Japan: more sales data for Week 20 2019, sales seasons (Media Create, Dengeki)

Here’s the latest sales data reports from Media Create, and Dengeki!

Media Create – Day 1 Sell-through (Week 21)

This week, we have the Day 1 sell-through for a few Nintendo Switch games (games and platforms are listed from best-selling to worst-selling):

• [PS4] [NSW] Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (Ubisoft) – 20%. Unexpectedly, sales are quite low;
• [NSW] Resident Evil: Origins Collection (Capcom) – 10%. Extremely poor debut, even for the late port of remasters, but not too surprising for a bundle with only one game on the cartridge;
• [NSW] [PS4] Team Sonic Racing (Sega) – 20-30%. Poor debut, especially as sell-through ratio is based on 3 days of sales (since the game was released on Tuesday);
• [NSW] Minna no Doubutsu Shogi (SilverStar) – No sell-through ratio provided, which is definitely not a good sign. Yes, it downright flopped.

Source: Media Create
Via: hiska-kun (ResetERA)

Dengeki (Week 20)

Dengeki report that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 8 000 additional units this week, bringing total sales to 3.15 million units. Here’s sales for games that did not chart in the Top 10 from Famitsu:

• 19./00. [NSW] Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition (Arc System Works) {2019.05.16} – 1,385 / NEW
• 23./00. [NSW] Hanayaka Kana, Ware ga Ichizoku: Modern Nostalgie for Nintendo Switch (Idea Factory) {2019.05.16} – 1,138 / NEW
• 32./00. [NSW] RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures (Oizumi Amuzio) {2019.05.16} – 858 / NEW

Unfortunately, all those Nintendo Switch games sold really poorly, which isn’t too surprising for a bundle with two ports of old games, a late port, and a game that clearly didn’t appeal to Japanese players (it didn’t get the warmest of receptions in Europe and North America either).

Not that the Golden Week is over, and the Summer season still quite far away, the market is once again down this week:

• Hardware: 46 000 units (-7.8% Year on Year)
• Software: 163 000 (–13.5% Year on Year)

As you can see, the market is pretty sluggish, and in fact, it’s the second week in a row that Hardware sales are below 50 000 units and Software sales below 200 000 units.

As mentioned before, May and June are pretty slow months for the video games market in Japan. Here’s the best and worst 3 months for sales during the past 5 years:

Best months

1. December (19.4%)
2. January (11.1%)
3. November (9.5%)

Worst months

1. June (5.1%)
2. May (5.2%)
3. April (5.8%)

Overall, the games market has three major seasons for sales:

• Summer (July and August)
• Holiday season (November and Decemberà
• Spring (March)

Between 2000 and 2003, sales were divided that way:

• Summer: 18.5%
• Holiday season: 23.8%
• Spring: 11.2%

But things certainly changed over time, as you can see with the data below for the past 5 years:

• Summer: 14.2%
• Holiday season: 28.9%
• Spring: 9.4%

Sales are now clearly concentrated on the end of year holiday season. November to January now account for no less than 40% of total sales during a given year.

During this Fiscal Year, the Nintendo Switch has several major hits lined-up, such as Pokémon Sword and Shield and Animal Crossing. As for the PlayStation 4, Dengeki mention Monster Hunter World: Iceborn.

All those games are not releasing before this Fall, leaving not many major titles for this Summer (it’s not clear why Dengeki ingores Super Mario Maker 2 and Fire Emblem: Three Houses). It’s quite likely than this year again, sales will concentrate on the second half of the Fiscal Year.

Next, here’s Software sales for each platform:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year (%)
PS4	61,251	37.5％	732,056	35.6％
Vita	3,156	1.9％	38,161	1.9％
Switch	86,507	52.9％	1,172,547	57.0％
3DS	10,328	6.3％	107,039	5.2％
ETC	2,218	1.4％	7,817	0.4％
Total	163,460	100.0％	2,057,620	100.0％

And here’s Hardware sales:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year
PS4	10,918	23.9％	105,169	24.6％
Vita	310	0.7％	2,835	0.7％
Switch	31,700	69.4％	289,436	67.6％
3DS	2,625	5.7％	29,757	6.9％
ETC	122	0.3％	1,090	0.3％
合計	45,675	100.0％	428,287	100.0％

Finally, here’s the Top 50 Software:

01./00. [PS4] Ys: Memories of Celceta – Kai (Nihon Falcom) {2019.05.16} – 17,309 / NEW
02./02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) {2018.12.07} – 8,288 / 3,150,310
03./03. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft Game Studios) {2018.06.21} – 7,017 / 817,491
04./01. [PS4] Days Gone (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2019.04.26} – 6,178 / 171,456
05./05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} – 5,471 / 2,166,875
06./04. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo) {2019.01.11} – 5,206 / 638,941
07./06. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World (Nintendo) {2019.03.29} – 4,312 / 144,933
08./09. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Nintendo) {2017.07.21} – 3,876 / 3,010,215
09./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} – 3,500 / 1,019,714
10./07. [NSW] Super Mario Party (Nintendo) {2018.10.05} – 3,335 / 1,037,353
11./10. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software) {2019.03.22} – 2,665 / 272,754
12./13. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! (Pokemon Co.) {2018.11.16} – 2,400 / 676,221
13./11. [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission (Bandai Namco Games) {2019.04.04} – 2,289 / 121,741
14./16. [NSW] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Square Enix) {2019.04.11} – 2,039 / 32,945
15./12. [NSW] Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Square Enix) {2019.04.25} – 1,918 / 29,039
16./14. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! (Pokemon Co.) {2018.11.16} – 1,900 / 839,937
17./15. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! (Bandai Namco Games) {2018.07.19} – 1,759 / 350,222
18./18. [NSW] Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit (Nintendo) {2019.04.11} – 1,624 / 52,389
19./00. [NSW] Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition (Arc System Works) {2019.05.16} – 1,385 / NEW
20./20. [NSW] Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (Capcom) {2019.04.25} – 1,328 / 16,461
21./21. [NSW] Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo) {2018.03.16} – 1,261 / 754,501
22./22. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix) {2019.01.25} – 1,144 / 747,000
23./00. [NSW] Hanayaka Kana, Ware ga Ichizoku: Modern Nostalgie for Nintendo Switch (Idea Factory) {2019.05.16} – 1,138 / NEW
24./24. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) {2017.10.27} – 1,059 / 1,831,954
25./25. [PS4] Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege – Deluxe Edition (Ubisoft) {2019.04.11} – 1,027 / 10,742
26./36. [PS4] Monster Hunter: World [Best Price] (Capcom) {2018.08.02} – 1,015 / 40,884
27./39. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix) {2018.12.20} – 1,011 / 246,384
28./17. [PS4] Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain (D3Publisher) {2019.04.11} – 928 / 82,536
29./33. [PS4] NieR: Automata – Game of the YoRHa Edition (Square Enix) {2019.02.21} – 919 / 36,568
30./19. [NSW] Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization – Deluxe Edition (Bandai Namco Games) {2019.04.25} – 900 / 25,555
31./26. [PS4] Red Dead Redemption II (Take-Two Interactive Japan) {2018.10.26} – 880 / 223,934
32./00. [NSW] RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures (Oizumi Amuzio) {2019.05.16} – 858 / NEW
33./23. [PS4] Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (Ubisoft) {2019.03.15} – 838 / 108,912
34./31. [NSW] Fortnite (Warner Entertainment Japan) {2018.12.13} – 813 / 31,861
35./30. [PS4] Battlefield V (Electronic Arts) {2018.11.20} – 775 / 181,570
36./37. [NSW] Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate [Best Price] (Capcom) {2018.11.15} – 738 / 21,363
37./44. [NSW] FIFA 19 (Electronic Arts) {2018.09.28} – 733 / 83,816
38./94. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix) {2018.12.20} – 680 / 206,521
39./38. [PS4] Marvel’s Spider-Man [Value Selection] (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2019.03.20} – 669 / 7,103
40./29. [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces (Nintendo) {2018.06.22} – 659 / 431,819
41./34. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two Interactive Japan) {2018.12.06} – 656 / 26,157
42./32. [PS4] Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition (Sony Interactive Entertainment) {2015.12.03} – 656 / 375,645
43./27. [NSW] Super Bomberman R [Smile Price Collection] (Konami) {2018.11.29} – 656 / 25,272
44./35. [NSW] Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! (Square Enix) {2019.03.20} – 644 / 39,400
45./55. [NSW] Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit (Nintendo) {2018.04.20} – 567 / 255,190
46./28. [PS4] Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom) {2019.03.08} – 533 / 190,474
47./42. [PS4] Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! (Square Enix) {2019.03.20} – 525 / 36,083
48./46. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun (Pokemon Co.) {2017.11.17} – 524 / 907,321
49./45. [PS4] Eve: Rebirth Terror (El Dia) {2019.04.25} – 513 / 8,339
50./47. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Moon (Pokemon Co.) {2017.11.17} – 506 / 877,962

Source: Dengeki
Data compiled by: ZSaberLink (ResetERA)

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