Japan: Famitsu sales for March 2020 (Software, Hardware, Publishers)
Famitsu have shared their monthly report on video game sales in Japan, this time covering March 2020 (to be more precise, the period going from February 24th to March 29th, so 5 weeks in total).
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the best-selling game in March, and by a wide margin: it sold 2 608 417 units at retail alone, nearly 5 times more than all other games in the Top 5 combined. It will not take too long for it to end up outselling the current best-selling game on Nintendo Switch (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, currently sitting at 3 623 000 units sold).
Animal Crossing: New Horizons also had a much better second week than Animal Crossing: New Leaf (137 000 units sold back in 2012), and so it’s expected to keep breaking sales records in the weeks and months ahead.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is far behind with “only” 218 394 units sold, which is far from a bad performance for a remake… quite the opposite!
01./00. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2020.03.20} (¥5.980) – 2.608.417 / NEW
02./00. [NSW] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2020.03.06} (¥5.980) – 218.394 / NEW
03./00. [PS4] Nioh 2 <RPG> (Koei Tecmo) {2020.03.12} (¥7.800) – 129.302 / NEW
04./03. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2019.11.15} (¥5.980) – 96.736 / 3.542.524 (+1%)
05./00. [PS4] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2020.03.26} (¥7.800) – 75.998 / NEW
Once again, Nintendo was the most successful publisher in Japan, with over 3 million units sold. Even without Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo would have ended at #1, thanks to the strength of its evergreen titles. The Pokémon Company is ranked #2 thanks to the great debut of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, and the steady sales of Pokémon Sword and Shield (very slightly up compared to February).
Finally, Bandai-Namco is #3, in great part thanks to One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
- Nintendo: 3 044 000 units sold
- The Pokémon Company: 334 000 units sold
- Bandai-Namco: 253 000 units sold
Hardware-wise, the Nintendo Switch reached another milestone, barely a month after the previous one: 13 million units sold since launch (a little over 3 years after launch). This is due to the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the special bundle, and the new Coral colour for the Nintendo Switch, which caused a massive increase in sales: they went from 298 865 units to 836 094 units sold.
Famitsu also point out that the Nintendo Switch has now completely outsold the Wii (12 748 000 units LTD):
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System | This Month | Last Month | Last Year | YTD | Last YTD | LTD |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW # | 836.094 | 298.685 | 296.219 | 1.700.352 | 969.223 | 13.083.783 |
| PS4 # | 64.492 | 27.336 | 135.908 | 170.086 | 444.487 | 8.918.329 |
| 3DS # | 5.752 | 2.961 | 26.894 | 15.170 | 86.500 | 24.511.317 |
| XB1 # | 840 | 185 | 547 | 1.402 | 1.769 | 112.648 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| ALL | 907.178 | 329.167 | 473.948 | 1.887.010 | 1.533.041 | 46.626.077 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW L | 623.192 | 136.741 | | 964.090 | | 2.009.473 |
| NSW | 212.902 | 161.944 | 296.219 | 736.262 | 969.223 | 11.074.310 |
| XB1 X | 614 | 93 | 402 | 934 | 1.371 | 19.576 |
| XB1 S | 226 | 92 | 145 | 468 | 398 | 21.070 |
|PS4 Pro| 19.902 | 10.441 | 39.819 | 68.470 | 154.057 | 1.463.440 |
| PS4 | 44.590 | 16.895 | 96.089 | 101.616 | 290.430 | 7.454.889 |
|n-2DSLL| 5.340 | 2.767 | 22.142 | 14.250 | 67.964 | 1.118.496 |
| n-3DS | 412 | 194 | 4.752 | 920 | 17.445 | 5.886.835 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+Click here for more Japanese sales data!
Source: Famitsu
