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JAPAN: Nintendo software and hardware sales data from 1983 to present

Celine

Archivist
Archivist Genius
I'm going to keep this thread updated with new, more up to date info whenever is possible.

UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL DECEMBER 2023


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任天堂

What does the following data represent?
The data here presented is either financial data or shipment data provided by Nintendo itself directly from Nintendo's Public Relationship department, Nintendo official site or other reports which reported Nintendo's shipment data.
The hardware and software data refer to sales in Japan.

The hardware sales represent the console units Nintendo has sold to retailers as the term noted above.
The hardware revisions sales are contained within the main console brand thus, for example, GBC hardware sales are included in the GB hardware sales, DSi hardware sales are included in the DS hardware sales and so on.
I've used the international acronyms for Famicon and Super Famicom even though this thread is focused on Japan cause it's thought for an international audience.
Please take note that the best fitting acronyms would have been FC and SFC.

The software sales included in the software lists pertains:
- Games published by Nintendo or Pokemon Co. (due to the special relationship between Nintendo and Pokemon Co., the latter only publish console games on Nintendo consoles).
- Only original game releases are considered (for instance the sales from re-releases on Virtual Console or retro mini consoles aren't include).
- Include software units bundled with the hardware.
- Digital sales are included only for the games that had a digital version available at the time (basically since WiiU/3DS).
- Digital only games are excluded.
- For the games that have sold more than 1 million units in Japan the software lists are fairly comprehensive and should be considered close to definitive, with the exception of million sellers on consoles still active (for those refer to the date of the update).
- The list of games with sales below 1 million units are NOT comprehensive of all the Nintendo published games that have sold less than 1 million in Japan.
- The Famicom games (NES) combine both the cartridge version and the disk versions when available.


Read second post for some sources.
Also in the below posts there are other interesting trivia and data.



Hardware

Videogame Console with interchangeable software** (in million of units):
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Note:
Virtual Boy total shipment is until March 1996.
NES (Famicom) software sales includes both format: cartridges and disks. In total 53.39 million game disks were sold-in for the Famicom.

* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
It's meant to indicate a minimum for the first-party software sales.

** Only software which has physical version is considered.
If a game has a physical version and a digital version then it is included but if it is digital only it is excluded.


Software


TV consoles
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Handheld consoles
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Hybrid consoles
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Grand total:
As of December 2023 Nintendo has sold over 433 million games in Japan.
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Summary about Nintendo million selling games in Japan (data for the million sellers is fairly complete):
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Annual hardware and software shipments in Japan:
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First-party software sales compared to total software sales per platform
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What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.

Total number of dedicated video game systems sold by manufacturer in Japan as June 2023 (only console makers which have sold at least 1 million units)

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A curiosity:
As March 1995 (PS1 was launched in December 1994 in Japan) NES + GB + SNES had sold in total 44.53 million units in Japan therefore since the introduction of the PlayStation brand of consoles Nintendo has sold around 65 million dedicated video game systems more than what Sony did in the same timeframe.

* Note:
I considered only standalone consoles with interchangeable software (devices like Color TV Game, Game & Watch, Nintendo plug & play retro consoles, PlayStation Classic, PocketStation and add-ons in general were excluded).

Other kind of videogame hardware

Dedicated LSI Game Console (essentially consoles whose game logic resides in the integrated circuits)
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Note: More than 70% units sold were Color TV Game 15 consoles.

Game & Watch
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Note: Nintendo sold 20 million Game & Watch devices as December 1982.

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SUMMARY OF THE MILLION SELLING GAMES IN JAPAN BY PUBLISHER AS DECEMBER 2021 (SELL-IN DATA)

The dynamics of the japanese videogame market were always different compared other big markets due to the presence of a console manufacturer's first-party capable to create mega hits for the market, in quantity and popularity unmatched by all the other third-party publishers.
The first-party I'm talking about is, of course, Nintendo.
To visualize Nintendo's software dominance in term of mega hits, I analyzed the history of all the games which shipped more than 1 million units on a single platform from 1983 to 2021.
Digital sales are included for the games whose digital version was available at the time of the original release.
If the million seller list is complete for the period 1983 to circa 2010, the same cannot be said for the third-party million sellers after 2010 due to publishers becoming more reticent in sharing sell-in data for the japanese market.
Read carefully the missing million sellers and the exceptions to the cited rules (like the single platform rule):
- The Switch version (Mojang/Microsoft) of Minecraft and the PSV version (SCE/SIE) is absent.
- Dragon Quest XI was listed combining the 3DS and PS4 versions (3.00M), Final Fantasy XV was listed combining the PS4 and XBO versions.
- All the releases combined of Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Capcom) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- All the releases combined of Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3, Konami) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- Monster Hunter Rise (NSW, Capcom) shipment data is missing due to the publisher never sharing the japanese sell-in data.
- GTAV (PS4, Take 2) and Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Square Enix) might have sold-in more than 1M with digital however no sell-in data are available for those titles.

All things considered the pie chart below is a fairly close representation of the power balance between Nintendo's first-party and the other publishers in the field of creating mega hits capable to drive the japanese market.
I estimate that with the missing third-party million sellers added in, the Nintendo's slice would be ~56%.

The million sellers were grouped under the current publisher name which could represent multiple historical entities (due to name changes, merges and acquisitions).
Here the notable grouping, listing the entities who delivered million selling games in Japan (not listed if the current publisher name matches the historical name):

Nintendo: Nintendo, Pokemon Co.
Square Enix: Square Enix, Enix, Square, Taito.
SIE: SIE, SCE.
Konami: Konami, Hudson Soft.
Bandai Namco: Bandai, Namco, Banpresto, D3 Publisher.
Koei Tecmo: Koei.
Sega Sammy: Sega, Sammy.
ASCII Media Works: ASCII.

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Some tidbits:
- More than half of the pie is owned by Nintendo's first-party. It's also the publisher with the highest number of games and at the same time the highest average sales per million seller.
- Pokemon Co. alone account for 49.69 million units sold.
- SIE last million seller in Japan was the PSV version of Minecraft, before it the last million seller from Sony goes back to the PS2 era when it was still known as SCE.
- Some publisher like Jaleco and BPS Co got their single million seller during the dawn of the industry and now practically don't exist anymore (at best other company own their IP rights or became simple IPs holder).
- The more recent publishers to join the club were either companies which achieved great success on mobile and then translated the popularity to a console game (GungHo Online and Mixi both for 3DS), Level-5 which produced a couple of very successful kid oriented franchises on DS and 3DS, and of course Mojang/Microsoft with the recent huge success of Minecraft (even if it's unaccounted in the above data).

Companion thread about Nintendo's sales Worldwide:

Nintendo website where you can find useful information:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/

This thread is dedicated to Hiroshi Yamauchi.

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Some useful sources

Nintendo's investor relationship section:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/

Regional hardware shipment by fiscal year (big thanks to @Aquamarine):
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Virtual Boy hardware sales data source:
Virtual Boy sell-in LTD as March 1996 was taken from an article in Famitsu (issue 392 page 8) which indicated that the shipment split between Japan and abroad was respectively 140K and 630K.
Here a big scan of the article in question (Famitsu issue 392 page 8):
http://i.imgur.com/hXXa6DE.jpg

Non-consolidated software sales from the fiscal year ending March 1992 to the fiscal year ending March 1999:

Software sales units bundled with hardware for each fiscal year (total software sales exclude digital-only games):
FY20: 3.40M (total software sales: 168.72M)
FY21: 3.80M (total software sales: 230.88M)
FY22: 1.50M (total software sales: 235.07M)

Game & Watch sales data source:
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/clubn/game-and-watch-ball-reward/0/3
Game & Watch annual shipments

Color TV Game 6/15 sales data source:
Online reprint of article "Famicom Development Story." in Nikkei Electronics issue May 9, 1994:
https://web.archive.org/web/2008100...keibp.co.jp/article/special/20080929/1019222/

NES Classic Mini sales data source:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04...llion-units-worldwide-before-its-cancellation
SNES Classic Mini sales data source:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/180426e.pdf

Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver sales sources:
https://life.oricon.co.jp/news/72880/
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0006/05/index.html

Important notification about Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver sales:

For a long time Nintendo only gave the combined total sales for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver / Crystal of about 76 million units sold worldwide.
The figures for the single entries were presented as estimates therefore I recommended to use the combined sales figure if you need to cite official data for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver / Crystal.

Recently I've come across an article on Oricon which has official figures for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver:

■ Reference / Number of new series shipped so far (Pokemon announcement)
"Pokemon Red and Green" Game Boy Released on February 27, 1996
Domestic: Over 8.2 million (Worldwide: 29.04 million)

"Pokemon Gold and Silver" Game Boy Game Boy Color Released on November 21, 1999
Domestic: Over 7.3 million units (Worldwide: 23.73 million units)

"Pokemon Ruby Sapphire" Game Boy Advance Released on November 21, 2002 Domestic: Over 5.4 million units (Worldwide: 16.21 million units)

"Pokemon Diamond and Pearl" Nintendo DS Released on September 28, 2006 Domestic: Over 5.8 million units (Worldwide: 17.15 million units)

* Cumulative worldwide sales of more than 130 million units (including remake version and version difference)
* All figures are as of the end of September 2009

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The worldwide figure given in the article consider Pokémon Red / Green for Japan and Pokémon Red / Blue for the overseas markets but miss the japanese sales of Pokémon Blue which are 2.01 million units.
Therefore Pokémon Red / Green / Blue has sold in total 31.05 million units.

See the below table with sell-in data as March 2000 provided by Nintendo for details:
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I've updated the data in OP for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver.

For Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Crystal the figures in the Game Boy list should still be considered estimates and I advice to utilize the combined figure of about 76 million units if you need officially sourced sales figure for those two games.
 
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Total number of dedicated video game systems sold by manufacturer in Japan as December 2021 (only console makers which have sold at least 1 million units)

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A curiosity:
As March 1995 (PS1 was launched in December 1994 in Japan) NES + GB + SNES had sold in total 44.53 million units in Japan therefore since the introduction of the PlayStation brand of consoles Nintendo has sold around 60 million dedicated video game systems more than what Sony did in the same timeframe.

* Note:
I considered only standalone consoles with interchangeable software (devices like Color TV Game, Game & Watch, Nintendo plug & play retro consoles, PlayStation Classic, PocketStation and add-ons in general were excluded).

-----------------------------------------------

SUMMARY OF THE MILLION SELLING GAMES IN JAPAN BY PUBLISHER AS DECEMBER 2021 (SELL-IN DATA)

The dynamics of the japanese videogame market were always different compared other big markets due to the presence of a console manufacturer's first-party capable to create mega hits for the market, in quantity and popularity unmatched by all the other third-party publishers.
The first-party I'm talking about is, of course, Nintendo.
To visualize Nintendo's software dominance in term of mega hits, I analyzed the history of all the games which shipped more than 1 million units on a single platform from 1983 to 2021.
Digital sales are included for the games whose digital version was available at the time of the original release.
If the million seller list is complete for the period 1983 to circa 2010, the same cannot be said for the third-party million sellers after 2010 due to publishers becoming more reticent in sharing sell-in data for the japanese market.
Read carefully the missing million sellers and the exceptions to the cited rules (like the single platform rule):
- The Switch version (Mojang/Microsoft) of Minecraft and the PSV version (SCE/SIE) is absent.
- Dragon Quest XI was listed combining the 3DS and PS4 versions (3.00M), Final Fantasy XV was listed combining the PS4 and XBO versions.
- All the releases combined of Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Capcom) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- All the releases combined of Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3, Konami) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- Monster Hunter Rise (NSW, Capcom) shipment data is missing due to the publisher never sharing the japanese sell-in data.
- GTAV (PS4, Take 2) and Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Square Enix) might have sold-in more than 1M with digital however no sell-in data are available for those titles.

All things considered the pie chart below is a fairly close representation of the power balance between Nintendo's first-party and the other publishers in the field of creating mega hits capable to drive the japanese market.
I estimate that with the missing third-party million sellers added in, the Nintendo's slice would be ~56%.

The million sellers were grouped under the current publisher name which could represent multiple historical entities (due to name changes, merges and acquisitions).
Here the notable grouping, listing the entities who delivered million selling games in Japan (not listed if the current publisher name matches the historical name):

Nintendo: Nintendo, Pokemon Co.
Square Enix: Square Enix, Enix, Square, Taito.
SIE: SIE, SCE.
Konami: Konami, Hudson Soft.
Bandai Namco: Bandai, Namco, Banpresto, D3 Publisher.
Koei Tecmo: Koei.
Sega Sammy: Sega, Sammy.
ASCII Media Works: ASCII.

xqnfVQF.jpg


ifm7Mxq.jpg


Some tidbits:
- More than half of the pie is owned by Nintendo's first-party. It's also the publisher with the highest number of games and at the same time the highest average sales per million seller.
- Pokemon Co. alone account for 49.69 million units sold.
- SIE last million seller in Japan was the PSV version of Minecraft, before it the last million seller from Sony goes back to the PS2 era when it was still known as SCE.
- Some publisher like Jaleco and BPS Co got their single million seller during the dawn of the industry and now practically don't exist anymore (at best other company own their IP rights or became simple IPs holder).
- The more recent publishers to join the club were either companies which achieved great success on mobile and then translated the popularity to a console game (GungHo Online and Mixi both for 3DS), Level-5 which produced a couple of very successful kid oriented franchises on DS and 3DS, and of course Mojang/Microsoft with the recent huge success of Minecraft (even if it's unaccounted in the above data).
 
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It's incredibly generous of you to go the extra mile and provide us with this Japan-centric data.
 
Top 20 best-selling Nintendo games in Japan
Top 20 best-selling Nintendo games in Japan

  1. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 9.62m
  2. [GB] Pokémon Red/Green - 8.22m
  3. [GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver - 7.30m
  4. [NES] Super Mario Bros. - 6.81m
  5. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. - 6.49m
  6. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 5.85m
  7. [NDS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl - 5.85m
  8. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 5.74m
  9. [NDS] Pokémon Black/White - 5.54m
  10. [GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Saphire - 5.40m
  11. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World - 5.35m
  12. [NSW] Pokémon Sword/Shield - 5.33m
  13. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 5.16m
  14. [NDS] Brain Age 2 - 5.10m
  15. [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 4.69m
  16. [Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 4.67m
  17. [3DS] Pokémon X/Y - 4.56m
  18. [GB] Tetris - 4.24m
  19. [GB] Super Mario Land - 4.19m
  20. [NDS] Mario Kart DS - 4.02m

NDS - 6
NSW - 5
GB - 4
3DS - 2
NES - 1
GBA - 1
Wii - 1

Pokémon - 7
Super Mario Bros. - 4
Animal Crossing - 3
Mario Kart - 2
Super Smash Bros. - 1
Splatoon - 1
Tetris - 1
Brain Age - 1
 
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Interesting data. So glad to get the extra insight into Japan.

Pokemon was really vital to the GBA. I guess most of Nintendo's releases on the system were rather niche.
 
Top 20 best-selling Nintendo games in Japan

  1. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 9.50m
  2. [GB] Pokémon Red/Green/Blue - 8.22m
  3. [GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver - 7.30m
  4. [NES] Super Mario Bros. - 6.81m
  5. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. - 6.49m
  6. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 5.85m
  7. [NDS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl - 5.85m
  8. [NDS] Pokémon Black/White - 5.54m
  9. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 5.41m
  10. [GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Saphire - 5.40m
  11. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World - 5.35m
  12. [NSW] Pokémon Sword/Shield - 5.14m
  13. [NDS] Brain Age 2 - 5.10m
  14. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 5.00m
  15. [Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 4.67m
  16. [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 4.61m
  17. [3DS] Pokémon X/Y - 4.56m
  18. [GB] Tetris - 4.24m
  19. [GB] Super Mario Land 3 - 4.19m
  20. [NDS] Mario Kart DS - 4.02m

NDS - 6
NSW - 5
GB - 4
3DS - 2
NES - 1
GBA - 1
Wii - 1

Pokémon - 7
Super Mario Bros. - 4
Animal Crossing - 3
Mario Kart - 2
Super Smash Bros. - 1
Splatoon - 1
Tetris - 1
Brain Age - 1

What’s crazy is Minecraft could be apart of this, and if you combine all sku across all platforms like then it should be #1 (maybe)

And then we have a few more NSW games that can raise up the bar for top 20
 
Awesome data but that Gamecube 1st party figure HAS to be wrong?

edit: oh, only million sellers. That explains it then.
 
Thank you Celine!

So, Switch tie ratio is kinda low and first party software is ~ half software sold on the system. I don't know what to think exactly of this.
 
Thanks for this Thread.

It's funny that Wii U has more millions sellers from Nintendo than Gamecube despite selling less Hardware and software.
 
The fact that N64 had so many million sellers despite lackluster hardware is sure something
 
wow. looking at software between 3ds and switch really illustrates the way third-parties missed the boat.
 
I've added the missing charts for Nintendo annual hardware and software sales in the japanese market and also a chart with the total number of consoles sold in Japan by console maker (only for those manufacturers that have at least 1 million units).
 
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Outstanding job as always Celine, thank you for providing data in this format.
 
Thank you so much for compiling and formatting all this information Celine.
 
Top 20 best-selling Nintendo games in Japan

  1. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 9.50m
  2. [GB] Pokémon Red/Green - 8.22m
  3. [GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver - 7.30m
  4. [NES] Super Mario Bros. - 6.81m
  5. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. - 6.49m
  6. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 5.85m
  7. [NDS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl - 5.85m
  8. [NDS] Pokémon Black/White - 5.54m
  9. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 5.41m
  10. [GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Saphire - 5.40m
  11. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World - 5.35m
  12. [NSW] Pokémon Sword/Shield - 5.14m
  13. [NDS] Brain Age 2 - 5.10m
  14. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 5.00m
  15. [Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 4.67m
  16. [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 4.61m
  17. [3DS] Pokémon X/Y - 4.56m
  18. [GB] Tetris - 4.24m
  19. [GB] Super Mario Land 3 - 4.19m
  20. [NDS] Mario Kart DS - 4.02m

NDS - 6
NSW - 5
GB - 4
3DS - 2
NES - 1
GBA - 1
Wii - 1

Pokémon - 7
Super Mario Bros. - 4
Animal Crossing - 3
Mario Kart - 2
Super Smash Bros. - 1
Splatoon - 1
Tetris - 1
Brain Age - 1
So is ACNH also the best selling game period in japan ?
 
So is ACNH also the best selling game period in japan ?
Yep and by far
If you split first gen Pokemon sales, then yes. If you combine Poké Red/Green/Blue together, then it would be 2nd only.

Talking about Pokémon, I wonder if Sword/Shield has enough steam to pass Black/White eventually.
Easily imo, the game is still charting very high and Gen 9 won't happen before Holidays 2023.
 
Talking about Pokémon, I wonder if Sword/Shield has enough steam to pass Black/White eventually.
This SKU is not included

Famitsu Sales: Week 6, 2021 (Feb 01 - Feb 07)
29./30. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield + Expansion Pass <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2020.11.06} (¥8.689) - 1.961 / 196.271 <80-100%> (-24%)


And this is what the base game has sold at retail since the last shipment update:

Famitsu Sales: Week 43, 2021 (Oct 18 - Oct 24)
10./16. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2019.11.15} (¥5.980) - 6.280 / 4.169.875 <80-100%> (+18%)
-

Famitsu Sales: Week 14, 2021 (Mar 29 - Apr 04)
11./11. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2019.11.15} (¥5.980) - 4.902 / 4.019.278 <80-100%> (-34%)
=
150.597


So basically by the end of this year it will have outsold Black/White, if it hasn't already. It would need a ~30% digital share in the last 7 months to be above B&W as of today.
 
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This SKU is not included

Famitsu Sales: Week 6, 2021 (Feb 01 - Feb 07)
29./30. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield + Expansion Pass <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2020.11.06} (¥8.689) - 1.961 / 196.271 <80-100%> (-24%)


And this is what the base game has sold at retail since the last shipment update:

Famitsu Sales: Week 43, 2021 (Oct 18 - Oct 24)
10./16. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2019.11.15} (¥5.980) - 6.280 / 4.169.875 <80-100%> (+18%)
-

Famitsu Sales: Week 14, 2021 (Mar 29 - Apr 04)
11./11. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2019.11.15} (¥5.980) - 4.902 / 4.019.278 <80-100%> (-34%)
=
150.597


So basically by the end of this year it will have outsold Black/White, if it hasn't already. It would need a ~30% digital share in the last 7 months to be above B&W as of today.
Superb! Thanks for digging the numbers out :) it is awesome how resourceful this community is.
 
Yep and by far

Easily imo, the game is still charting very high and Gen 9 won't happen before Holidays 2023.
Something that’s b n bothering me is that they haven’t added the other sku which is 200k+ (and that’s retail) so the games are well over 5.35mil now
 
I know we have official numbers but I wanted to touch upon some of them, is there a place you can put an “unofficial” section at for some of the NSW games?

I have a few I can think about including Yoshi and Pokemon

Edit: Oh Example right? Yoshi you have 140k as of its first week shipment. Famitsu has it sold thru 164k at around 20weeks in. As well as at least 15k digital. So game is well beyond 0.18mil, probably close to 225k or more lifetime
 
Good stuff.

Cross-referencing those Switch SW numbers with Famitsu's retail sales numbers, it's pretty clear that physical media is the dominant format on the system, at least in Japan. Most games look to be at least 75-80% physical, though ACNH is toward the lower end of the 70s.
 
There is some stuff that I need to fix but I'll wait for the next update since we are so close to the upcoming Nintendo's financial results.
 
Digital for a lot is actually a lot higher than 20-25% actually. Hell even games like BotW is selling a lot digitally compared to before. I have to double check but AC might be at 30%
 
Is there an error here with GameCube's First-Party SW and First-Party SW/SW ratio? It seems pretty low, even for GameCube.
Looks what is included in the GC first-party software list.
It's basically the SSB Meele tie ratio.

1 million units sold is a high treshold for the japanese market, which was achieved by less than 300 games.
That number was 123 in March 2000.
 
Looks what is included in the GC first-party software list.
It's basically the SSB Meele tie ratio.

1 million units sold is a high treshold for the japanese market, which was achieved by less than 300 games.
That number was 123 in March 2000.

I just think it's a misleading figure as it makes it look like 3rd parties were responsible for around 95% of GCN's software totals, which can't possibly be true. Just my IMO, of course, but maybe an "not enough data" or something similar would suffice for GCN since there was only one million seller despite several GCN games that made it close to 1 million (Mario Party 4, Mario Kart, Mario Sunshine, The Wind Waker, Mario Party 5, Pokemon Colosseum, Animal Crossing, Mario Party 6, and Pikmin all sold over 500K in Japan). The ratio should obviously be much higher, we just don't know by how much. But clearly 5.74% is an obvious error. It's your data and free to do with it whatever you want. I'm just throwing out a suggestion to put the an explanation for an obvious error in the spreadsheet so people don't question the rest of the data after noticing it, which would be a shame after all the hard work you put in.
 
I just think it's a misleading figure as it makes it look like 3rd parties were responsible for around 95% of GCN's software totals, which can't possibly be true. Just my IMO, of course, but maybe an "not enough data" or something similar would suffice for GCN since there was only one million seller despite several GCN games that made it close to 1 million (Mario Party 4, Mario Kart, Mario Sunshine, The Wind Waker, Mario Party 5, Pokemon Colosseum, Animal Crossing, Mario Party 6, and Pikmin all sold over 500K in Japan). The ratio should obviously be much higher, we just don't know by how much. But clearly 5.74% is an obvious error. It's your data and free to do with it whatever you want. I'm just throwing out a suggestion to put the an explanation for an obvious error in the spreadsheet so people don't question the rest of the data after noticing it, which would be a shame after all the hard work you put in.
To be honest :

* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
 
To be honest :

* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.

I understand that. It's just that the figure isn't just wrong or "incomplete," it is so obviously, glaringly, and materially off to the point that I don't think it makes sense to even report it, at least not without some additional disclaimer. Like I said, the OP can do whatever he/she wants. It was just a suggestion.
 
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I've updated the NSW data with the latest batch of sales figures (as September 2021).
Fixed Yakuman misallocation and added Fire Emblem NES/SNES games sell-in data.

- The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD has already outsold the original in Japan.
- It's likely NSW's total sales will surpass 3DS' total software sales during the next quarter.
 
Celine, on the sales list, Luigi’s Mansion has a question mark instead of an apostrophe
Yes, the NSW list also miss MUA3 (with its measly 40K).
Both will be fixed for the next update in January/February.
 
The dynamics of the japanese videogame market were always different compared other big markets due to the presence of a console manufacturer's first-party capable to create big hits for the market, in quantity and popularity unmatched by all the other third-party publishers.
The first-party I'm talking about is, of course, Nintendo.
To visualize Nintendo's software dominance in term of big hits, I analyzed the history of all the games which shipped more than 1 million units on a single platform from 1983 to 2021.
Digital sales are included for the games whose digital version was available at the time of the original release.
If the million seller list is complete for the period 1983 to circa 2010, the same cannot be said for the third-party million sellers after 2010 due to publishers becoming more reticent in sharing sell-in data for the japanese market.
Read carefully the missing million sellers and the exceptions to the cited rules (like the single platform rule):
- The Switch version (Mojang/Microsoft) of Minecraft and the PSV version (SCE/SIE) is absent.
- Dragon Quest XI was listed combining the 3DS and PS4 versions (3.00M), Final Fantasy XV was listed combining the PS4 and XBO versions.
- All the releases combined of Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Capcom) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- All the releases combined of Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3, Konami) should be over 1M in Japan however no sell-in data was ever shared.
- Monster Hunter Rise (NSW, Capcom) shipment data is missing due to the publisher never sharing the japanese sell-in data.
- GTAV (PS4, Take 2) and Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Square Enix) might have sold-in more than 1M with digital however no sell-in data are available for those titles.

All things considered the pie chart below is a fairly close representation of the power balance between Nintendo's first-party and the other publishers in the field of creating big hits capable to drive the japanese market.

The million sellers were grouped under the current publisher name which could represent multiple historical entities (due to name changes, merges and acquisitions).
Here the notable grouping, listing the entities who delivered million selling games in Japan (not listed if the current publisher name matches the historical name):

Nintendo: Nintendo, Pokemon Co.
Square Enix: Square Enix, Enix, Square, Taito.
SIE: SIE, SCE.
Konami: Konami, Hudson Soft.
Bandai Namco: Bandai, Namco, Banpresto, D3 Publisher.
Koei Tecmo: Koei.
Sega Sammy: Sega, Sammy.

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Some tidbits:
- More than half of the pie is owned by Nintendo's first-party. It's also the publisher with the highest number of games and at the same time the highest average sales per million seller.
- Pokemon Co. alone account for 49.69 million units sold.
- SIE last million seller in Japan was the PSV version of Minecraft, before it the last million seller from Sony goes back to the PS2 era when it was still known as SCE.
- Some publisher like Jaleco and BPS Co got their single million seller during the dawn of the industry and now practically don't exist anymore (at best other company own their IP rights or became simple IPs holder).
- The more recent publishers to join the club were either companies which achieved great success on mobile and then translated the popularity to a console game (GungHo Online and Mixi both for 3DS), Level-5 which produced a couple of very successful kid oriented franchises on DS and 3DS, and of course Mojang/Microsoft with the recent huge success of Minecraft (even if it's unaccounted in the above data).
 
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Superb Celine, thank you!

I got curious about Mixi and checked Game Data Library to find out what game their million seller could have been. And turns out it is Monster Strike. However, according to them the game sold 968,543 copies. So just shy of 1M. I am not nitpicking, I just wondered if they were aware of it passing the milestone.
 
Superb Celine, thank you!

I got curious about Mixi and checked Game Data Library to find out what game their million seller could have been. And turns out it is Monster Strike. However, according to them the game sold 968,543 copies. So just shy of 1M. I am not nitpicking, I just wondered if they were aware of it passing the milestone.
GDL, for the most part (the games from 1996 and forward), use sell-through data (mainly Famitsu).
The above, just like the rest of the this archive, utilize sell-in data (that includes digital sales if available at the time of the game release).
 
Got it. I am humbled by the energy you put into educating us about video games sales for free. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
 
For comparison sake, here it is the million sellers summary until December 2006, just at the beginning of Nintendo's second reign.
Unfortunately I don't have the full million sellers list as December 2004 or 2005 which I believe were the lowest point reached by Nintendo (I'd guess with a stake around 45%), in fact it should be no mystery that during GC/GBA era Nintendo has created the lowest number of software big hits.
If the competition between departments within Nintendo sprung up new successful ventures like the TV line of consoles and the handheld line of consoles, the separation of the two in teams A (more prestigious) and teams B (less prestigious) had become a huge hindrance in early '00s because Nintendo's best interest was to create new big hits on the best fitting hardware that would rinvigorite the market.
The internal restructure promoted by Iwata in 2002 was instrumental for the success during the Wii/DS era.
Nintendo DS quickly contributed to the turn around of the company's fortune.
In just little over 2 years Nintendo's first-party millon sellers on DS racked up sales for 32.19 million units.
By comparing the two summaries it's easy to spot what publisher had renewed breakout hits (or appeared for the first time in big fashion) and who remained anchored to the past.

Unlike the summary until September 2021, the summary until December 2006 should be considered close to complete.
As always it's sell-in data.

The million sellers were grouped under the current publisher name which could represent multiple historical entities (due to name changes, merges and acquisitions).
Here the notable grouping, listing the entities who delivered million selling games in Japan (not listed if the current publisher name matches the historical name):

Nintendo: Nintendo, Pokemon Co.
Square Enix: Square Enix, Enix, Square, Taito.
SIE: SIE, SCE.
Konami: Konami, Hudson Soft.
Bandai Namco: Bandai, Namco, Banpresto, D3 Publisher.
Koei Tecmo: Koei.
Sega Sammy: Sega, Sammy.
ASCII Media Works: ASCII.

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