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[ArtHands]

Nintendo has now trumped Sony for 20 years in Japan | VGC

Switch comfortably took the majority of Japan’s best-selling games in 2024…

www.videogameschronicle.com

On Monday, Famitsu published its final weekly software chart for 2024. Although the publication has yet to collate an annual chart, Game Data Library’s archive confirms that at least 13 of the 15 best-selling console games last year were Nintendo Switch titles.

Only one non-Nintendo title made the top ten last year: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PS5, which charted tenth. The other PS5 title in the top 15 is Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake at 14th.

That means Nintendo has now dominated the physical software charts in Japan every year since 2005. In 2004, eight out of the top 10 best-selling games were PS2 titles, but Nintendo has taken the majority of Japan’s top ten sellers every year since.

Based on Famitsu’s weekly hardware sales for 2024, Switch was also comfortably the year’s best-selling hardware platform, with PS5 outselling Switch (all versions combined) during only three weeks of the year.

That means Nintendo has had the best-selling game hardware in Japan in all but one year (when PSP was the leading platform) for the past two decades, across Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Switch.


Despite approaching eight years since it launched, analysis of Nintendo’s financial data and weekly Famitsu sales shows that Switch sold just over 3 million units in Japan last year. That compares to over 4 million in 2023, and nearly 5 million in 2022.

Nintendo’s closest competitor in Japan, PlayStation 5, sold around 1.4 million units in 2024, based on Famitsu’s weekly sales data. That’s significantly lower than the 2.6 million units PS5 sold in 2023, when availability of consoles was boosted following Covid-related supply issues. Sony also raised the price of PS5 in Japan by 20% last year.

At over 35 million sales total, Nintendo Switch is Japan’s best-selling game console to date, beating Nintendo DS’s 33 million.

 

[Kilau]

 

[iHaunter]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

 

[ReBurn]

Thanks, now I have epilepsy

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Not surprised mobile gaming is huge in Japan.

 

[LordOcidax]

 

[daclynk]

 

[{insert code here}]

Nintendomination

 

[blacktout]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

In Japan?

 

[TheChadOfGaming]

 

[Fake]

Poor Sony. At least they have western, right?

 

[Kotaro]

Japan is and has always been Nintendo-land, PS2 era was a fluke

 

[Syphon Filter]

Japan is and has always been Nintendo-land, PS2 era was a fluke

did n64 sell better in japan than ps1?

 

[Kataploom]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

Do you mean the prize that's picked arbitrarily by judges or owner tastes/deals?

 

[Syphon Filter]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

goty is subjective.

 

[MayauMiao]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

You need to stop relying on GOTY to measure a game's financial success.

 

[pulicat]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

The award that matters in Japan is Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's award since it's being handed by the government instead of Fanboy like Geoff, and it actually takes sales numbers into consideration because of thier contribution towards the Japanese economy, so niche games aren't going to win.

Grand Prize Winners from 2017-2023
Zelda BOTW
Monster Hunter World
Smash Bros Ultimate
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Monster Hunter Rise
Elden Ring
Zelda TOTK

 

[kazuyamishima]

The PS2 was the last Sony home console to have a sound success in Japan, yet a lot of people are expressing that Sony don’t care about Japan.

 

[pulicat]

The PS2 was the last Sony home console to have a sound success in Japan, yet a lot of people are expressing that Sony don’t care about Japan.

Sony did care about Japan when they pretty much moneyhatting the entire Japanese 3rd party developers, but it subsequently strengthened the popularity of Nintendo 1st party games at the same time.

Final Fantasy series sales went from 3 million to 500k because of the consequences of being bought by Sony, while Nintendo games went from 500k to 5 million.

 

[Robb]

 

[reinking]

 

[MacReady13]

Great news! So happy that Japan is still so strong with Nintendo. It’s where it all started for me as a kid. Japanese games are what got me into gaming and they are what is keeping me gaming today. Long may Nintendo reign supreme in Japan and continue pumping out classic console games.

 

[ArtHands]

Sony did care about Japan when they pretty much moneyhatting the entire Japanese 3rd party developers, but it subsequently strengthened the popularity of Nintendo 1st party games at the same time.

Final Fantasy series sales went from 3 million to 500k because of the consequences of being bought by Sony, while Nintendo games went from 500k to 5 million.

Guessing that’s the reason why Square Enix is so eager to return to Nintendo with Final Fantasy

 

[Hudo]

Sony did care about Japan when they pretty much moneyhatting the entire Japanese 3rd party developers, but it subsequently strengthened the popularity of Nintendo 1st party games at the same time.

Final Fantasy series sales went from 3 million to 500k because of the consequences of being bought by Sony, while Nintendo games went from 500k to 5 million.

It's also much harder to moneyhat every third party dev because games are so expensive to make nowadays. It's much wiser to spend these billions building up your own first-party, imho.

 

[Hero_Select]

Guessing that’s the reason why Square Enix is so eager to return to Nintendo with Final Fantasy

Where it truly belongs

 

[GigaBowser]

Hasn't Sony won GOTY every other year or something?

 

[Hookshot]

Seeing how the PS5 is selling worse than the PS4 there even with the millions in sale to overseas Chineses buyers I’d say next gen Sony will be doing Xbox numbers there, only without a successful franchise like Minecraft charting weekly.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Nintendo deserves it to be fair. Just stuck to what they do best, never waivered. No trend chasing, just unadulterated GAMEPLAY!

 

[hemo memo]

Sony shifted its focus away from Japan, and in response, Japan largely moved on from Sony. Today, Sony operates more like a Western-centric company.

 

[pulicat]

Guessing that’s the reason why Square Enix is so eager to return to Nintendo with Final Fantasy

They were backed into a corner by their own stupidity.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

 

[Celine]

Japan console market lived through three distinct domination periods (judging by annual software marketshare)
1983-1995: Nintendo
1996-2005: PlayStation
2006-2024 (and ongoing): Nintendo

Even though there were various trends within these 3 distinct domination periods, the current shape of the last few years is characterized by a level of domination from Nintendo never seen before.
This unprecedented outlook was achieved through a constant consolidation of the platforms, a rise in importance of Nintendo first-party software within the overall total software sales and the absorption of most of what were once de facto third-party exclusives for PS into the Nintendo ecosystem (the level of software sharing between NSW and PS4 is unprecedented) due to costantly rising costs which forced the adoption of multiplatform strategy, spread of multiplatform engines, progression in tech that allowed 'good enough' performance out of hardware with low TDP and the effects of the law of diminshing returns.
The launch of the Switch successor in 2025 can only compound the trend of high level of third-party offerings sharing between Nintendo and PlayStation.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Japan console market lived through three distinct domination periods (judging by annual software marketshare)
1983-1995: Nintendo
1996-2005: PlayStation
2006-2024 (and ongoing): Nintendo

Even though there were various trends within these 3 distinct domination periods, the current shape of the last few years is characterized by a level of domination from Nintendo never seen before.
This unprecedented outlook was achieved through a constant consolidation of the platforms, a rise in importance of Nintendo first-party software within the overall total software sales and the absorption of most of what were once de facto third-party exclusives for PS into the Nintendo ecosystem (the level of software sharing between NSW and PS4 is unprecedented) due to costantly rising costs which forced the adoption of multiplatform strategy, spread of multiplatform engines, progression in tech that allowed 'good enough' performance out of hardware with low TDP and the effects of the law of diminshing returns.
The launch of the Switch successor in 2025 can only compound the trend of high level of third-party offerings sharing between Nintendo and PlayStation.

Nintendomination. THat last pie chart. Holy poop!

 

[SHA]

It's simple, new ips exist with the older ips, no game gets canceled.

 

[Impotaku]

Also the games released don’t need a 20gb day one patch to finish it off.

 

[Robb]

 

[v1oz]

Japan is and has always been Nintendo-land, PS2 era was a fluke

Sony ruled in Japan for ten years solid. They were so dominant during the PS1 and PS2 eras, and all the best Japanese games (MGS, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, RE etc etc) were Playstation exclusives. I still remember how much of a shock it was when RE4 was revealed on Gamecube. I still even find it hard to believe that Nintendo is now the market leader. So to me the real fluke was Nintendo winning back Japan.

 

[Kotaro]

Sony ruled in Japan for ten years solid. They were so dominant during the PS1 and PS2 eras, and all the best Japanese games (MGS, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, RE etc etc) were Playstation exclusives. I still remember how much of a shock it was when RE4 was revealed on Gamecube. I still even find it hard to believe that Nintendo is now the market leader. So to me the real fluke was Nintendo winning back Japan.

Only in PS2 era

PS1 wasn’t as dominant, Nintendo still had N64 and Gameboy

 

[Emedan]

Sony ruled in Japan for ten years solid. They were so dominant during the PS1 and PS2 eras, and all the best Japanese games (MGS, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, RE etc etc) were Playstation exclusives. I still remember how much of a shock it was when RE4 was revealed on Gamecube. I still even find it hard to believe that Nintendo is now the market leader. So to me the real fluke was Nintendo winning back Japan.

You're chocked after 20 years? Hell of a fluke I guess.

 

[Woopah]

Not surprised mobile gaming is huge in Japan.

It is, but that's not really related to Switch.

Switch mostly sells off the popularity of Nintendo first party games (plus some third party ones).

F2P mobile phone games don't really help Switch, since most of the major ones aren't even on the platform.

 

[ArtHands]

They were backed into a corner by their own stupidity.

DQ III HD-2D Remake pretty much flopped on PS5 too in Japan. The game sold 230k copies on PS5 and 930k on Switch. Basically sold 4x more on Switch.

Famitsu Sales: 12/23/24 – 1/5/25 [Update]

Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software data for Japan for the two weeks spanning December 23, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

www.gematsu.com

 

[Mr Moose]

Isn't that 19 years?

That means Nintendo has now dominated the physical software charts in Japan every year since 2005.

 

[yurinka]

Poor Sony. At least they have western, right?

According to the Nintendo and Sony fiscal numbers, every year there are way more games sold for PS than for Switch globally. And if instead of game units sold we look at game revenue also adding the add-ons revenue, the difference gets even bigger. It is the main reason of why Sony makes way more revenue than Nintendo every year.

The Famitsu ranking Japanese numbers are incomplete because only includes physical and nowadays most PS games are sold digitally (while Switch has a way smaller percentage of digital games), plus only includes a few games in the ranking each week, while there are thousands being sold. In addition to this, nowadays a huge chunk of the game revenue comes from add-ons and not game sales due to GaaS.

So maybe even in Japan there are more PS games being sold / more game revenue made.

 

[AJUMP23]

Let Nintendo Cook.

 

[DenchDeckard]

According to the Nintendo and Sony fiscal numbers, every year there are way more games sold for PS than for Switch globally. And if instead of game units sold we look at game revenue also adding the add-ons revenue, the difference gets even bigger. It is the main reason of why Sony makes way more revenue than Nintendo every year.

The Famitsu ranking Japanese numbers are incomplete because only includes physical and nowadays most PS games are sold digitally (while Switch has a way smaller percentage of digital games), plus only includes a few games in the ranking each week, while there are thousands being sold. In addition to this, nowadays a huge chunk of the game revenue comes from add-ons and not game sales due to GaaS.

So maybe even in Japan there are more PS games being sold / more game revenue made.

I was with you until the end, I'm not gonna lie!

 

[ArtHands]

Isn't that 19 years?

Try counting with your fingers.

 

[Mr Moose]

Try counting with your fingers.

19 years
31 December 2005 – 14 January 2025

 

[yurinka]

I was with you until the end, I'm not gonna lie!

Well, the Sony and Nintendo fiscal reports tell the show the full picture and don't lie, they are factual data.

 

[Unknown?]

We forgetting about the Wii U conveniently?

 

[Werewolf Jones]

PS5 would sell better in Japan if it got a price cut. When I was there in November the Japanese are dubious about buying it due to the price and the cost of living over there rn.