Today, Japan’s biggest video game magazine Famitsu published (JP) new stats showing that the country’s market for console gaming continues to shrink.
According to Famitsu, the combined sales in Japan for video game hard- and software amounted to US$2.59 billion between December 28, 2015 and December 25, 2016.
This compares to US$2.77 billion a year prior (or a minus of 6.7%).
To be more concrete, hardware sales in 2016 amounted to US$1 billion (-10% year-on-year), while software sales reached US$1.59 billion (-4.4%).
List Of Video Game Sales In Japan (Software)
Famitsu also released a top 10 of video games sold in Japan in 2016:
- Pokemon Sun/Moon (3,246,222 units)
- Yokai Watch – Sushi/Tempura (1,397,436 )
- Final Fantasy XV (860,127)
- Super Mario Maker for 3DS (743,388)
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 (623,083)
- Yokai Sangokushi (563,395)
- Yokai Watch 3 – Sukiyaki (509,667)
- Kirby – Planet Robobot (479,698)
- Splatoon (398,251)
- Minecraft – PlayStation Vita Edition (397,607)
What’s remarkable here is that in 2016, Japan saw just two million sellers: there were four in 2015.
List Of Video Game Sales In Japan (Hardware)
According to Famitsu, Japan’s top selling consoles in Japan in 2016 were:
- Nintendo 3DS – all models incl. 2DS (1,874,457 units)
- PlayStation 4 – incl. PS4 Pro (1,790,883 )
- PlayStation Vita – incl. PS Vita TV (865,002)
- Wii U (336,151)
- Xbox One (8,897)
Hardware-wise, too, numbers are going down in comparison to 2015. For example, Nintendo sold 2.19 million 3DS models in that year.
Overall, the launch of Final Fantasy XV, various price drops and updated consoles didn’t manage to revitalize Japan’s video game sector in 2016. The Nintendo Switch cannot come soon enough.
