Japan: more sales data for Week 41 2017, Lost Sphear (Media Create, Dengeki)

Week 41 (Media Create)

Today, Media Create published their weekly report on video game sales in Japan during Week 41, 2017. It reveals that total Software sales topped 294 000 units, which is only 90.62% of Week 40 sales. Another week of dropping sales, due to the lack of major titles (the best-selling new release barely sold 20 000 units, and none of the other games in the Top 20 even sold that much).

Media Create note that it’s the first time in 3 months and a half that total Software sales have dropped below 300 000 units, which is a clear sign the market is in a pretty slow period (same as usual for October). However, the upcoming weeks have some major releases, such as Super Mario Odyssey on Nintendo Switch (releasing on October 27th), that should allow the market to recover from this slump.

Hardware sales are, quite surprisingly, stable, with 88 000 units sold: that’s only 100.83% of Week 40 sales. In fact, there wasn’t much change in the sales of each individual platforms… not really the most exciting of weeks, that’s for sure!

Source: Media Create

Week 41 (Dengeki)

Dengeki report about 12 000 units sold for Lost Sphear during the first few days, with about 5 000 units on Nintendo Switch (5 046 to be precise). The sell-through is dangerously low: only 20% of all units shipped for Day 1 were effectively sold.

No platform breakdown is provided, so there’s no way to know which one Square-Enix expected the game to be the most successful on… now that it really matter with such poor sales anyway. Unfortunately, there is no way retailers are going to sell all remaining units without resorting to drastic price drops.

This week again, Dengeki provide data for the first half of the current Fiscal Year (April to September). This time, we get the list of the most successful publishers, with their respective market share.

1. Square-Enix: 29.3% (11.3% last year during the same period), a remarkable jump (+18% in one year) mostly due to Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, that has sold over 3 million units (Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation versions combined);
2. Nintendo: 28.8%. The company was carried by the success of the Nintendo Switch and its games: over 1.2 million units for Splatoon 2, over 750 000 units for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and over 240 000 units for ARMS;
3. Bandai-Namco: 7% (down from 11.8%, due to the increase in market shares for Nintendo and Square-Enix). Dragon Quest Heroes: Ultimate Mission X, on Nintendo 3DS, sold over 200 000 units.

Dengeki certainly didn’t miss the fall from grace for Level-5, which went from a 15.5% market share during the first half of Fiscal Year 2016-17 to only 3.4% this year. Of course, that was to be expected, with a new Yo-kai Watch this year, in July. Yo-kai Watch 3 may have sold way below expectations, it’s still much better than what this year’s titles did (Layton’s Mystery Journey and The Snack World).

Nintendo and Square-Enix account for 58.1% of total Software sales: impressive for the two companies, a bit worrying for all the others!

Next, here’s Software sales for each platform:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year (%)
PS4	111,088	38.2％	4,456,099	31.9％
PS3	4,253	1.5％	110,082	0.8％
Vita	20,426	7.0％	846,225	6.1％
Switch	75,084	25.8％	3,276,072	23.5％
Wii U	4,006	1.4％	198,635	1.4％
3DS	75,333	25.9％	5,065,376	36.3％
X One	552	0.2％	10,109	0.1％
Total	290,742	100.0％	13,962,598	100.0％

And here’s Hardware sales:

Platforms	This week	This week (%)	Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year (%)
PS4	24,719	28.0％	795,115	26.0％
PS3	58	0.1％	6,733	0.2％
Vita	3,544	4.0％	128,342	4.2％
Switch	39,581	44.9％	1,286,558	42.0％
Wii U	57	0.1％	3,947	0.1％
3DS	9,154	10.4％	429,244	14.0％
2DS	10,992	12.5％	407,863	13.3％
X One	42	0.0％	2,260	0.1％
Total	88,147	100.0％	3,060,062	100.0％

Finally, here’s the Top 50 Software: coming soon!

Source: Dengeki
Top 50 data compiled by ZSaberLink (NeoGAF)

Click here for more Japanese sales data!