./01. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports <SPT> (Nintendo) {2022.04.29} (¥4.980) – 92.779 / 512.301 (-78%)
04./00. [NSW] Mario Strikers: Battle League <SPT> (Nintendo) {2022.06.10} (¥5.980) – 52.863 / NEW
05./02. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land <ACT> (Nintendo) {2022.03.25} (¥5.980) – 41.523 / 777.810 (-65%)
08./00. [NSW] The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie: Five Memories of My Time with You # <ADV> (Mages.) {2022.06.02} (¥7.800) – ??? / NEW <80-100%>
17./00. [PS4] The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie: Five Memories of My Time with You # <ADV> (Mages.) {2022.06.02} (¥7.800) – ??? / NEW <80-100%>
This month again, the Nintendo Switch grabbed all 5 spots of the Top 5 Software, mostly thanks to the new releases:
NSW – 5
And just like in May, Nintendo sold the most games in June in Japan. Unfortunately, sales took a big hit compared to May (882 000 units sold), partly due to Famitsu including the whole Golden Week in the tracking period for May. Also, the only new Nintendo game in the Top 5 Software (Mario Strikers: Battle League) didn’t really impress: it only accounts for 52 000 of the 392 000 units sold in June.
Aniplex is the second most successful publisher in June with about 124 000 units sold, which come almost exclusively from the Nintendo Switch version of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles. Finally, Koei-Tecmo is ranked #3 with 118 000 units sold (thanks to Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and Taiko Risshiden V DX).
- Nintendo: 392 000 units sold
- Aniplex: 124 000 units sold
- Koei-Tecmo: 118 000 units sold
Hardware-wise, June saw a noticeable drop in sales for the Nintendo Switch with “only” 226 512 units sold. That drop is partly due to the differences in tracking periods (May had 5 weeks, and the whole of the Golden Week, while June only had 4 weeks), but even without those, sales would have been down anyway.
June really wasn’t the hottest of months this year (at least, not sales-wise!), and the new releases didn’t really boost sales. It doesn’t help that shortages are back and are currently impacting the OLED model, though their scope is nowhere near that of the massive shortages in 2020 (following the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons).
Still, it’s quite remarkable that the Nintendo Switch was able to sell over 200 000 units during a slow month in its 6th year on the market, especially with one model not being fully available in stores!
And that’s not all: as of June 2022, the Nintendo Switch has now sold over 25 million units since launch (to be precise, 5 years and 3 months).
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System | This Month | Last Month | Last Year | YTD | Last YTD | LTD |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW # | 226.512 | 367.630 | 323.553 | 2.197.857 | 3.001.457 | 25.117.358 |
| PS5 # | 53.239 | 81.598 | 76.533 | 479.849 | 603.433 | 1.703.184 |
| XBS # | 33.425 | 30.015 | 11.121 | 119.316 | 25.200 | 247.974 |
| 3DS # | 820 | 1.107 | 1.736 | 7.903 | 15.863 | 24.595.351 |
| PS4 # | 134 | 139 | 7.125 | 497 | 80.183 | 9.395.441 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| ALL | 314.130 | 480.489 | 420.068 | 2.805.422 | 3.726.136 | 62.246.507 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| PS5 | 47.674 | 74.905 | 65.886 | 429.926 | 511.829 | 1.459.052 |
| PS5DE | 5.565 | 6.693 | 10.647 | 49.923 | 91.604 | 244.132 |
| XBS X | 12.542 | 5.466 | 8.341 | 40.573 | 17.122 | 113.864 |
| XBS S | 20.883 | 24.549 | 2.780 | 78.743 | 8.078 | 134.110 |
|NSWOLED| 98.400 | 209.361 | | 1.155.295 | | 1.927.423 |
| NSW L | 36.300 | 46.517 | 67.252 | 360.304 | 845.018 | 4.771.088 |
| NSW | 91.812 | 111.752 | 256.301 | 682.258 | 2.156.439 | 18.418.847 |
| PS4 | 134 | 139 | 7.125 | 497 | 79.959 | 7.819.718 |
|n-2DSLL| 820 | 1.107 | 1.736 | 7.903 | 15.863 | 1.200.406 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+Click here for more Japanese sales data!
