Dropping into the thread for the first time in awhile with somes sales anecdotes from a few hours of shopping in Tokyo (Akihabara and Shibuya) yesterday:
1. As usual with every year, there were long lines, but this year seemed busier than usual because it's a three day weekend, with Dec 23 falling on a Friday.
2. Famicom Mini was restocked at the large retailers. Interest and demand were high and stock seems adequate as many stores in Tokyo still have it a day later. Given the contrasting experience with launch day, I wonder if there are actually more this week than there were in November. Famicom Mini could sell 300-400K this week, perhaps.
3. 3DS XL performed very well as usual and should be the top selling system this week, although interest in the PS4 Slim was also noticeable. Vita and especially Wii U garnered very little interest overall -- Wii U is only available as a Splatoon bundle. In the past few years, I perceived the Wii U to be selling more than PS4 and Vita, but not this year. Didn't see much movement with 2DS either.
4. Pokemon SM will sell the most, followed by Super Mario Maker 3DS. Yokai Watch 3 Sukiyaki should be in a comfortable third place. I observed closely and it was difficult to tell what PS4 games aside from Yakuza 6 were popular. Notably, I did not perceive much, if any interest, in FFXV despite it being ¥2000 yen off MSRP. This could indicate very short legs (I'm behind this theory) or further expectations of price cuts around New Year's. Either way, it and Yokai Watch 3 are definitely the disappointments of the year. And I also noticed renewed interest in New Super Mario Bros. 2. Funny enough, I saw a handful of people buy Super Mario 3D World (more than FFXV, actually, but of course SM3DW won't chart).
5. PS VR was sold out everywhere and the Pro was only in stock at one shop. Still too difficult to tell what the longterm impact these two products will have on the Japanese market.