Yakuza kiwami sold around 220000 copies in japan so it is somewhat matching asia sales. dead or alive extreme 3 matched or exceeded japan sales in asia
https://www.destructoid.com/dead-or-alive-xtreme-3-sold-well-outside-japan-358288.phtml
i think the point is when people say asia or digital, they don't mean to say it sold some crazy number and imply it sold more than what it sold in japan but the people that ridicule them seem to think that is what they are implying. if a certain game sells less than its previous entry, the hope is asia/digital makes up for the drop in sales. a lot of these publishers view asia as a growth market and many are going for simultaneous releases in recent years. scej changed its name to sceja. Their new mobile efforts include asia region as well.
koei tecmo most recent earnings report blurb
"Overseas sales were up 14.1% YoY, led by the release of Attack on Titan. Overseas sales revenue was ¥4,348 million, accounting for 26.2% of total sales revenue. America led the way overseas with an 11.7% share of total sales revenue. Europe had a 5.8% share. Asia has been a growing market for Koei Tecmo thanks to the console, mobile and social gaming divisions and this has led to Asia becoming the second largest overseas region for the company in recent years. Asia accounted for ¥1,445 million sales revenue, up 13% YoY. An 8.7% total share."
obviously there are titles that truly bomb but the hope is not to immediately jump on people that utter the words asia/digital.