Japan split between Nintendo and Sony

By Robert Purchese Published 19 October, 2009

PS3 still top of the console pile.

The PS3 and Wii are on level-pegging in Japan, posting respective sales of 30,896 and 30,741, according to Media Create data for the week ending 11th October.

Sony and Nintendo would be neck-and-neck if it weren't for the DS, which ruled the roost with 55,598 units sold - 15,000 more than second place PSP.

Software was the difference, as Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver topped the chart with 185,625 sales. Wii Fit Plus followed with a strong performance of 152, 587 sales, ahead of new DS entry Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey joined at three (97,221 sales).

DS games Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire/Blizzard (95,515) and Tomodachi Collection (67,772) rounded out the top five. The sales drop sharply from there.

Five of the top 10 games were on DS, with a further two on Wii. The remainder were three PSP titles.

Bizarrely, new Blue Dragon DS game Giants of the Spirit World only managed a first-week at 17.

Xbox 360 and PS2 were bottom of the hardware pile, incidentally, with a paltry 3326 and 2133 sales apiece.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (36) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • woodnotes #1 2 years ago

    I think PS3 will fall below Wii from next week until FFXIII launches.

    Can't wait to see what FFXIII does or doesn't do - interesting times for sales number fans! :)

  • cianchristopher #2 2 years ago

    Those Japs sure don't like us Westerners coming over and plying our wares, do they?

    The poor 360 didn't do anything to wrong them! Why don't they pay any attention to it?

    Maybe it's cos they're content to play SuperHappyFamilyDoctorKawasakiMonsterPortableFantasyTentacle Rape15 on their DS's?

  • Mercatoria #3 2 years ago

    I dont think I'll be playing FF13.
    generally seems to be the same boring story over and over.

  • Collymilad #4 2 years ago

    "Those Japs sure don't like us Westerners coming over and plying our wares, do they?

    The poor 360 didn't do anything to wrong them! Why don't they pay any attention to it?

    Maybe it's cos they're content to play SuperHappyFamilyDoctorKawasakiMonsterPortableFantasyTentacle
    Rape15 on their DS's? "

    Lol. Indeed.

    Despite how people will cry otherwise, the fact the 360 is American IS a factor.
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/09 @ 12:24

  • berelain #5 2 years ago

    When you look on the Japanese PSN store, its insane just how much content there is available for it in Japan- absolutely puts the US and UK stores to shame with hundreds of PS1 games, demos, and all sorts available. No wonder its so popular there with such a massive collection of games at your fingertips. We just get shafted over here for content.

  • Psiloc #6 2 years ago

    "SuperHappyFamilyDoctorKawasakiMonsterPortableFantasyTe ntacleRape15 on their DS's?"

    Better than Grey FPS 7 :-)

    Seriously, it's because the Japanese aren't interested in Western games just the same way we aren't interested in Japanese games. If the opposite happened and we got a machine that had only Jap-centric titles it would bomb here too.

  • MeBrains #7 2 years ago

    RE: the fact the 360 is American IS a factor.

    the fact that it was ill-engineered probably played most in Japan as well - more so than in other regions.

  • SeesThroughAll #8 2 years ago

    The Wii Fit effect. Very strong in Japan. The Wii will probably gain ground over the PS3, starting now.

    edit: Concerning weekly sales, of course.
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/09 @ 15:09

  • duckncover #9 2 years ago

    @cianchristopher

    I bet they look at you playing yet another FPS in envy as they have to settle for boring old Yakuza 3 or Demons Souls.

    Of course, if they do like the odd FPS over in the west, they are not limited by region to import it anyway. Sounds like win win to me.

  • carrotcake #10 2 years ago

    doesnt japan have fewer 360 games and many of them come months after they were released in america/europe. they probably are better off with their PS3s.

  • cianchristopher #11 2 years ago

    Yeah, but look at the charts guys!

    I know that there are good games in Japan, there are good games being made everywhere!

    But what sells in Japan is different! And it seems to be mostly these absolutely batshit-insane-mental games! like the made-up one (c'mon, that was pretty funny) in my earlier comment...

    Those, and Wii Fit!
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/09 @ 12:41

  • guernican #12 2 years ago

    "Despite how people will cry otherwise, the fact the 360 is American IS a factor."

    Quite... it must be racism. Not the persistent hardware issues. Nope, it's the racism.

  • uglygamer #13 2 years ago

    Return of the king,

    The Ps3 is starting become pretty impressive. Its understandable why its selling well recently
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/09 @ 12:43

  • cianchristopher #14 2 years ago

    @guernican
    Uh yeah, Japan is one of the most nakedly racist countries in the developed world!

  • ps3owner #15 2 years ago

    donnie, you are a fanboy. no need to include "accused" in your post ;P

  • fjharps #16 2 years ago

    I think that PS3 sales in Japan are still quite good leading the Wii even though by a short margin after the Wii price drop and the release of Wii Fit plus is not something to be taken lightly.

  • makeamazing #17 2 years ago

    another week,another fall in the ps3s sales figures. time and again i have been accused of being a "fanboy/troll" for

    Last week Donnie you were slating the PS3 because the Wii had beaten it and was stating that the PS3 would be beaten from then on by the Wii.... man you need to get your story straight as you are just looking like an ass.

    So the PS3 is holding up well...and I wonder why your not even talking about the Xbox sales? Not that I expect it to do well in Japan, but I cannot see how you can slate the PS3 at this point without slating the Wii and Xbox for their price cut not working in comparrison.

  • Burkey123 #18 2 years ago

    Although I like to see Nintendo do well, ya gotta hand it to Sony. Wii Fit Plus and a wii price drop should not be taken lightly.
    Although are people just buying a PS3 on their own? No PS3 game in the top 10 and still top on hardware. Strange.

  • LilithsCurves #19 2 years ago

    To throw some wood into the fire... The xbox360 is recently on the way down after a small push made by odst. ps3 sales are stabalizing easily above 200.000/week and xbox now under 140.000/week. And these 200.000 are not to dwindle anytime soon, they will stay there.(yes they will, seriously you can predict that, yes, really)

    Now everyone can still like/love their games and try to not be bothered by what millions of other people do (most of them ###-##### anyway).
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/09 @ 15:19

  • youhavenomail #20 2 years ago

    I'm not Japanese and I don't like the 360 either. But maybe it IS because it symbolises everything wrong about Americans. I.e. it's fat and loud and can't be bothered to work half the time.

    Nah, my xenophobia is only in jest. It's because Halo is shit.

  • Vice.Destroyer #21 2 years ago

    Why is everyone giving my man cianchristopher negative karma? His made up game was funny. I can't comment on the fact that it is the most nakedly racist country in the developed world, but go on, people. Give him positive vibes.

  • teabagger #22 2 years ago

    Playing the race card is a bit of a cheap retort to a reasonable point, that is that non-Japanese products tend not to do so well in Japan. Generally this seems to be true when looking at console and software sales figures and it's simply down to one catering towards the local gaming culture more than the other.

  • jambii267 #23 2 years ago

    "Xbox 360 and PS2 were bottom of the hardware pile, incidentally, with a paltry 3326 and 2133 sales apiece."

    Makes me wonder how on earth 360 gets any JRPG's, let alone any exclusive ones.

  • Vice.Destroyer #24 2 years ago

    Whoa. I tried cianchristopher, but it looks like your post went down like a lead balloon here. Even asking people to be positive to you gets negative karma. Cian, your toxic.

  • aphexstwin #25 2 years ago

    why do we give two hoots about the japanese sales? i would much prefer for 'euro'gamer to give us news on how the 'european' markets are doing. lets be honest, very few of us here cannot fathom why the japs like the games that they do, why not publish sales data about what our tastes are? or is it not as easy as that....?

  • SeesThroughAll #26 2 years ago

    Makes me wonder how on earth 360 gets any JRPG's, let alone any exclusive ones.

    You're joking, right?

  • smelly #27 2 years ago

    >Despite how people will cry otherwise, the fact the 360 is American IS a factor.

    Im sure the fact it's noisy, and breaks down alot has nothing to do with it :-)

  • Stepharneo #28 2 years ago

    More importantly Inazuma 11...why won't they translate it?....I wants it!

  • brod #29 2 years ago

    "Makes me wonder how on earth 360 gets any JRPG's, let alone any exclusive ones."

    Microsoft paying developers for 360 exclusivity isn't a new phenomenon.

  • MrNyarlathotep #30 2 years ago

    All of you claiming Japan are somehow 'racist' for not buying a 360 do realise that Sega was started in Hawaii to sell coin-ops to Americans and that other western brands such as the iPod sell phenomenally well in Japan, right?

    @donnie080208
    "in the U.S.A where the slims impact has been fairly lackluste"

    When Eurogamer post the NPD results in a few hours you might want to move those goalposts, as if those sales are lacklustre everything except the DS was terrible.

  • Les #31 2 years ago

    "why do we give two hoots about the japanese sales?"

    donnie, you're a clown. Not as bad as truth and some of the other muppets, but still a clown.

  • makeamazing #32 2 years ago

    "why do we give two hoots about the japanese sales?"

    Because a market is still a market even if your apparently not interested in it... oh thats right you like to pick and choose what is relevant when the it suits you. So if we dont give two hoots about the Japanese sales why do you keep going on about how bad the PS3 sales apparently are in that country.... Donnie you really are a muppet.

  • spiritsnake #33 2 years ago

    donnie is more than a muppet,he's a marrionate,those ones from devil may cry 1.
    ps3 has a strong consistant line up from now till next year june,which ends with release of gt5.from there they will depend on the motion controller and killzone 3 hype to keep them going.unless grand theft auto 5 gets announced as exclusive to ps3.

  • Drakron #34 2 years ago

    "Because a market is still a market"

    Yet we do not talk about African sales ...

    Japan was a very important market but it been on decline since the PS2, right now its not really important on the greater scheme of things as North America is the biggest market followed by Europe.

    People usual mention Japan because of the wrong notion that is the key market but its not, with the shift towards home consoles a lot of western developers and publishers that were traditionally in the PC market entered the console market and reduced the strength of Japanese developers.

    Also on the article ... the PS3 Slim top the hardware chart and then it come down, this is a sales spike and things will return to normal.

  • MrNyarlathotep #35 2 years ago

    Drakron, you do realise that of the 3 consoles and 2 handhelds currently on the market that 4/5 are produced in Japan?

    If that does not qualify it a a key market, which is worth observing to see how trends occur, I do not know what does.

  • Drakron #36 2 years ago

    "Drakron, you do realise that of the 3 consoles and 2 handhelds currently on the market that 4/5 are produced in Japan?"

    So what?

    Nokia is based on Finland, are you going to say Finland is a key mobile phone market?

    Also you have Nintendo own admission on the Wii launch that North America was their most important market, Japan as a market have long been in decline as releasing it there first is only because the companies are based there.

    "If that does not qualify it a a key market, which is worth observing to see how trends occur, I do not know what does."

    Because its not?

    Japan have its own tastes, many games never make it out of Japan despite being successful in there (Idolm@ster for example) and in no way its representative of gaming "tastes", you want a example?

    GTA III; 6.55 million in NA, 358,917 in Japan, 600,000 in UK
    Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King; 3.6 million in Japan, 410,000 in Europe, 430,000 in NA

    So according the logic Japan shows trends it would say GTA was a failure and Dragon Quest is the type of games people want and yet the reality is DQ does not really sells outside Japan and GTA despite having a average performance in Japan does sell in NA and Europe.

    After all do you think Nintendo or Sony are or were the powerhouses they are BECAUSE of the Japanese sales?
    Edited by 2 at 22/10/09 @ 17:30