Japan: Famitsu sales for October 2020 (Software, Hardware, Publishers)

Famitsu have shared their monthly report on video game sales in Japan, this time covering October 2020 (to be more precise, the period going from September 28th to October 25th, so 4 weeks in total).

This month, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is back at the top with 131 655 units sold in October. It’s the 7th month at the top, but not in a row: last month, Super Mario 3D All-Stars was #1 (it sold 81 489 units in October). Famitsu expects the latest entry in the Animal Crossing series to reach the 6 millions units milestone at retail alone in November.

There’s one entry on Nintendo Switch this month: Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, which is off to a decent start 81 609 units. As explained in the weekly charts posts, holiday sales will be key for this game, and it’s too early to say whether the game is a success or not.

As for Ring Fit Adventure, it’s the 3rd month in a row that it ranks #2. Sales have been fairly strong lately, thanks to bigger shipments (demand is still far from being met, though).

Here’s the Top 5 Software for October 2020:

01./03. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2020.03.20} (¥5.980) – 131.655 / 5.885.737 (+5%)
02./02. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure <HOB> (Nintendo) {2019.10.18} (¥7.980) – 115.081 / 1.717.266 (-37%)
03./00. [NSW] Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit – Mario Set / Luigi Set <RCE> (Nintendo) {2020.10.16} (¥9.980) – 81.609 / NEW
04./01. [NSW] Super Mario 3D All-Stars <Super Mario 64 \ Super Mario Sunshine \ Super Mario Galaxy> <ACT> (Nintendo) {2020.09.18} (¥6.480) – 81.489 / 355.428 (-70%)
05./00. [PS4] FIFA 21 # <SPT> (Electronic Arts) {2020.10.09} (¥7.909) – 49.645 / NEW

Once again, the Nintendo Switch has the most games in the Top 5 Software, thanks to the strong performance of its evergreen titles and its latest releases:

NSW – 4
PS4 – 1

Nintendo was once again the most successful publisher this month with 631 000 units sold. It’s the only publisher with sales over 100 000 units in October, which really was not the most exciting of months!

Here’s the Top 3 Publishers for October 2020:

01. Nintendo: 631 000 units sold
02. Electronic Arts: 80 000 units sold
03. Bandai-Namco: 44 000 units sold

Hardware-wise, Nintendo Switch sales went back up this month, with 360 288 units sold (vs. 342 102 units in September). Shortages are still pretty much a thing, but only the OG model and the Animal Crossing: New Horizons bundle are still getting lotteries at retailers since demand has stabilised for this particular model.

Sales are still unusually high for the season, especially without a new model or even a truly major release (Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit didn’t sell enough to have a notable impact on sales). It will be interesting to see how the console fares during the last two months of the year, especially compared to last year when sales were quite strong.

Here’s Hardware sales for October 2020:

+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System | This Month | Last Month |  Last Year |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW # |    360.288 |    342.102 |    269.322 |  4.314.373 |  2.787.946 |  15.697.804 |
| PS4 # |     17.726 |      8.732 |     35.021 |    491.567 |    906.933 |   9.239.810 |
| 3DS # |      3.979 |     10.872 |      4.695 |     56.835 |    170.295 |  24.552.982 |
| XB1 # |        160 |        124 |        427 |      3.306 |      5.650 |     114.552 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|  ALL  |    382.153 |    361.830 |    309.573 |  4.866.081 |  3.908.173 |  49.605.148 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| NSW L |     86.599 |    122.722 |     93.478 |  1.716.218 |    352.171 |   2.761.601 |
|  NSW  |    273.689 |    219.380 |    175.844 |  2.598.155 |  2.435.775 |  12.936.203 |
| XB1 X |         95 |         74 |        236 |      2.287 |      3.770 |      20.929 |
| XB1 S |         65 |         50 |        191 |      1.019 |      1.880 |      21.621 |
|PS4 Pro|        845 |      2.688 |     14.640 |    179.884 |    331.742 |   1.574.854 |
|  PS4  |     16.881 |      6.044 |     20.381 |    311.683 |    575.191 |   7.664.956 |
|n-2DSLL|      3.894 |     10.674 |      4.244 |     54.057 |    140.172 |   1.158.303 |
| n-3DS |         85 |        198 |        451 |      2.778 |     29.032 |   5.888.693 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+

Click here for more Japanese sales data!

Source: Famitsu
Data compiled by: Chris1964 (ResetERA)