Japan: more sales data for Week 18, 2016, Golden Week, Kirby: Planet Robobot
Today, Media Create released its weekly report for video game sales in Japan, providing us with more sales data for Week 18, but also the Golden Week. During Week 18, a total of 480 000 units were sold Software-wise, which amounts to 62.99% of Week 17. This noticeable drop is mainly due to the total lack of new releases (a pretty normal thing for the Golden Week).
According to Media Create, total Software sales for the Golden Week in 2016 (April 25th to May 8th) are about 1 242 000 units: that’s slightly better than last year (April 27th to May 10th), when 1 144 000 units were sold. Sales for 2016 amount to 108.56% of sales for 2015, which is mainly due to two key titles: the latest Powerful Pro Baseball and Kirby: Planet Robobot.
Talking of Kirby: Planet Robobot, it sold about 225 000 units since launch. According to Dengeki, the game has sold 210 000 units during the first two weeks, as opposed to about 300 000 units for Kirby Triple Deluxe after the same amount of days on the market.
One of the reason Kirby: Planet Robobot is selling worse than its predecessors seems to stem from the change in “style”. Kirby Triple Deluxe was more mainstream, and attracted both male and female (young) players. On the other hand, Kirby: Planet Robobot puts the focus on the Robobot Armour (basically a mecha) and a mechanised world, and as a result, seems to be attracting less female players this time around.
Hardware-wise, sales for the Golden Week 2016 amount to 98.07% of sales for 2015. The drop is exclusively due to the Wii U and its shortages, as sales for Nintendo’s home console only amount to 50.67% of its sales for the Golden Week in 2015. On the other hand, sales of the New Nintendo 3DS XL were pretty strong (114.30% of Golden Week 2015 sales).
Based on Dengeki numbers, sales during the Golden Week dropped by 5% for Hardware, and increased by 5.4% for Software. While this may seem poisitive, the thing is, 2016 wasn’t a very good year… Compared to the Golden Week in 2012, Software sales are down by 36%, and Hardware sales by 48.1%… talk about a massive drop!
Source: Media Create / Dengeki
