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

Top 25 best-selling games in Japan

  1. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 11.30
  2. [GB] Pokémon Red/Green - 8.24m
  3. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - 8.19m
  4. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Dekuxe 8.11m
  5. [NSW] Super Smash Bros Ultimate - 7.56m
  6. [GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver 7.30m
  7. [NSW] Splatoon 3 - 7.09m
  8. [NES] Super Mario Bros. - 6.81m
  9. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. - 6.49m
  10. [NSW] Pokémon Sword/Shield - 6.00m(+)
  11. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 5.95
  12. [NDS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl - 5.85m
  13. [NDS] Pokémon Black/White - 5.54m
  14. [GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Saphire - 5.40m
  15. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World - 5.35m
  16. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom 3 - 5.30m (in question)
  17. [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 5.26m
  18. [NDS] Brain Age 2 - 5.10m
  19. [NSW] Minecraft - 4.70m (ESTIMATED Possibly ALOT more)
  20. [Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 4.67m
  21. [NSW] Monster Hunter Rise 4.60 (ESTIMATED)
  22. [3DS] Pokémon X/Y - 4.56m
  23. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX - 4.40m
  24. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - 4.25m
  25. [GB] Tetris - 4.24m
Bonus: [NSW+WIIU] BotW - 4.05m
AC:NH should get to your 12M prediction at some point in 2025! :D
I wish we could get MH Rise numbers for Japan (Switch), I think it would be over 5M
 
AC:NH should get to your 12M prediction at some point in 2025! :D
I wish we could get MH Rise numbers for Japan (Switch), I think it would be over 5M

Minecraft too. Imo I feel like 6mil+ isnt out of the question for nsw only.

We do need an update for MHR in Japan, I think 5mil+ is a lock, possibly 5.5mil lifetime
 
We only get Japan specific numbers when a game ships over 1M worldwide. SwSh didn't do so in a while so we don't know where it's exactly at.
That's not the only reason, there was a random bump in the worldwide total somewhere that caused the LTD to jump but apparently wasn't included in Nintendo's report (since the LTD went up by more than 1m that FY but it wasn't there).
 
That's not the only reason, there was a random bump in the worldwide total somewhere that caused the LTD to jump but apparently wasn't included in Nintendo's report (since the LTD went up by more than 1m that FY but it wasn't there).
That was when they included the DLC bundle in the total number, which was for the most part from the previous FY.
 
That's a trend for literally every Switch sequel (except maybe Xenoblade?), it holds up better in Japan than elsewhere.
Switch hardware sales in Japan have had better legs than in North America and Europe. Could that be the reason for the lack of drop-off in sequel sales numbers?
 
Switch hardware sales in Japan have had better legs than in North America and Europe. Could that be the reason for the lack of drop-off in sequel sales numbers?
It looks more and more likely that the reason hardware has stayed so strong in Japan compared to the rest of the world is because of people from all over the world importing from Japan due to the weak yen.

Right now I can buy the Japan version of Mario Oled, Zelda Oled, Neon Oled in Amazon.mx for less than $250 usd not through a reseller but through Amazon themselves, they even offer monthly payments (up to 12 months without interest).

If I were to get it from Amazon.jp I would get it for aprox. The same price but without the option for monthly payments.

So no, software remaining that strong in Japan is just because Japanese people really buy a lot of software (software is also cheaper from Japan here but not to the extent of hardware and some games don’t support other languages so I guess it’s not as common)
 
It looks more and more likely that the reason hardware has stayed so strong in Japan compared to the rest of the world is because of people from all over the world importing from Japan due to the weak yen.

Right now I can buy the Japan version of Mario Oled, Zelda Oled, Neon Oled in Amazon.mx for less than $250 usd not through a reseller but through Amazon themselves, they even offer monthly payments (up to 12 months without interest).

If I were to get it from Amazon.jp I would get it for aprox. The same price but without the option for monthly payments.

So no, software remaining that strong in Japan is just because Japanese people really buy a lot of software (software is also cheaper from Japan here but not to the extent of hardware and some games don’t support other languages so I guess it’s not as common)
tbh if we acknowledge that hardware imports are happening at a sizable level....it is way easier to "import" digital software (all you need to do is buy eshop cards from Amazon Japan, no physical goods required! a pair of vouchers is <$65 rn)

Especially since software as a whole isn't actually holding up better in Japan (NA+Europe buys way more software per user!), it's just a lot of new titles. (though this probably doesn't explain Pokemon and Splatoon, the most extreme cases of regional divergence)
 
tbh if we acknowledge that hardware imports are happening at a sizable level....it is way easier to "import" digital software (all you need to do is buy eshop cards from Amazon Japan, no physical goods required! a pair of vouchers is <$65 rn)

Especially since software as a whole isn't actually holding up better in Japan (NA+Europe buys way more software per user!), it's just a lot of new titles. (though this probably doesn't explain Pokemon and Splatoon, the most extreme cases of regional divergence)
In the case of Amazon jp at least when it comes to digital products, some foreign cards are not accepted like the ones from my country but I guess it could vary depending on the region? And of course digital cards for the jp eshop are not available in Amazon mx.

For physical products it’s usually not a problem though certain editions are also not available to ship to my country and of course prices for games in Japan vary a lot, if a game is less than ¥5000 I only have to pay shipping but anything over I have to pay import tax and that makes the games be more expensive than buying them here.
 
Thanks for the update.

Didn't realise Pokémon SV was ahead of mario kart. Mk should have overtaken it by now though. Also smash is really close to Mario karte. Japan must be the only territory where this is the case. Also are we ever going to see updates on sword/shield, RFA and Splatoon 2 again?
 
Thanks for the update.

Didn't realise Pokémon SV was ahead of mario kart. Mk should have overtaken it by now though. Also smash is really close to Mario karte. Japan must be the only territory where this is the case. Also are we ever going to see updates on sword/shield, RFA and Splatoon 2 again?
Probably not. At least not directly from Nintendo's financials because those games are unlikely to ever sell 1 million in a single FY anymore.
 

SV have now surpassed RGB to become not only the best selling Pokemon games in Japan, but also the second best selling Nintendo games ever! Are there any non-Nintendo games that have been confirmed to have surpassed SV in Japan? I'd assume maybe the likes of GTA V & Minecraft?
 

SV have now surpassed RGB to become not only the best selling Pokemon games in Japan, but also the second best selling Nintendo games ever! Are there any non-Nintendo games that have been confirmed to have surpassed SV in Japan? I'd assume maybe the likes of GTA V & Minecraft?

Grand Theft Auto V is unlikely to have reached 8 million sales in Japan, as retail sales across all its multiple releases are below 2 million units. Achieving that figure would require an exceptionally high digital-to-physical sales ratio, which is improbable, especially considering that approximately 900k units were sold on the PS3—a platform with relatively low digital adoption for today's standards.

On the other hand, Minecraft has sold over 6 million units at retail in Japan. This includes 3.7m on Switch, 1.1m on PSV, 430k on PS4, and 400k on Wii U, among other platforms. When digital sales are accounted for, Minecraft is likely one of the top-selling games in the region.
 
but also the second best selling Nintendo games ever!
Maybe, but there are good chances that MK8DX passed both Pokemon games and is in the second place now.

In the last 2 quarters, MK8DX shipped 0.35M and was at 8.46M as of September 30th.

Globally, SV shipped 0.77M in the same time frame. For it to be at 8.46+M By Sep, 0.27+M (over 35%) of those shippments would have to be from Japan. The SV global split by March 24 was 32.9%, so it could easily go either way.

SV will cross the 1M mark in the FY during the holidays, so in the next report we will know for sure.
 

SV have now surpassed RGB to become not only the best selling Pokemon games in Japan, but also the second best selling Nintendo games ever! Are there any non-Nintendo games that have been confirmed to have surpassed SV in Japan? I'd assume maybe the likes of GTA V & Minecraft?

It’s the third best selling, MK8D is ahead of it
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Maybe, but there are good chances that MK8DX passed both Pokemon games and is in the second place now.

In the last 2 quarters, MK8DX shipped 0.35M and was at 8.46M as of September 30th.

Globally, SV shipped 0.77M in the same time frame. For it to be at 8.46+M By Sep, 0.27+M (over 35%) of those shippments would have to be from Japan. The SV global split by March 24 was 32.9%, so it could easily go either way.

SV will cross the 1M mark in the FY during the holidays, so in the next report we will know for sure.

SV was announced a week ago it surpasses 8.3mil so it’s third place.
 
Maybe, but there are good chances that MK8DX passed both Pokemon games and is in the second place now.

In the last 2 quarters, MK8DX shipped 0.35M and was at 8.46M as of September 30th.

Globally, SV shipped 0.77M in the same time frame. For it to be at 8.46+M By Sep, 0.27+M (over 35%) of those shippments would have to be from Japan. The SV global split by March 24 was 32.9%, so it could easily go either way.

SV will cross the 1M mark in the FY during the holidays, so in the next report we will know for sure.
It's worthwhile to actually click on the article as it gives the specific number of 8.3M. That comes originally from a Famitsu article.
It’s the third best selling, MK8D is ahead of it.


SV was announced a week ago it surpasses 8.3mil so it’s third place.
Yeah, this article also specified that and is 6 days old itself.
 
SV was announced a week ago it surpasses 8.3mil so it’s third place.
worthwhile to actually click on the article as it gives the specific number of 8.3M.
I opened the article (and saw the 8.3 figure on MC thread before it), but I didn't see anywhere saying if it was sell-through or sell in.

Given the global 0.77M in the first 2 quarters though, I would be really surprised if SV shipments increased in Japan by only 0.11M after those 2 quarters plus half of this quarter, that's somewhere between 10~14% of the whole. So I assumed sell-through.
 
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I got curious if the physical sell-through corroborated such a low Japan/WW ratio and checked Famitsu numbers. Between April 1st and November 10th, Famitsu reported 114K copies sold through. Which matched perfectly the difference between 8.3M and the previous 8.19M as of March 30th.

Coincidence? I really doubt it. Famitsu probably made an article about it, but Nintendo didn't update SV numbers in the last report, so the author likely just used Famitsu in house numbers instead (hopefully physical shipment numbers instead lf mixing sell-through with sell-in) without digital.

But yeah, looking at the physycal sell-through, is pretty safe to say MK8DX was second place by Sep 30th.

Media Create Sales: Week 13, 2024 (Mar 25 - Mar 31)​

17./18. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2022.11.18} (¥5.980) - 4.310 / 5.320.999 <80-100%> (+4%)

Media Create Sales: Week 45, 2024 (Nov 04 - Nov 10)​

17./20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2022.11.18} (¥5.980) - 2.861 / 5.434.981 <80-100%> (+5%)
 
I got curious if the physical sell-through corroborated such a low Japan/WW ratio and checked Famitsu numbers. Between April 1st and November 10th, Famitsu reported 114K copies sold through. Which matched perfectly the difference between 8.3M and the previous 8.19M as of March 30th.

Coincidence? I really doubt it. Famitsu probably made an article about it, but Nintendo didn't update SV numbers in the last report, so the author likely just used Famitsu in house numbers instead (hopefully physical shipment numbers instead lf mixing sell-through with sell-in) without digital.

But yeah, looking at the physycal sell-through, is pretty safe to say MK8DX was second place by Sep 30th.

Media Create Sales: Week 13, 2024 (Mar 25 - Mar 31)​

17./18. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2022.11.18} (¥5.980) - 4.310 / 5.320.999 <80-100%> (+4%)

Media Create Sales: Week 45, 2024 (Nov 04 - Nov 10)​

17./20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2022.11.18} (¥5.980) - 2.861 / 5.434.981 <80-100%> (+5%)
That's good research. In the week ending September 29th it was at 5.418.017 at retail. So up by 98k from March 30th. Based on this I'd guess that as of September 30th it was at roughly 8.35M with digital.
 
Both Scarlet/Violet and Tears of the kingdom sold 10 million copies in three days.
So, one of then, it’s the fastest selling Nintendo game of all time.
Tears won on the Europe and USA, with Pokémon in Japan.
Overall, we don’t know yet who sold more.
Maybe, we never know.
 
Both Scarlet/Violet and Tears of the kingdom sold 10 million copies in three days.
So, one of then, it’s the fastest selling Nintendo game of all time.
Tears won on the Europe and USA, with Pokémon in Japan.
Overall, we don’t know yet who sold more.
Maybe, we never know.

I think consensus is that SV sold more, otherwise Nintendo would have called out TOTK > SV in their PR at that time. Ex: they did call out that TOTK was best launch ever in US/Americas.

Also notable, SV non-JP launch at the time was way ahead of anything else prior to it at >5,950,000. Highest confirmed figure aside from that is SwSh at >4,000,000, so almost 50% bigger. Arceus and ACNH did not get details/breakdowns but both may have been ahead of this number.

TOTK then blasted past that with 7,760,000 non-JP launch, another 30% ahead of SV record.
 
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One topic i'm curious about is about the best selling video game franchises in Japan, i would think Mario/Pokemon are the top 2, but how would a top 10 list look like when it comes to the biggest selling franchises in Japan?
 
In no particular order something like this:

Mario
Mario kart
Pokemon
Dragon quest
Final fantasy
Animal crossing
Monster hunter
Tetris
Splatoon?
Smash?
 
In no particular order something like this:

Mario
Mario kart
Pokemon
Dragon quest
Final fantasy
Animal crossing
Monster hunter
Tetris
Splatoon?
Smash?
My guess:

Mario series (Including Mario spinoffs).
Pokemon.
Dragon Quest.
Monster Hunter.
Final Fantasy.
Animal Crossing.
Splatoon.

After that i think Zelda, Kirby, Resident Evil, Tales of series etc are on roughly same historic level, even if Nintendo series like Zelda and Kirby are increasing now in popularity while Resident Evil has declined since PS2 era in Japan.
 
Splatoon series is at 14.14M if i did not make any mistakes. Can Zelda or Kirby be above that?

Edit: Zelda series is >18M and then I stopped counting
 
Splatoon series is at 14.14M if i did not make any mistakes. Can Zelda or Kirby be above that?
Using game data library, i think Zelda just about clinches total sales over Splatoon. While Kirby seems to fall a few millions short of Splatoon.

Resident Evil is also up there with Splatoon and Zelda in terms of historic sales in Japan.
 
I would expect Minecraft to be one of the best selling series in Japan. The Switch version is a juggernaut and it has strong sales on other platforms. The spin offs might not be as big, but sell ok. Mind you this seems somewhat of topic here!
 
Tomorrow the new CESA industry report is released in Japan, which will reveal sales figures for Nintendo games among other things. It might take a while before that info gets out in the wild though.
 
Total sales (sell-in) as December 1994/March 1995 in Japan provided by Hiroshi Imanishi (Edge issue 24 September 1995, page 90):
Super Mario Kart: 3.32M (either December 1994 or March 1995)
Super Mario World: 3.22M (December 1994)
Donkey Kong Country: 2.60M (March 1995)

His prediction for Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana would have been proven wrong (the game sales declined from Seiken Densetus 2/Secret of Mana instead of increasing).

I highlight his answer about who Nintendo considered as the most dangerous competitor between Sony and Sega cause it show off well Nintendo's mentality as a first-party driven console manufactuer (a third-party driven console manufacturer like Sony would never ever dream to publicly declare third-parties as the direct rivals):
"We could say that because 64 is bigger than 32, the Ultra 64 will have no rival hardware! [Laughs.] In Japan, with 90 per cent of the current market, Nintendo does not have any rivals. At any rate, Nintendo does not have any rivals for the hardware, but as far as software is concerned, our rivals are the licensees."

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