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[Robb]

I am not saying it's bad. I am saying that future sales are unlikely to be big, and thus Switch most likely will end very close to NDS (less than 5% difference)

Ah okay, yeah I agree with that.

 

[noshten]

Famitsu Top 100 2025 (Unofficial Ranking)

1. [NS2] Mario Kart World (Nintendo) - 2.668.381
2. [NSW] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.529.823
3. [NS2] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.004.154
4. [PS5] Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom) - 833.968
5. [NSW] Super Mario Party: Jamboree (Nintendo) - 495.957
6. [NS2] Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo) - 435.206
7. [NS2] Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo) - 424.837
8. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft) - 346.606
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) - 342.866
10. [NSW] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 316.439
11. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) - 288.683
12. [NSW] Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo) - 277.204
13. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 232.554
14. [NSW] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 215.619
15. [PS5] Ghost of Yotei (Sony) - 199.870
16. [NS2] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 188.535
17. [NSW] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 174.051
18. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) - 168.901
19. [NSW] Switch Sports (Nintendo) - 163.786
20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet (Pokemon Co) - 161.296
21. [NSW] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 157.178
22. [NS2] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Koei Tecmo) - 148.033
23. [NS2] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 135.317
24. [NSW] Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 (Nintendo) - 133.963
25. [NS2] Super Mario Party Jamboree Jamboree TV (Nintendo) - 126.436
26. [PS5] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 115.640
27. [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo) - 113.492
28. [PS5] Dynasty Warriors: Origins (Koei Tecmo) - 101.119
29. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo) - 97.987
30. [PS5] Death Stranding 2 (Sony) - 95.144
31. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo) - 93.810
32. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) - 86.922
33. [NSW] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 86.815
34. [NS2] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 85.717
35. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) - 84.276
36. [PS5] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 83.533
37. [PS5] Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (Konami) - 80.507
38. [NSW] Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 78.014
39. [PS5] Silent Hill f (Konami) - 76.163
40. [NSW] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 75.524
41. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 75.171
42. [NSW] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 74.633
43. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega) - 72.613
44. [PS5] Elden Ring: Nightreign (From Software) - 71.559
45. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Bandai Namco) - 69.304
46. [NSW] The Battle Cats Unite! (Ponos) - 59.620
47. [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Konami) - 55.042
48. [NSW] Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (Konami) - 53.136
49. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 52.585
50. [NSW] The Exit 8 + Platform 8 (Playism) - 51.168
51. [NSW] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 49.781
52. [NS2] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 49.584
53. [NSW] The Game of Life (Takara Tomy) - 49.287
54. [PS4] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 48.500
55. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) - 47.272
56. [NSW] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 46.590
57. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World (Konami) - 46.226
58. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 46.214
59. [NSW] It Takes Two (Electronic Arts) - 40.930
60. [NSW] Power Pros 2024-2025 (Konami) - 40.796
61. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu (Konami) - 40.683
62. [PS5] Battlefield 6 (Electronic Arts) - 40.226
63. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 38.439
64. [NSW] Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny (Bandai Namco) - 38.094
65. [PS5] Digimon Story: Time Stranger (Bandai Namco) - 37.693
66. [PS5] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 36.553
67. [NSW] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 36.304
68. [NSW] Pikmin 4 (Nintendo) - 36.026
69. [NSW] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 35.936
70. [PS5] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 35.896
71. [PS5] Assassin's Creed: Shadows (Ubisoft) - 33.008
72. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 32.468
73. [NSW] The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Aniplex) - 31.492
74. [NSW] Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (Bandai Namco) - 31.270
75. [NS2] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 31.113
76. [NSW] Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo) - 30.904
77. [NSW] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 30.741
78. [NSW] Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Nintendo) - 29.399
79. [PS5] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 27.749
80. [NSW] Little Nightmares III (Bandai Namco ) - 27.181
81. [NSW] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 26.572
82. [NSW] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 26.473
83. [NSW] Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you (Konami) - 25.791
84. [NS2] Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Nintendo) - 24.796
85. [PS5] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 24.282
86. [PS5] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sega) - 24.164
87. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo) - 22.950
88. [PS5] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 22.743
89. [PS5] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 22.697
90. [NSW] Once Upon a Katamari Damacy (Bandai Namco) - 22.521
91. [PS5] Astro Bot (Sony) - 22.475
92. [NS2] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 22.169
93. [NS2] Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Sega) - 21.974
94. [NS2] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 21.459
95. [PS5] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 20.926
96. [PS5] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 20.877
97. [NSW] ToHeart (Aqua Plus) - 20.777
98. [PS5] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 19.631
99. [NSW] Gradius Origin Collection (Konami) - 18.998
100. [PS5] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 18.818

NSW - 58
PS5 - 23
NS2 - 16
PS4 - 1

TOTAL: 14.754.810
NSW: 7.174.676 (48.6%)
NS2: 5.466.393 (37%)
PS5: 2.065.241 (14.1%)
PS4: 48.500 (0.3%)

Official Numbers from Famitsu come out in a couple of weeks, we can expect that the Top 100 surpassed 15 million for the year, so around 10% growth YoY in terms of physical sales mostly due to Switch 2 launch which exceeded Famitsu's forecast by over a million. Next year we will likely see further growth as its not only Nintendo but a lot of third party publishers that will be pushing the Switch users into upgrade to the Switch 2.

Switch physical software will be down about 25-30% YoY which is probably a softer drop compared to any other market as Switch is still going to be a viable platform for a couple more years in Japan. Its also boosted by backwards compatibility and evergreens getting Switch 2 updates. Next year the drop will be bigger as I expect new major announcements to be entirely Switch 2 focused and the new Pokemon game being Switch 2 exclusive.

Switch 2 definitely sold less software than Switch did in 2017, my guess is that it managed around 5.75 million compared to around 6.75 million for the Switch in 2017 but that's mainly down to three factors

• fewer months on the market
• backwards compatibility leading to a large second hand market for Switch software that could be played on the Switch 2
• rise of digital from 2017 to 2025

For next year we are likely going to see Switch 2 hit 13-15 million in the Top 100 especially if we get another game bundled at some point. Hardware sales should surpass 5 million in 2026 and the vast majority of the hardware will stay put in Japan rather than be exported due to the region locked Switch 2. Switch in 2018 sold about 12 million software and 3.5 million hardware and didn't get as much third party support as I'm expecting on the Switch 2 in 2026. So at least out of the gate momentum is much stronger for the Switch 2 and we can expect Monster Hunter in some form pretty soon on the system(by end of the next FY), and more importantly the long awaited Dragon Quest XII(either fall 2026 or by the middle of 2027). There is already great momentum and despite selling over 4 million units in Japan Nintendo is not yet meeting demand in the country despite what I would say worse lineup than Switch had in 2017. I imagine that momentum will easily be maintained with new Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Smash etc arriving on the system in the coming years.


PlayStation ecosystem dropped about 20-25% YoY
In the end PlayStation 5 will end up with not a single title to surpass 1 million physical without combining SKUs(I'm guessing Monster Hunter Wilds will eventually get there with the expansion SKU which should manage 150K+ despite the bad WoM for the main game). Overall a very lacklaster year but things will get worse in 2026 when there is nothing that could even come close to Wilds releasing and a lot of third party games end up having Switch 2 SKUs eating further into Sony's diminishing market share in Japan.

PS4 is mostly phased out for majority of third party publishers. Only one game managed to chart in the Top 100 last year 5 titles managed to reach the Top 100 and one of them even surpassed 132K which this year is more than what the #3 title on the ecosystem managed physically.


Top 15 Publishers

1. Nintendo - 6.440.506 (43.6%)
2. Pokemon Co - 2.695.273 (18.3%)
3. Konami - 858.431 (5.8%)
4. Capcom - 833.968 (5.6%)
5. Square Enix - 793.714 (5.4%)
6. Bandai Namco - 759.560 (5.1%)
7. Microsoft - 346.606 (2.3%)
8. Koei Tecmo - 321.352 (2.2%)
9. Sony - 317.489 (2.1%)
10. Sega/Atlus - 280.058 (1.9%)
11. Other - 264.615 (1.8%)
12. Aniplex - 226.420 (1.5%)
13. Marvelous - 215.621 (1.5%)
14. Level 5 - 178.104 (1.2%)
15. Electronic Arts - 81.156 (0.5%)
16. From Software - 71.559 (0.5%)

Nintendo saw an small increase YoY of between 5-10% despite most evergreen titles selling less compared to last year. Mainly Mario Kart World leading to this increase with its bundle making up about 40% of Nintendo's sales in the Top 100. Next year we still only know about smaller franchises of which Tomodachi Life probably the biggest seller in Japan of the games we know with the last game in the franchise hitting nearly 2 million physical on the 3DS in Japan

Pokemon Co was the main reason market is up YoY with Legends Z-A leading to nearly 500% increase in their sales YoY. Pokemon will see further growth next year with Pokopia which could very well perform better than Legends Z-A long term with strong WoM, in the fall we also expect a Switch 2 exclusive mainline game for the fall for the 30th anniversary of the franchise (Project Gaia)


Not a single third party publisher managed to surpass 1 million units in the Top 100 something Square, Konami managed last year.
In the end this year was the Switch 2 story and honestly third parties didn't capitalize in terms of new major titles exclusive to the system besides Hyrule Warriors.

Konami did manage to be the top in terms of the third parties their decline YoY is going to be less than 20% when official numbers come in. Games like Silent Hill f & Snake Eater could have targeted the Switch 2 and had much higher potential compared to what they ended up selling in Japan. As Konami has been riding high these past few years in Japan mainly due to the success of their Switch lineup. It would have made more sense to push these games back and add a Switch 2 version while further polishing them. In the end of the day Konami are probably still okay with the results but I think with more time as a Switch 2 SKU at a later launch date could have easily doubled their physical totals. This year we are likely to get a new eBaseball game so they should be in a similar place in 2026.

Square likely will finish ahead of Capcom when official numbers come out due to better legs for titles outside of the Top 30 but they will likely have a decline of over 55% YoY due to weaker slate of games in 2025. 2026 should be stronger as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is shaping up to have a larger launch than Dragon Quest I&II Remakes. Also beyond Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade we will likely see Rebirth launch later in the year - I don't expect a lot from old ports but 100K after a small start is possible for the year. Big question is whether Dragon Quest XII will be launching this year in the fall... that would be a huge release big enough for Nintendo to ride out the holidays in Japan without any huge 1st Party title besides Pokemon.

Capcom might come in 5th or 6th due to Monster Hunter Wilds with a 450% increase YoY but when we compare results to the launch year of Rise or World its over 70% less than 2021 and over 60% less than 2018. After the disappointing results for the PlayStation 5 Capcom have pivoted and Switch 2 is central to their plans to remain relevant in their home market. Resident Evil, Pragmata and likely a Wilds port in time for the expansion could see them actually see growth YoY in 2026.

Bandai will have a slight increase YoY mainly stemming from Tamagotchi Plaza doing great and not having any hits in 2024. It's possible they end up overtaking Capcom depending on how their titles did outside of the Top 30. With the exit of Harada we will likely see a change in their strategy of late ports to Switch / Switch 2 but this will take at least another year to materialize in the end they had a lot of flops in the past few years and anime games underperforming due to their strategy - so they are the last domino to fall.

Microsoft are nearly flat YoY with Minecraft while Koei Tecmo & Sony right behind. Koei last year didn't have a single game in the Top 100 so a huge growth YoY as in 2024 their top selling SKU was Winning Post 10 with 18K units, when official numbers come in its possible Koei ended up ahead of Microsoft. With Dynasty Warriors coming to the Switch 2 its only Team Ninja that continues to ignore the ecosystem. Ports of Nioh games would definitely signal that the strategy has changed for them but so far these haven't materialized and its likely there is some kind of exclusivity contract with Sony in return for distribution/marketing outside of Japan.

Sony are down over 30% YoY mainly because they only published two new titles and didnt have a forced bundle for much of the year. Death Stranding 2 did much worse than the first game, while Ghost of Yotei definitely won't be reaching 1 million in Japan like Tsushima without being a forced bundle for the rest of the systems life so its also likely to be down in a major way. Doesn't seem that Sony has anything major line-up for Japan in 2026 so we are probably going to see further decline for them this year.

We have a few more third party publishers that managed over 200K units Sega/Atlus, Aniplex, Marvelous and maybe Level 5.

Sega/Atlus had a big drop YoY from selling nearly 1 million to just about hitting 300K. But we do see a change in their strategy with Yakuza building an audience on the Switch 2 still Atlus doesn't seem to be following the same path but we will see as it's Persona's 30th anniversary this year and their next games hitting the Switch 2 will be a big shift compared to what they provided on the Switch(very late ports).

Aniplex, Marvelous and Level 5 on the other hand had much stronger year compared to 2024 where none made the Top 15. For Aniplex the new Demon Slayer sequel rode high due to the movies and most sales came on the Switch. We can continue to expect this Sony Music Studio to focus on the Switch 2 as majority of their IPs sell best on the most popular platform in Japan. Last year Hundred Line didn't even get a PS port.

Marvelous had a strong showing with their spin-off Rune Factory game selling better than their last mainline game due to much better WoM, while the Grand Bazaar also did very well for a remake. Hopefully this is a sign they have learned their lesson as Rune Factory 4 and Olive Town both suffered due to lack of polish and could have done a lot better if they had been pushed back a bit.

Rounding up the Top 10 we have EA as the only Western AAA publisher represented in the Top 15 publishers. Obviously without help in terms of physical distribution most Western AAA games treat Japan as an after-thought Call of Duty went from nearly half a million half a decade ago to below 50K nowadays. Without physical they are pretty limited outside of a small niche that probably also owns a PC. We will see if things change with the Switch 2 getting more AAA support - GTA VI will be a major test as the original game sold over a million in Japan but being PS5 exclusive might mean a huge drop in Japan.

From Software (Kadokawa) are the final publisher in the rankings with Kadokawa investing more and more into self publishing and Spike Chunsoft / From Software focusing on the Switch 2 we are likely to see them rise up in the rankings in the coming years. Elden Ring will be the first major title and despite it being a late port I expect it to do very well on the Switch 2(200K+ physical lifetime) with Duskbloods following we can expect the next multiplatform From Software title to also end up on the Switch 2.

Finally we can look at the indies which are mostly digital heavy games - this year in terms of new games Urban Myth Dissolution Center & The Exit 8 + Platform 8 are probably the most successful Japanese indies while Silksong was the most successful Western indie title. With the revenue based eShop charts its a bit more difficult to track how games end up selling outside of some official numbers being revealed.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Famitsu Top 100 2025 (Unofficial Ranking)

1. [NS2] Mario Kart World (Nintendo) - 2.668.381
2. [NSW] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.529.823
3. [NS2] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.004.154
4. [PS5] Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom) - 833.968
5. [NSW] Super Mario Party: Jamboree (Nintendo) - 495.957
6. [NS2] Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo) - 435.206
7. [NS2] Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo) - 424.837
8. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft) - 346.606
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) - 342.866
10. [NSW] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 316.439
11. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) - 288.683
12. [NSW] Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo) - 277.204
13. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 232.554
14. [NSW] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 215.619
15. [PS5] Ghost of Yotei (Sony) - 199.870
16. [NS2] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 188.535
17. [NSW] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 174.051
18. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) - 168.901
19. [NSW] Switch Sports (Nintendo) - 163.786
20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet (Pokemon Co) - 161.296
21. [NSW] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 157.178
22. [NS2] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Koei Tecmo) - 148.033
23. [NS2] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 135.317
24. [NSW] Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 (Nintendo) - 133.963
25. [NS2] Super Mario Party Jamboree Jamboree TV (Nintendo) - 126.436
26. [PS5] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 115.640
27. [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo) - 113.492
28. [PS5] Dynasty Warriors: Origins (Koei Tecmo) - 101.119
29. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo) - 97.987
30. [PS5] Death Stranding 2 (Sony) - 95.144
31. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo) - 93.810
32. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) - 86.922
33. [NSW] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 86.815
34. [NS2] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 85.717
35. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) - 84.276
36. [PS5] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 83.533
37. [PS5] Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (Konami) - 80.507
38. [NSW] Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 78.014
39. [PS5] Silent Hill f (Konami) - 76.163
40. [NSW] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 75.524
41. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 75.171
42. [NSW] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 74.633
43. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega) - 72.613
44. [PS5] Elden Ring: Nightreign (From Software) - 71.559
45. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Bandai Namco) - 69.304
46. [NSW] The Battle Cats Unite! (Ponos) - 59.620
47. [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Konami) - 55.042
48. [NSW] Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (Konami) - 53.136
49. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 52.585
50. [NSW] The Exit 8 + Platform 8 (Playism) - 51.168
51. [NSW] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 49.781
52. [NS2] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 49.584
53. [NSW] The Game of Life (Takara Tomy) - 49.287
54. [PS4] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 48.500
55. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) - 47.272
56. [NSW] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 46.590
57. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World (Konami) - 46.226
58. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 46.214
59. [NSW] It Takes Two (Electronic Arts) - 40.930
60. [NSW] Power Pros 2024-2025 (Konami) - 40.796
61. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu (Konami) - 40.683
62. [PS5] Battlefield 6 (Electronic Arts) - 40.226
63. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 38.439
64. [NSW] Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny (Bandai Namco) - 38.094
65. [PS5] Digimon Story: Time Stranger (Bandai Namco) - 37.693
66. [PS5] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 36.553
67. [NSW] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 36.304
68. [NSW] Pikmin 4 (Nintendo) - 36.026
69. [NSW] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 35.936
70. [PS5] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 35.896
71. [PS5] Assassin's Creed: Shadows (Ubisoft) - 33.008
72. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 32.468
73. [NSW] The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Aniplex) - 31.492
74. [NSW] Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (Bandai Namco) - 31.270
75. [NS2] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 31.113
76. [NSW] Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo) - 30.904
77. [NSW] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 30.741
78. [NSW] Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Nintendo) - 29.399
79. [PS5] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 27.749
80. [NSW] Little Nightmares III (Bandai Namco ) - 27.181
81. [NSW] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 26.572
82. [NSW] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 26.473
83. [NSW] Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you (Konami) - 25.791
84. [NS2] Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Nintendo) - 24.796
85. [PS5] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 24.282
86. [PS5] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sega) - 24.164
87. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo) - 22.950
88. [PS5] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 22.743
89. [PS5] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 22.697
90. [NSW] Once Upon a Katamari Damacy (Bandai Namco) - 22.521
91. [PS5] Astro Bot (Sony) - 22.475
92. [NS2] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 22.169
93. [NS2] Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Sega) - 21.974
94. [NS2] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 21.459
95. [PS5] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 20.926
96. [PS5] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 20.877
97. [NSW] ToHeart (Aqua Plus) - 20.777
98. [PS5] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 19.631
99. [NSW] Gradius Origin Collection (Konami) - 18.998
100. [PS5] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 18.818

NSW - 58
PS5 - 23
NS2 - 16
PS4 - 1

TOTAL: 14.754.810
NSW: 7.174.676 (48.6%)
NS2: 5.466.393 (37%)
PS5: 2.065.241 (14.1%)
PS4: 48.500 (0.3%)

Official Numbers from Famitsu come out in a couple of weeks, we can expect that the Top 100 surpassed 15 million for the year, so around 10% growth YoY in terms of physical sales mostly due to Switch 2 launch which exceeded Famitsu's forecast by over a million. Next year we will likely see further growth as its not only Nintendo but a lot of third party publishers that will be pushing the Switch users into upgrade to the Switch 2.

Switch physical software will be down about 25-30% YoY which is probably a softer drop compared to any other market as Switch is still going to be a viable platform for a couple more years in Japan. Its also boosted by backwards compatibility and evergreens getting Switch 2 updates. Next year the drop will be bigger as I expect new major announcements to be entirely Switch 2 focused and the new Pokemon game being Switch 2 exclusive.

Switch 2 definitely sold less software than Switch did in 2017, my guess is that it managed around 5.75 million compared to around 6.75 million for the Switch in 2017 but that's mainly down to three factors

• fewer months on the market
• backwards compatibility leading to a large second hand market for Switch software that could be played on the Switch 2
• rise of digital from 2017 to 2025

For next year we are likely going to see Switch 2 hit 13-15 million in the Top 100 especially if we get another game bundled at some point. Hardware sales should surpass 5 million in 2026 and the vast majority of the hardware will stay put in Japan rather than be exported due to the region locked Switch 2. Switch in 2018 sold about 12 million software and 3.5 million hardware and didn't get as much third party support as I'm expecting on the Switch 2 in 2026. So at least out of the gate momentum is much stronger for the Switch 2 and we can expect Monster Hunter in some form pretty soon on the system(by end of the next FY), and more importantly the long awaited Dragon Quest XII(either fall 2026 or by the middle of 2027). There is already great momentum and despite selling over 4 million units in Japan Nintendo is not yet meeting demand in the country despite what I would say worse lineup than Switch had in 2017. I imagine that momentum will easily be maintained with new Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Smash etc arriving on the system in the coming years.

PlayStation ecosystem dropped about 20-25% YoY
In the end PlayStation 5 will end up with not a single title to surpass 1 million physical without combining SKUs(I'm guessing Monster Hunter Wilds will eventually get there with the expansion SKU which should manage 150K+ despite the bad WoM for the main game). Overall a very lacklaster year but things will get worse in 2026 when there is nothing that could even come close to Wilds releasing and a lot of third party games end up having Switch 2 SKUs eating further into Sony's diminishing market share in Japan.

PS4 is mostly phased out for majority of third party publishers. Only one game managed to chart in the Top 100 last year 5 titles managed to reach the Top 100 and one of them even surpassed 132K which this year is more than what the #3 title on the ecosystem managed physically.


Top 15 Publishers

1. Nintendo - 6.440.506 (43.6%)
2. Pokemon Co - 2.695.273 (18.3%)
3. Konami - 858.431 (5.8%)
4. Capcom - 833.968 (5.6%)
5. Square Enix - 793.714 (5.4%)
6. Bandai Namco - 759.560 (5.1%)
7. Microsoft - 346.606 (2.3%)
8. Koei Tecmo - 321.352 (2.2%)
9. Sony - 317.489 (2.1%)
10. Sega/Atlus - 280.058 (1.9%)
11. Other - 264.615 (1.8%)
12. Aniplex - 226.420 (1.5%)
13. Marvelous - 215.621 (1.5%)
14. Level 5 - 178.104 (1.2%)
15. Electronic Arts - 81.156 (0.5%)
16. From Software - 71.559 (0.5%)

Nintendo saw an small increase YoY of between 5-10% despite most evergreen titles selling less compared to last year. Mainly Mario Kart World leading to this increase with its bundle making up about 40% of Nintendo's sales in the Top 100. Next year we still only know about smaller franchises of which Tomodachi Life probably the biggest seller in Japan of the games we know with the last game in the franchise hitting nearly 2 million physical on the 3DS in Japan

Pokemon Co was the main reason market is up YoY with Legends Z-A leading to nearly 500% increase in their sales YoY. Pokemon will see further growth next year with Pokopia which could very well perform better than Legends Z-A long term with strong WoM, in the fall we also expect a Switch 2 exclusive mainline game for the fall for the 30th anniversary of the franchise (Project Gaia)


Not a single third party publisher managed to surpass 1 million units in the Top 100 something Square, Konami managed last year.
In the end this year was the Switch 2 story and honestly third parties didn't capitalize in terms of new major titles exclusive to the system besides Hyrule Warriors.

Konami did manage to be the top in terms of the third parties their decline YoY is going to be less than 20% when official numbers come in. Games like Silent Hill f & Snake Eater could have targeted the Switch 2 and had much higher potential compared to what they ended up selling in Japan. As Konami has been riding high these past few years in Japan mainly due to the success of their Switch lineup. It would have made more sense to push these games back and add a Switch 2 version while further polishing them. In the end of the day Konami are probably still okay with the results but I think with more time as a Switch 2 SKU at a later launch date could have easily doubled their physical totals. This year we are likely to get a new eBaseball game so they should be in a similar place in 2026.

Square likely will finish ahead of Capcom when official numbers come out due to better legs for titles outside of the Top 30 but they will likely have a decline of over 55% YoY due to weaker slate of games in 2025. 2026 should be stronger as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is shaping up to have a larger launch than Dragon Quest I&II Remakes. Also beyond Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade we will likely see Rebirth launch later in the year - I don't expect a lot from old ports but 100K after a small start is possible for the year. Big question is whether Dragon Quest XII will be launching this year in the fall... that would be a huge release big enough for Nintendo to ride out the holidays in Japan without any huge 1st Party title besides Pokemon.

Capcom might come in 5th or 6th due to Monster Hunter Wilds with a 450% increase YoY but when we compare results to the launch year of Rise or World its over 70% less than 2021 and over 60% less than 2018. After the disappointing results for the PlayStation 5 Capcom have pivoted and Switch 2 is central to their plans to remain relevant in their home market. Resident Evil, Pragmata and likely a Wilds port in time for the expansion could see them actually see growth YoY in 2026.

Bandai will have a slight increase YoY mainly stemming from Tamagotchi Plaza doing great and not having any hits in 2024. It's possible they end up overtaking Capcom depending on how their titles did outside of the Top 30. With the exit of Harada we will likely see a change in their strategy of late ports to Switch / Switch 2 but this will take at least another year to materialize in the end they had a lot of flops in the past few years and anime games underperforming due to their strategy - so they are the last domino to fall.

Microsoft are nearly flat YoY with Minecraft while Koei Tecmo & Sony right behind. Koei last year didn't have a single game in the Top 100 so a huge growth YoY as in 2024 their top selling SKU was Winning Post 10 with 18K units, when official numbers come in its possible Koei ended up ahead of Microsoft. With Dynasty Warriors coming to the Switch 2 its only Team Ninja that continues to ignore the ecosystem. Ports of Nioh games would definitely signal that the strategy has changed for them but so far these haven't materialized and its likely there is some kind of exclusivity contract with Sony in return for distribution/marketing outside of Japan.

Sony are down over 30% YoY mainly because they only published two new titles and didnt have a forced bundle for much of the year. Death Stranding 2 did much worse than the first game, while Ghost of Yotei definitely won't be reaching 1 million in Japan like Tsushima without being a forced bundle for the rest of the systems life so its also likely to be down in a major way. Doesn't seem that Sony has anything major line-up for Japan in 2026 so we are probably going to see further decline for them this year.

We have a few more third party publishers that managed over 200K units Sega/Atlus, Aniplex, Marvelous and maybe Level 5.

Sega/Atlus had a big drop YoY from selling nearly 1 million to just about hitting 300K. But we do see a change in their strategy with Yakuza building an audience on the Switch 2 still Atlus doesn't seem to be following the same path but we will see as it's Persona's 30th anniversary this year and their next games hitting the Switch 2 will be a big shift compared to what they provided on the Switch(very late ports).

Aniplex, Marvelous and Level 5 on the other hand had much stronger year compared to 2024 where none made the Top 15. For Aniplex the new Demon Slayer sequel rode high due to the movies and most sales came on the Switch. We can continue to expect this Sony Music Studio to focus on the Switch 2 as majority of their IPs sell best on the most popular platform in Japan. Last year Hundred Line didn't even get a PS port.

Marvelous had a strong showing with their spin-off Rune Factory game selling better than their last mainline game due to much better WoM, while the Grand Bazaar also did very well for a remake. Hopefully this is a sign they have learned their lesson as Rune Factory 4 and Olive Town both suffered due to lack of polish and could have done a lot better if they had been pushed back a bit.

Rounding up the Top 10 we have EA as the only Western AAA publisher represented in the Top 15 publishers. Obviously without help in terms of physical distribution most Western AAA games treat Japan as an after-thought Call of Duty went from nearly half a million half a decade ago to below 50K nowadays. Without physical they are pretty limited outside of a small niche that probably also owns a PC. We will see if things change with the Switch 2 getting more AAA support - GTA VI will be a major test as the original game sold over a million in Japan but being PS5 exclusive might mean a huge drop in Japan.

From Software (Kadokawa) are the final publisher in the rankings with Kadokawa investing more and more into self publishing and Spike Chunsoft / From Software focusing on the Switch 2 we are likely to see them rise up in the rankings in the coming years. Elden Ring will be the first major title and despite it being a late port I expect it to do very well on the Switch 2(200K+ physical lifetime) with Duskbloods following we can expect the next multiplatform From Software title to also end up on the Switch 2.

Finally we can look at the indies which are mostly digital heavy games - this year in terms of new games Urban Myth Dissolution Center & The Exit 8 + Platform 8 are probably the most successful Japanese indies while Silksong was the most successful Western indie title. With the revenue based eShop charts its a bit more difficult to track how games end up selling outside of some official numbers being revealed.

 

[Tams]

Geez, there's enough salt in here to cause a heart attack!

I think the hybrid nature of the Switch is a major selling point in Japan. Handhelds have always done well there, so there's that preference.

But also, I think the option to have it as a family console is big driver. Sure, Akiko or Yousuke might not be happy to play games with their families, but their parents can justify the purchase more as better value for money.

You need to remember that not only are Japanese people often space poor, they aren't particularly well-paid either. So, the low entry price helps.

For my evidence... well when I worked in Japanese schools, many kids had a Switch (often multiple per household). Any other console was almost alien to them other than mobile gaming. So long as they could play Minecraft they were happy.

 

[Sephiran]

I am not saying it's bad. I am saying that future sales are unlikely to be big, and thus Switch most likely will end very close to NDS (less than 5% difference)


Gacha is defacto exclusives for playstation
The only platforms that they are available are PC - not mass-market friendly, mobiles - have significantly inferior quality and Playstation

Go look at Famitsu 2024 top 100, biggest selling game was under 1 million, and 2025 games only Switch2 games riding on launch manager to break over. It's a state of Japanese market that migrated to gacha games where majority of players and money are. Some exclusives nobody care about will not change it, but bringing high-quality, and Sony works closely with many gacha providers, can.

And if that mattered PS would be competitive when it comes to hardware sales in Japan, which they aren't. All the gacha games are mostly played on mobile phones in Japan and elsewhere, its not something that gives major boost to consoles.

 

[Fake]

Some Sony fanboys are bizarre holy shit.

 

[Sephiran]

Some Sony fanboys are bizarre holy shit.

They can't handle the ''failing Switch 2'' outselling PS5 in any market, because now that Xbox has left the console competition, all Sony fanboys are entirely focused on the Switch 2, they desperately want the Switch 2 to crater and fail. And the interesting thing is that Nintendo fanboys don't really make youtube videos where they shit on PS5, but this happens every single day from PS fanboys. Sony fanboys have created an entire social media ecosystem about how the Switch 2 is doomed, and make new videos and posts about Switch 2 on a daily basis. Funny how Sony themselves have said that Nintendo is not competition for them, while their legions of fanboys for some reason love obsessing about Switch 2.

 

[Felessan]

And if that mattered PS would be competitive when it comes to hardware sales in Japan, which they aren't. All the gacha games are mostly played on mobile phones in Japan and elsewhere, its not something that gives major boost to consoles.

It is though?
For as much as home consoles go. Home consoles sales were always significantly lower than portable, it's Japan market specifics
PS5 tracked above PS4 until price hike due to yen depreciation killed momentum.
PS5 selling 20k a week, around million an year on base of ~completely~ absense of SP games - this year chart (above) is MHW at 800k, Yotei at 200k, DQ at 100k and all the rest is below 100k

People owning PS5, which have quite normal sales nowadays for home consoles, doesn't really seems to buy SP games except the very few. At the same time it's known that playstation IS a big revenue driver for at least some AAA gachas (Genshin made 1bn on Playstation in 2 years), and that revenue coming mostly from Japan (as China+Japan is overwhelming majority for those games revenue).

 

[subzero83]

But usage shows the exact opposite?

At some point you need to accept that a lot of people don't care about power or terabytes of storage, if they did there would be no market for Switch at all.

History shows the exact opposite though? Nintendo home consoles have been in decline since the nes. other then the wii which was mainly driven by motion control fad era, and it's successor was epic bomb. Nintendo handhelds have always been very popular. with nintendo now mainly focused on the handheld market and technology not holding back nintendo games because of diminishing returns especially for nintendo type games on switch it was bound to be a major success.

 

[Inanilmaz]

History shows the exact opposite though? Nintendo home consoles have been in decline since the nes. other then the wii which was mainly driven by motion control fad era, and it's successor was epic bomb. Nintendo handhelds have always been very popular. with nintendo now mainly focused on the handheld market and technology not holding back nintendo games because of diminishing returns especially for nintendo type games on switch it was bound to be a major success.

The Nintendo market is directed by me, bought every Nintendo handheld and the only homeconsoles i bought was nes/snes and going to buy the wii soon(better late than never).
If you dont see me interested to buy in the past or future you know the console is going to be mostly a disappointment at the end. Right now i have ZERO intent to buy a switch 2. Its the first time i didn't want a handheld on release day. Its still the first year lets see.
I'm hopeful tho, i dont know how long it lasts but Its breaking records worldwide rn(thanks to the availability too i guess?) so i think/hope there will be 1 huge game that pulls me in(&no its not gonna be zelda i hate 3d zeldas especially the new ones).

 

[Sohurmk833]

They will put gacha/f2p games onto it, THE real king of gaming in Japan.
Who cares about Zelda when you can play HSR, Genshin or Apex. Arknights Endfield coming next week on PC and Playstation only, and its quite big in Japan (it earns ~160 mil per year in Japan, roughly equivalent of 2.5 mio copies sold - more than 99.9% SP games in Japan nowadays).
Amount of astroturfing and lack of real knowledge here is astonishing

Yeah the real king that didn't do shit to boost PS5 sales.

A lot of words that still doesn't explain why if the Japanese market cares so much about portability the handheld only device sold far, far less than what was expected and again is the lowest selling version of the console. In short you're talking absolute mince.

The japanese market, like any other other market, cares about games first and foremost. That's why PS2 did huge numbers despite being a home console and that's why neither the Vita nor any other possible Sony handheld will do fuck all. Playstation has pretty much zero exclusive software that appeals to the japanese market left.

This isn't going to change with a handheld.

 

[subzero83]

Yeah the real king that didn't do shit to boost PS5 sales.

The japanese market, like any other other market, cares about games first and foremost. That's why PS2 did huge numbers despite being a home console and that's why neither the Vita nor any other possible Sony handheld will do fuck all. Playstation has pretty much zero exclusive software that appeals to the japanese market left.

This isn't going to change with a handheld.

Japan prefers handheld vastly to any where in the world. considering ps2 was massive beast WW and basically had almost every japanese third-party game mostly exclusive those ps2 numbers are pathetic in japan. A handheld would have helped ps5 a lot but it would have to come out in 2022 with switch 2 being able to play most third-party games its too late.

 

[Sohurmk833]

Japan prefers handheld vastly to any where in the world. considering ps2 was massive beast WW and basically had almost every japanese third-party game mostly exclusive those ps2 numbers are pathetic in japan. A handheld would have helped ps5 a lot but it would have to come out in 2022 with switch 2 being able to play most third-party games its too late.

A PS5 handheld still would not have had the software necessary to be successful.

And going forward this is not going to get any better. The last big exclusive franchise Sony had at the beginning of the gen was Final Fantasy and that's now coming to Switch. It's completely over.

 

[JDJB0487]

Why wouldn't they use it mixed when they have an ability?
You know people use dockstation for laptops to work with kbm and big monitors too. Doesn't make them desktop or hybrid.
Again - people do prefer big screen over tiny shit, so given ability they will opt for it. Doesn't make it less portable.

And we are in sales thread - your delusions about blablabla hybrid is all nice, but reality is that Switch couldn't grow past NDS, meaning that Nintendo just grabbed userbase they already had and that's all, all this hybrid bullshit amount to nothing in userbase acquisition. And given that home consoles userbase for Nintendo were declining for 15 years prior to Switch it means that there is just no (real) home consoles userbase for Nintendo and Nintendo failed to penetrate this market and invade into Sony/(former)Xbox turf.
They are just non-competitive in ~real~ home consoles market. And Nintendo fans just coping in a corner, trying to bullshit their way with appealing to "blablabla hybrid blablabla"

PlayStation couldn't grow past PS2. The PS3 and PS4 saw quite significant declines from the PS2 and the PS5 is on a similar trajectory. PlayStation also failed to gain from Xbox selling poorly.

 

[subzero83]

A PS5 handheld still would not have had the software necessary to be successful.

And going forward this is not going to get any better. The last big exclusive franchise Sony had at the beginning of the gen was Final Fantasy and that's now coming to Switch. It's completely over.

It could have been had they adopted the switch strategy there, but it's too late japan wanted handhelds and sony was focused on home consoles, if it was really about the games you would not have multiple nintendo home consoles sell like crap in japan.

 

[Sohurmk833]

It could have been had they adopted the switch strategy there, but it's too late japan wanted handhelds and sony was focused on home consoles, if it was really about the games you would not have multiple nintendo home consoles sell like crap in japan.

Which Nintendo home console with a strong japan centric lineup sold like crap?

 

[Sephiran]

Look at Sony first party sales in Japan, its easy to look it up. They sell atrocious. Sony as a publisher is on the same league as Sega in Japan. They are not a competitor to Nintendo. Meaning, the more stuff like MH Wilds and Final Fantasy is ported over to Nintendo consoles, the reason to own a PS outside of an aging group of Sony fanboys collapses in Japan. It doesn't matter what they do, they make software that appeals to Americans and Europeans and have nothing of note in Japan.

Ghost of Yotei, Sony's big game of 2025 in Japan got outsold by a low budget Tamagutchi game from Bandai Namco on the Switch, comparing that selling potential to being a rival to Nintendo is laughable in Japan.

 

[subzero83]

Which Nintendo home console with a strong japan centric lineup sold like crap?

look at the top best selling games in japan for switch 1 these type of games were on N64, GC, wii and wiiu they certainly did not deserve to be epic failures considering how the handhelds sell there. wii did ok but it was basically 2-3 million more then ps4 it pretty clear to anyone with common sense they vastly prefer handhelds there.

 

[Sohurmk833]

Look at Sony first party sales in Japan, its easy to look it up. They sell atrocious. Sony as a publisher is on the same league as Sega in Japan. They are not a competitor to Nintendo. Meaning, the more stuff like MH Wilds and Final Fantasy is ported over to Nintendo consoles, the reason to own a PS outside of an aging group of Sony fanboys collapses in Japan. It doesn't matter what they do, they make software that appeals to Americans and Europeans and have nothing of note in Japan.

Ghost of Yotei, Sony's big game of 2025 in Japan got outsold by a low budget Tamagutchi game from Bandai Namco on the Switch, comparing that selling potential to being a rival to Nintendo is laughable in Japan.

Spot on. Sony pissed away any kind of foothold they had in Japan with their focus on western AAA stuff.

look at the top best selling games in japan for switch 1 these type of games were on N64, GC, wii and wiiu they certainly did not deserve to be epic failures considering how the handhelds sell there. wii did ok but it was basically 2-3 million more then ps4 it pretty clear to anyone with common sense they vastly prefer handhelds there.

Apart from Zelda and Mario they weren't. No Pokémon, no Monster Hunter, barely any RPGs in general.

 

[subzero83]

Spot on. Sony pissed away any kind of foothold they had in Japan with their focus on western AAA stuff.


Apart from Zelda and Mario they weren't. No Pokémon, no Monster Hunter, barely any RPGs in general.

smash
mario kart
animal crossing
splatoon
zelda
3d mario
2d mario
Mario party

These games carried the switch 1, yet they could not even break 5 milllion hardware sales when it came to home consoles. you know damn well a handheld with these games would break 10 million in its sleep in japan.

 

[dgproject]

Not the same but quite similar.
And you all trying to delve deep into technicals are just have too narrow vision (not that many would care if it didn't go into perf mode as SteamDeck shows)
It's not really about technical implementation but rather about userbase and market. And userbase and market of Switch is of portable, no matter how many gimmicks Nintendo added.
It has installbase if NDS and we know that Nintendo consoles was in heavy decline to sub-20 mio prior to Switch. Which paint us a picture that real picture of distribution of home/hybrid/portable.
Being at 10% userbase real hybrid might be as well be ignored as insignificant. And round 90% portable to 100%.


Switch didn't at last official numbers. And although it will pass NDS, given that Switch1 sales nosediving, EOL sales will have marginal improvements over NDS. It sold 900k for whole 3nd quarter and it'll become even worse going forward. 3rd quarter should normally show increase in sales but instead it's a decline of -65% YoY.


They will put gacha/f2p games onto it, THE real king of gaming in Japan.
Who cares about Zelda when you can play HSR, Genshin or Apex. Arknights Endfield coming next week on PC and Playstation only, and its quite big in Japan (it earns ~160 mil per year in Japan, roughly equivalent of 2.5 mio copies sold - more than 99.9% SP games in Japan nowadays).
Amount of astroturfing and lack of real knowledge here is astonishing

Yup, outside Nintendo games, the one that can capture Japanese people is f2p games. Community gaming, or gaming with friends, is a big thing in Asia, I look at them as real successor for monster hunter portable 3rd, at least in community aspect.

Still I am not sure if those games, despite being extremely successful, can resurrect ps6 (and hypothetically, ps6 portable) though. Most of those are games already available on ps5, and ps5 sales is still underwhelming. The majority of the players are playing on their mobile phones instead.

Oh well, ps still making tons of money from those p2p games globally, so I doubt they will care so much about japan sales. But I wish they could fund some exclusive javanese games like in the ps2/psp/ps3 era. Aside of Astrobot and grand Turismo, it felt like they made nothing.

F2p mobile Gacha games aren't going to save PS6 from becoming the worst selling Playstation hardware in Japan.

They need consistent exclusive big sellers every year to move hardware sales instead of relying on Gacha craps that are available on many platforms.

Monster Hunter phenomenon on PSP
MHP3rd - 4.9m
MHFU - 3.8m
MHF2 - 2.4m
MHF - 1.3m
MHD - 700k

FF and MGS used to be a juggernaut in Japan for PSP
Dissidia FF - 905k
Crisis Core - 810k
MGS PW - 800k
FF Type 0 - 720k
MGS PO - 700k
Dissidia 2 - 450k

Unfortunately yes.

I hope with ps6 and the hypothetically ps6 portable will do well in Japan, but without powerful exclusive like monster hunter portable PSP series in the past, I kinda doubt it can sell better than ps5.

Ps3 have many exclusive games, ps5 have the gatcha games, both of them failed to recapture the success of ps2 or PSP, at least hardware wise.

I don't think sony cares that much, since ps5 bring most money with psn, subscription, dlc, and gatcha sales. Also I think they don't subsidies the hardware like ps3 era.

Perhaps if they somehow can get a substantially successful exclusive games, whether f2p or not, most likely with multiplayer elements like genshin impact or monster hunter. The money is there, looking at switch oled & switch 2 sales, Japanese people are willing to pay for more expensive consoles, as long as the hardware and software is desirable.

 

[Felessan]

Still I am not sure if those games, despite being extremely successful, can resurrect ps6 (and hypothetically, ps6 portable) though. Most of those are games already available on ps5, and ps5 sales is still underwhelming.

PS5 sales just in line how they should be expected
Just home consoles can't be judged in comparison with portable
Below LTD of all consoles in Japan - as one can see portables dominate it completely. Even Vita, that considered utter failure, sold 60% of PS3/PS4 numbers there and 50% of Wii. And post PS2 10 mio mark is actually a good target for home console, and PS5 is not that much underperforming against that target.

GB/GBC : 32,470,000
GBA : 16,960,000
PSP : 19,632,197
NDS : 32,990,000
PS Vita : 5,863,022
3DS : 25,260,000
Switch : 37,770,000

PS1 : 19,411,000
PS2 : 24,420,000
Wii : 12,750,000
PS3 : 10,469,971
WiiU : 3,340,000
PS4 : 9,503,963
PS5 : 6,804,660

The majority of the players are playing on their mobile phones instead.

But quite a lot of them play them on PS (or PC)
Look at Fortnite - it can be played on mobile and actually mobile has the most users. But biggest revenue platform is Playstation and it's one the top playing game on Playstation. Same applies to gacha games
Because people do prefer to play with bigger screen and better controls. And f2p games userbase basically split into two parts - those who are poor and those who are not and latter pay money not just in-game, but also out of game to get better experience.

 

[subzero83]

PS5 sales just in line how they should be expected
Just home consoles can't be judged in comparison with portable
Below LTD of all consoles in Japan - as one can see portables dominate it completely. Even Vita, that considered utter failure, sold 60% of PS3/PS4 numbers there and 50% of Wii. And post PS2 10 mio mark is actually a good target for home console, and PS5 is not that much underperforming against that target.

Yup it's kinda insane that N64 only sold 5.5 million in japan just shows how crap the tastes are there, cause the damn console had some truly ground breaking revolutionary games. Mario 64 alone was worth buying the console for.

 

[Alexios]

Yup it's kinda insane that N64 only sold 5.5 million in japan just shows how crap the tastes are there, cause the damn console had some truly ground breaking revolutionary games. Mario 64 alone was worth buying the console for.

I mean, that's only like a < 4 to 1 vs PlayStation 1 sales in Japan when it was > 3 to 1 worldwide, not much better. Western geared hits like GoldenEye and other FPS or some wrestling and sports games probably helped a ton in that difference but it still wasn't nearly enough to make it a success

Mario 64 had slightly better attach rate to the system worldwide than in Japan and OoT slightly better in Japan than worldwide (and less than Mario 64 in both)

 

[subzero83]

I mean, that's only like a < 4 to 1 vs PlayStation 1 sales in Japan when it was > 3 to 1 worldwide, not much better. Western geared hits like GoldenEye and other FPS or some wrestling and sports games probably helped a ton in that difference but it still wasn't nearly enough to make it a success

Mario 64 had slightly better attach rate to the system worldwide than in Japan and OoT slightly better in Japan than worldwide (and less than Mario 64 in both)

20 million in NA was a respectable number, considering it's the successor to the super nes, which sold 23 million, but N64 in japan was total bomber when you consider super nes sold 17 million in japan. I understand they don't really like home consoles but N64 deserved much better sure it didn't have quantity but the quality made up for it. I will never get that feeling i had with The N64, the games were so ahead of there time.

 

[dgproject]

Famitsu Top 100 2025 (Unofficial Ranking)

1. [NS2] Mario Kart World (Nintendo) - 2.668.381
2. [NSW] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.529.823
3. [NS2] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.004.154
4. [PS5] Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom) - 833.968
5. [NSW] Super Mario Party: Jamboree (Nintendo) - 495.957
6. [NS2] Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo) - 435.206
7. [NS2] Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo) - 424.837
8. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft) - 346.606
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) - 342.866
10. [NSW] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 316.439
11. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) - 288.683
12. [NSW] Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo) - 277.204
13. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 232.554
14. [NSW] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 215.619
15. [PS5] Ghost of Yotei (Sony) - 199.870
16. [NS2] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 188.535
17. [NSW] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 174.051
18. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) - 168.901
19. [NSW] Switch Sports (Nintendo) - 163.786
20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet (Pokemon Co) - 161.296
21. [NSW] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 157.178
22. [NS2] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Koei Tecmo) - 148.033
23. [NS2] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 135.317
24. [NSW] Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 (Nintendo) - 133.963
25. [NS2] Super Mario Party Jamboree Jamboree TV (Nintendo) - 126.436
26. [PS5] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 115.640
27. [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo) - 113.492
28. [PS5] Dynasty Warriors: Origins (Koei Tecmo) - 101.119
29. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo) - 97.987
30. [PS5] Death Stranding 2 (Sony) - 95.144
31. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo) - 93.810
32. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) - 86.922
33. [NSW] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 86.815
34. [NS2] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 85.717
35. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) - 84.276
36. [PS5] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 83.533
37. [PS5] Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (Konami) - 80.507
38. [NSW] Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 78.014
39. [PS5] Silent Hill f (Konami) - 76.163
40. [NSW] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 75.524
41. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 75.171
42. [NSW] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 74.633
43. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega) - 72.613
44. [PS5] Elden Ring: Nightreign (From Software) - 71.559
45. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Bandai Namco) - 69.304
46. [NSW] The Battle Cats Unite! (Ponos) - 59.620
47. [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Konami) - 55.042
48. [NSW] Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (Konami) - 53.136
49. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 52.585
50. [NSW] The Exit 8 + Platform 8 (Playism) - 51.168
51. [NSW] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 49.781
52. [NS2] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 49.584
53. [NSW] The Game of Life (Takara Tomy) - 49.287
54. [PS4] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 48.500
55. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) - 47.272
56. [NSW] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 46.590
57. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World (Konami) - 46.226
58. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 46.214
59. [NSW] It Takes Two (Electronic Arts) - 40.930
60. [NSW] Power Pros 2024-2025 (Konami) - 40.796
61. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu (Konami) - 40.683
62. [PS5] Battlefield 6 (Electronic Arts) - 40.226
63. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 38.439
64. [NSW] Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny (Bandai Namco) - 38.094
65. [PS5] Digimon Story: Time Stranger (Bandai Namco) - 37.693
66. [PS5] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 36.553
67. [NSW] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 36.304
68. [NSW] Pikmin 4 (Nintendo) - 36.026
69. [NSW] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 35.936
70. [PS5] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 35.896
71. [PS5] Assassin's Creed: Shadows (Ubisoft) - 33.008
72. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 32.468
73. [NSW] The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Aniplex) - 31.492
74. [NSW] Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (Bandai Namco) - 31.270
75. [NS2] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 31.113
76. [NSW] Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo) - 30.904
77. [NSW] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 30.741
78. [NSW] Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Nintendo) - 29.399
79. [PS5] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 27.749
80. [NSW] Little Nightmares III (Bandai Namco ) - 27.181
81. [NSW] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 26.572
82. [NSW] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 26.473
83. [NSW] Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you (Konami) - 25.791
84. [NS2] Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Nintendo) - 24.796
85. [PS5] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 24.282
86. [PS5] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sega) - 24.164
87. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo) - 22.950
88. [PS5] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 22.743
89. [PS5] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 22.697
90. [NSW] Once Upon a Katamari Damacy (Bandai Namco) - 22.521
91. [PS5] Astro Bot (Sony) - 22.475
92. [NS2] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 22.169
93. [NS2] Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Sega) - 21.974
94. [NS2] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 21.459
95. [PS5] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 20.926
96. [PS5] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 20.877
97. [NSW] ToHeart (Aqua Plus) - 20.777
98. [PS5] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 19.631
99. [NSW] Gradius Origin Collection (Konami) - 18.998
100. [PS5] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 18.818

NSW - 58
PS5 - 23
NS2 - 16
PS4 - 1

TOTAL: 14.754.810
NSW: 7.174.676 (48.6%)
NS2: 5.466.393 (37%)
PS5: 2.065.241 (14.1%)
PS4: 48.500 (0.3%)

Official Numbers from Famitsu come out in a couple of weeks, we can expect that the Top 100 surpassed 15 million for the year, so around 10% growth YoY in terms of physical sales mostly due to Switch 2 launch which exceeded Famitsu's forecast by over a million. Next year we will likely see further growth as its not only Nintendo but a lot of third party publishers that will be pushing the Switch users into upgrade to the Switch 2.

Switch physical software will be down about 25-30% YoY which is probably a softer drop compared to any other market as Switch is still going to be a viable platform for a couple more years in Japan. Its also boosted by backwards compatibility and evergreens getting Switch 2 updates. Next year the drop will be bigger as I expect new major announcements to be entirely Switch 2 focused and the new Pokemon game being Switch 2 exclusive.

Switch 2 definitely sold less software than Switch did in 2017, my guess is that it managed around 5.75 million compared to around 6.75 million for the Switch in 2017 but that's mainly down to three factors

• fewer months on the market
• backwards compatibility leading to a large second hand market for Switch software that could be played on the Switch 2
• rise of digital from 2017 to 2025

For next year we are likely going to see Switch 2 hit 13-15 million in the Top 100 especially if we get another game bundled at some point. Hardware sales should surpass 5 million in 2026 and the vast majority of the hardware will stay put in Japan rather than be exported due to the region locked Switch 2. Switch in 2018 sold about 12 million software and 3.5 million hardware and didn't get as much third party support as I'm expecting on the Switch 2 in 2026. So at least out of the gate momentum is much stronger for the Switch 2 and we can expect Monster Hunter in some form pretty soon on the system(by end of the next FY), and more importantly the long awaited Dragon Quest XII(either fall 2026 or by the middle of 2027). There is already great momentum and despite selling over 4 million units in Japan Nintendo is not yet meeting demand in the country despite what I would say worse lineup than Switch had in 2017. I imagine that momentum will easily be maintained with new Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Smash etc arriving on the system in the coming years.


PlayStation ecosystem dropped about 20-25% YoY
In the end PlayStation 5 will end up with not a single title to surpass 1 million physical without combining SKUs(I'm guessing Monster Hunter Wilds will eventually get there with the expansion SKU which should manage 150K+ despite the bad WoM for the main game). Overall a very lacklaster year but things will get worse in 2026 when there is nothing that could even come close to Wilds releasing and a lot of third party games end up having Switch 2 SKUs eating further into Sony's diminishing market share in Japan.

PS4 is mostly phased out for majority of third party publishers. Only one game managed to chart in the Top 100 last year 5 titles managed to reach the Top 100 and one of them even surpassed 132K which this year is more than what the #3 title on the ecosystem managed physically.


Top 15 Publishers

1. Nintendo - 6.440.506 (43.6%)
2. Pokemon Co - 2.695.273 (18.3%)
3. Konami - 858.431 (5.8%)
4. Capcom - 833.968 (5.6%)
5. Square Enix - 793.714 (5.4%)
6. Bandai Namco - 759.560 (5.1%)
7. Microsoft - 346.606 (2.3%)
8. Koei Tecmo - 321.352 (2.2%)
9. Sony - 317.489 (2.1%)
10. Sega/Atlus - 280.058 (1.9%)
11. Other - 264.615 (1.8%)
12. Aniplex - 226.420 (1.5%)
13. Marvelous - 215.621 (1.5%)
14. Level 5 - 178.104 (1.2%)
15. Electronic Arts - 81.156 (0.5%)
16. From Software - 71.559 (0.5%)

Nintendo saw an small increase YoY of between 5-10% despite most evergreen titles selling less compared to last year. Mainly Mario Kart World leading to this increase with its bundle making up about 40% of Nintendo's sales in the Top 100. Next year we still only know about smaller franchises of which Tomodachi Life probably the biggest seller in Japan of the games we know with the last game in the franchise hitting nearly 2 million physical on the 3DS in Japan

Pokemon Co was the main reason market is up YoY with Legends Z-A leading to nearly 500% increase in their sales YoY. Pokemon will see further growth next year with Pokopia which could very well perform better than Legends Z-A long term with strong WoM, in the fall we also expect a Switch 2 exclusive mainline game for the fall for the 30th anniversary of the franchise (Project Gaia)


Not a single third party publisher managed to surpass 1 million units in the Top 100 something Square, Konami managed last year.
In the end this year was the Switch 2 story and honestly third parties didn't capitalize in terms of new major titles exclusive to the system besides Hyrule Warriors.

Konami did manage to be the top in terms of the third parties their decline YoY is going to be less than 20% when official numbers come in. Games like Silent Hill f & Snake Eater could have targeted the Switch 2 and had much higher potential compared to what they ended up selling in Japan. As Konami has been riding high these past few years in Japan mainly due to the success of their Switch lineup. It would have made more sense to push these games back and add a Switch 2 version while further polishing them. In the end of the day Konami are probably still okay with the results but I think with more time as a Switch 2 SKU at a later launch date could have easily doubled their physical totals. This year we are likely to get a new eBaseball game so they should be in a similar place in 2026.

Square likely will finish ahead of Capcom when official numbers come out due to better legs for titles outside of the Top 30 but they will likely have a decline of over 55% YoY due to weaker slate of games in 2025. 2026 should be stronger as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is shaping up to have a larger launch than Dragon Quest I&II Remakes. Also beyond Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade we will likely see Rebirth launch later in the year - I don't expect a lot from old ports but 100K after a small start is possible for the year. Big question is whether Dragon Quest XII will be launching this year in the fall... that would be a huge release big enough for Nintendo to ride out the holidays in Japan without any huge 1st Party title besides Pokemon.

Capcom might come in 5th or 6th due to Monster Hunter Wilds with a 450% increase YoY but when we compare results to the launch year of Rise or World its over 70% less than 2021 and over 60% less than 2018. After the disappointing results for the PlayStation 5 Capcom have pivoted and Switch 2 is central to their plans to remain relevant in their home market. Resident Evil, Pragmata and likely a Wilds port in time for the expansion could see them actually see growth YoY in 2026.

Bandai will have a slight increase YoY mainly stemming from Tamagotchi Plaza doing great and not having any hits in 2024. It's possible they end up overtaking Capcom depending on how their titles did outside of the Top 30. With the exit of Harada we will likely see a change in their strategy of late ports to Switch / Switch 2 but this will take at least another year to materialize in the end they had a lot of flops in the past few years and anime games underperforming due to their strategy - so they are the last domino to fall.

Microsoft are nearly flat YoY with Minecraft while Koei Tecmo & Sony right behind. Koei last year didn't have a single game in the Top 100 so a huge growth YoY as in 2024 their top selling SKU was Winning Post 10 with 18K units, when official numbers come in its possible Koei ended up ahead of Microsoft. With Dynasty Warriors coming to the Switch 2 its only Team Ninja that continues to ignore the ecosystem. Ports of Nioh games would definitely signal that the strategy has changed for them but so far these haven't materialized and its likely there is some kind of exclusivity contract with Sony in return for distribution/marketing outside of Japan.

Sony are down over 30% YoY mainly because they only published two new titles and didnt have a forced bundle for much of the year. Death Stranding 2 did much worse than the first game, while Ghost of Yotei definitely won't be reaching 1 million in Japan like Tsushima without being a forced bundle for the rest of the systems life so its also likely to be down in a major way. Doesn't seem that Sony has anything major line-up for Japan in 2026 so we are probably going to see further decline for them this year.

We have a few more third party publishers that managed over 200K units Sega/Atlus, Aniplex, Marvelous and maybe Level 5.

Sega/Atlus had a big drop YoY from selling nearly 1 million to just about hitting 300K. But we do see a change in their strategy with Yakuza building an audience on the Switch 2 still Atlus doesn't seem to be following the same path but we will see as it's Persona's 30th anniversary this year and their next games hitting the Switch 2 will be a big shift compared to what they provided on the Switch(very late ports).

Aniplex, Marvelous and Level 5 on the other hand had much stronger year compared to 2024 where none made the Top 15. For Aniplex the new Demon Slayer sequel rode high due to the movies and most sales came on the Switch. We can continue to expect this Sony Music Studio to focus on the Switch 2 as majority of their IPs sell best on the most popular platform in Japan. Last year Hundred Line didn't even get a PS port.

Marvelous had a strong showing with their spin-off Rune Factory game selling better than their last mainline game due to much better WoM, while the Grand Bazaar also did very well for a remake. Hopefully this is a sign they have learned their lesson as Rune Factory 4 and Olive Town both suffered due to lack of polish and could have done a lot better if they had been pushed back a bit.

Rounding up the Top 10 we have EA as the only Western AAA publisher represented in the Top 15 publishers. Obviously without help in terms of physical distribution most Western AAA games treat Japan as an after-thought Call of Duty went from nearly half a million half a decade ago to below 50K nowadays. Without physical they are pretty limited outside of a small niche that probably also owns a PC. We will see if things change with the Switch 2 getting more AAA support - GTA VI will be a major test as the original game sold over a million in Japan but being PS5 exclusive might mean a huge drop in Japan.

From Software (Kadokawa) are the final publisher in the rankings with Kadokawa investing more and more into self publishing and Spike Chunsoft / From Software focusing on the Switch 2 we are likely to see them rise up in the rankings in the coming years. Elden Ring will be the first major title and despite it being a late port I expect it to do very well on the Switch 2(200K+ physical lifetime) with Duskbloods following we can expect the next multiplatform From Software title to also end up on the Switch 2.

Finally we can look at the indies which are mostly digital heavy games - this year in terms of new games Urban Myth Dissolution Center & The Exit 8 + Platform 8 are probably the most successful Japanese indies while Silksong was the most successful Western indie title. With the revenue based eShop charts it's a bit more difficult to track how games end up selling outside of some official numbers being revealed.

Thank you for the data.

Man, depressing numbers except for Nintendo and Pokémon co (half Nintendo). Even monster hunter can't reach 1 million sales.

I hope for better success for third party physical sales in 2026.
While level-5, capcom, and sega can counter decreasing sales in Japan with stronger outside-Japan sales, I worry most smaller third party publishers can't make it and will eventually collapse.

Level-5 used to be juggernaut in DS & 3DS era with Layton & yokai watch. Let's hope deca police and new layton will get better sales than their latest inazuma eleven.

 

[Sohurmk833]

smash
mario kart
animal crossing
splatoon
zelda
3d mario
2d mario
Mario party

These games carried the switch 1, yet they could not even break 5 milllion hardware sales when it came to home consoles. you know damn well a handheld with these games would break 10 million in its sleep in japan.

WiiU: No Animal Crossing, Splatoon was new and released late in the console cycle, no exclusive Zelda
Gamecube: obviously no Splatoon, Animal Crossing was relatively new and not really a thing back then, no 2D Mario, weak 3D Mario
N64: no RPGs, no Splatoon, no 2D Mario, generally strong western focus

None of these consoles had a lineup that really appealed to japanese audiences.

 

[pulicat]

smash
mario kart
animal crossing
splatoon
zelda
3d mario
2d mario
Mario party

These games carried the switch 1, yet they could not even break 5 milllion hardware sales when it came to home consoles. you know damn well a handheld with these games would break 10 million in its sleep in japan.

WiiU was a failure hardware from the concept and the application. A gaming hardware needs to be at very least a desirable to be able to sell with those softwares.

 

[subzero83]

WiiU was a failure hardware from the concept and the application. A gaming hardware needs to be at very least a desirable to be able to sell with those softwares.

Every nintendo home console has been a failure since the super nes in japan. even the wii which only sold 12 million.

 

[Alexios]

Every nintendo home console has been a failure since the super nes in japan. even the wii which only sold 12 million.

But if you combine all consoles together the Wii gen (+ PS3 +Xbox 360) sold more than the SNES gen (+Genesis), if still less than the 6th gen (but not meaningfully far behind the 5th). So it's really the PS4 gen that failed to capture an audience and so Nintendo went hybrid changing the dynamics.

 

[Sohurmk833]

Every nintendo home console has been a failure since the super nes in japan. even the wii which only sold 12 million.

The Wii was by mo definition a failure. It was just overshadowed by the much more successful DS.

 

[subzero83]

But if you combine all consoles together the Wii gen (+ PS3 +Xbox 360) sold more than the SNES gen (+Genesis), if still less than the 6th gen (but not meaningfully far behind the 5th). So it's really the PS4 gen that failed to capture an audience and so Nintendo went hybrid changing the dynamics.

That was break out gen for home consoles. home consoles did 120 million in NA alone vs 23 million in japan.

 

[subzero83]

The Wii was by mo definition a failure. It was just overshadowed by the much more successful DS.

12 million is near ps3 numbers and ps4 numbers and those consoles are not considered success stories in japan. especially considering how successful wii was that gen.

 

[noshten]

Thank you for the data.

Man, depressing numbers except for Nintendo and Pokémon co (half Nintendo). Even monster hunter can't reach 1 million sales.

I hope for better success for third party physical sales in 2026.
While level-5, capcom, and sega can counter decreasing sales in Japan with stronger outside-Japan sales, I worry most smaller third party publishers can't make it and will eventually collapse.

Level-5 used to be juggernaut in DS & 3DS era with Layton & yokai watch. Let's hope deca police and new layton will get better sales than their latest inazuma eleven.

Outside of Monster Hunter Rise & Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity(which was financed / marketed by Nintendo) large third party publishers ignored the Switch and thus a lot of their biggest IPs lost relevance during the Switch era(2017-2025). The market actually grew up until 2021 but it was mainly down to Nintendo, AA Pubs and indies - while large third parties most saw their sales falter due to alignment to PlayStation.

Level 5 for example didn't launch anything exclusive to the Switch besides Yo-Kai Watch 4, they focused too much on cross-media projects that didn't end up actually being popular, multiplatform development which didn't pan-out and mobile which drained their resources but were ill-prepared to actually compete. Even recently Fantasy Life: i was pushed back from its fall 2024 release to mid-2025 so they could launch it multiplatform and honestly that was a bad decision as Nintendo didn't market it as much and didn't help with physical distribution overseas. Had it launched in the fall-2024 with Nintendo's backing it would have had a lot more sales as one of the last big third party exlcusives on the system. Selling an additional 100K on PS5/XS World Wide while not getting as much of a push from Nintendo and no physical overseas - pretty much the same is the case with Inazuma Eleven a game that was revealed in 2016 as a Switch/PS4/Android game but ended up releasing in the fall of 2025 - 9 years later with no physical and mobile versions cancelled. Considering the vast majority of their success were linked with DS / 3DS Level 5's demise is linked with their attempts to uncouple from Nintendo ecosystem and missing out on the best selling console of all time in Japan and also strong partner who helped push Yo-Kai and other IPs to greater heights overseas.

For some large publishers we are already seeing that things have changed due to the abysmal performance of the PS5 - Capcom, Square and Kadokawa seem fully onboard and should have a much greater presence on the Switch 2 compared to the Switch especially in terms of their biggest projects. We will see how things end up developing at Sega/Atlus, Bandai and Team Ninja which are pretty much the only ones that aren't fully onboard in Japan. Next Yakuza and Persona announcements will be key things to watch at Sega, while with Harada only now leaving Bandai it might take an year or two before we see wholesale changes to their strategy and finally Team Ninja at Koei still have Nioh 3 which is probably a timed console exclusive for Sony.

 

[Sohurmk833]

12 million is near ps3 numbers and ps4 numbers and those consoles are not considered success stories in japan. especially considering how successful wii was that gen.

It's 2 million more than PS3 with much more profitable hard - and software.

 

[Celine]

Japan in 1996:

Japan in 2025:

(taken from japanese promotional materials for the Minna no Golf series)

 

[Fafalada]

The Wii was by mo definition a failure. It was just overshadowed by the much more successful DS.

I think the bigger overshadow was the PSP - which few expected after Wii took off, but yet in Japan it wasn't even close.
In retrospect - the fall of Sony consoles in Japan is that much more drastic since in that era, both of their offerings were within 80% of Nintendo in Japan.

It's 2 million more than PS3 with much more profitable hard - and software.

The software bit is debatable - 1st party sure (but then that's the case with every Nintendo console) - but overall software less so.

 

[subzero83]

It's 2 million more than PS3 with much more profitable hard - and software.

we are talking about about mainly hardware sales here. considering ps5 is more profitable then all playstation consoles combined we can assume that ps5 is more profitable in japan then wii. we are also talking nintendo best selling traditional console by far selling 2 million more then ps3 hardware which most consider a failure in japan is nothing.

 

[VGA-Games]

Famitsu Top 100 2025 (Unofficial Ranking)

1. [NS2] Mario Kart World (Nintendo) - 2.668.381
2. [NSW] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.529.823
3. [NS2] Pokemon Legends Z-A (Pokemon Co) - 1.004.154
4. [PS5] Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom) - 833.968
5. [NSW] Super Mario Party: Jamboree (Nintendo) - 495.957
6. [NS2] Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo) - 435.206
7. [NS2] Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo) - 424.837
8. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft) - 346.606
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) - 342.866
10. [NSW] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 316.439
11. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) - 288.683
12. [NSW] Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo) - 277.204
13. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 232.554
14. [NSW] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 215.619
15. [PS5] Ghost of Yotei (Sony) - 199.870
16. [NS2] Momotaro Dentetsu 2 (Konami) - 188.535
17. [NSW] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 174.051
18. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) - 168.901
19. [NSW] Switch Sports (Nintendo) - 163.786
20. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet (Pokemon Co) - 161.296
21. [NSW] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 157.178
22. [NS2] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Koei Tecmo) - 148.033
23. [NS2] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 135.317
24. [NSW] Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 (Nintendo) - 133.963
25. [NS2] Super Mario Party Jamboree Jamboree TV (Nintendo) - 126.436
26. [PS5] Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 115.640
27. [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo) - 113.492
28. [PS5] Dynasty Warriors: Origins (Koei Tecmo) - 101.119
29. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo) - 97.987
30. [PS5] Death Stranding 2 (Sony) - 95.144
31. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo) - 93.810
32. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) - 86.922
33. [NSW] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 86.815
34. [NS2] Tamagotchi Plaza (Bandai Namco) - 85.717
35. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) - 84.276
36. [PS5] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 83.533
37. [PS5] Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (Konami) - 80.507
38. [NSW] Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Square Enix) - 78.014
39. [PS5] Silent Hill f (Konami) - 76.163
40. [NSW] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 75.524
41. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 75.171
42. [NSW] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 74.633
43. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Sega) - 72.613
44. [PS5] Elden Ring: Nightreign (From Software) - 71.559
45. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Bandai Namco) - 69.304
46. [NSW] The Battle Cats Unite! (Ponos) - 59.620
47. [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Konami) - 55.042
48. [NSW] Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (Konami) - 53.136
49. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 52.585
50. [NSW] The Exit 8 + Platform 8 (Playism) - 51.168
51. [NSW] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 49.781
52. [NS2] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo) - 49.584
53. [NSW] The Game of Life (Takara Tomy) - 49.287
54. [PS4] Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Sega) - 48.500
55. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) - 47.272
56. [NSW] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 46.590
57. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World (Konami) - 46.226
58. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo) - 46.214
59. [NSW] It Takes Two (Electronic Arts) - 40.930
60. [NSW] Power Pros 2024-2025 (Konami) - 40.796
61. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu (Konami) - 40.683
62. [PS5] Battlefield 6 (Electronic Arts) - 40.226
63. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 38.439
64. [NSW] Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny (Bandai Namco) - 38.094
65. [PS5] Digimon Story: Time Stranger (Bandai Namco) - 37.693
66. [PS5] Super Robot Wars Y (Bandai Namco) - 36.553
67. [NSW] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 36.304
68. [NSW] Pikmin 4 (Nintendo) - 36.026
69. [NSW] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 35.936
70. [PS5] Atelier Yumia (Koei Tecmo) - 35.896
71. [PS5] Assassin's Creed: Shadows (Ubisoft) - 33.008
72. [NS2] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - 32.468
73. [NSW] The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (Aniplex) - 31.492
74. [NSW] Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (Bandai Namco) - 31.270
75. [NS2] Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Marvelous) - 31.113
76. [NSW] Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo) - 30.904
77. [NSW] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 30.741
78. [NSW] Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Nintendo) - 29.399
79. [PS5] Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Square Enix) - 27.749
80. [NSW] Little Nightmares III (Bandai Namco ) - 27.181
81. [NSW] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 26.572
82. [NSW] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 26.473
83. [NSW] Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you (Konami) - 25.791
84. [NS2] Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Nintendo) - 24.796
85. [PS5] Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (Nihon Falcom) - 24.282
86. [PS5] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sega) - 24.164
87. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo) - 22.950
88. [PS5] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 22.743
89. [PS5] Raidou Remastered (Atlus) - 22.697
90. [NSW] Once Upon a Katamari Damacy (Bandai Namco) - 22.521
91. [PS5] Astro Bot (Sony) - 22.475
92. [NS2] Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (Marvelous) - 22.169
93. [NS2] Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Sega) - 21.974
94. [NS2] Octopath Traveler 0 (Square Enix) - 21.459
95. [PS5] Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Level 5) - 20.926
96. [PS5] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 (Aniplex) - 20.877
97. [NSW] ToHeart (Aqua Plus) - 20.777
98. [PS5] Tales of Graces f Remastered (Bandai Namco) - 19.631
99. [NSW] Gradius Origin Collection (Konami) - 18.998
100. [PS5] Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots (Bandai Namco) - 18.818

NSW - 58
PS5 - 23
NS2 - 16
PS4 - 1

TOTAL: 14.754.810
NSW: 7.174.676 (48.6%)
NS2: 5.466.393 (37%)
PS5: 2.065.241 (14.1%)
PS4: 48.500 (0.3%)

Official Numbers from Famitsu come out in a couple of weeks, we can expect that the Top 100 surpassed 15 million for the year, so around 10% growth YoY in terms of physical sales mostly due to Switch 2 launch which exceeded Famitsu's forecast by over a million. Next year we will likely see further growth as its not only Nintendo but a lot of third party publishers that will be pushing the Switch users into upgrade to the Switch 2.

Switch physical software will be down about 25-30% YoY which is probably a softer drop compared to any other market as Switch is still going to be a viable platform for a couple more years in Japan. Its also boosted by backwards compatibility and evergreens getting Switch 2 updates. Next year the drop will be bigger as I expect new major announcements to be entirely Switch 2 focused and the new Pokemon game being Switch 2 exclusive.

Switch 2 definitely sold less software than Switch did in 2017, my guess is that it managed around 5.75 million compared to around 6.75 million for the Switch in 2017 but that's mainly down to three factors

• fewer months on the market
• backwards compatibility leading to a large second hand market for Switch software that could be played on the Switch 2
• rise of digital from 2017 to 2025

For next year we are likely going to see Switch 2 hit 13-15 million in the Top 100 especially if we get another game bundled at some point. Hardware sales should surpass 5 million in 2026 and the vast majority of the hardware will stay put in Japan rather than be exported due to the region locked Switch 2. Switch in 2018 sold about 12 million software and 3.5 million hardware and didn't get as much third party support as I'm expecting on the Switch 2 in 2026. So at least out of the gate momentum is much stronger for the Switch 2 and we can expect Monster Hunter in some form pretty soon on the system(by end of the next FY), and more importantly the long awaited Dragon Quest XII(either fall 2026 or by the middle of 2027). There is already great momentum and despite selling over 4 million units in Japan Nintendo is not yet meeting demand in the country despite what I would say worse lineup than Switch had in 2017. I imagine that momentum will easily be maintained with new Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Smash etc arriving on the system in the coming years.


PlayStation ecosystem dropped about 20-25% YoY
In the end PlayStation 5 will end up with not a single title to surpass 1 million physical without combining SKUs(I'm guessing Monster Hunter Wilds will eventually get there with the expansion SKU which should manage 150K+ despite the bad WoM for the main game). Overall a very lacklaster year but things will get worse in 2026 when there is nothing that could even come close to Wilds releasing and a lot of third party games end up having Switch 2 SKUs eating further into Sony's diminishing market share in Japan.

PS4 is mostly phased out for majority of third party publishers. Only one game managed to chart in the Top 100 last year 5 titles managed to reach the Top 100 and one of them even surpassed 132K which this year is more than what the #3 title on the ecosystem managed physically.


Top 15 Publishers

1. Nintendo - 6.440.506 (43.6%)
2. Pokemon Co - 2.695.273 (18.3%)
3. Konami - 858.431 (5.8%)
4. Capcom - 833.968 (5.6%)
5. Square Enix - 793.714 (5.4%)
6. Bandai Namco - 759.560 (5.1%)
7. Microsoft - 346.606 (2.3%)
8. Koei Tecmo - 321.352 (2.2%)
9. Sony - 317.489 (2.1%)
10. Sega/Atlus - 280.058 (1.9%)
11. Other - 264.615 (1.8%)
12. Aniplex - 226.420 (1.5%)
13. Marvelous - 215.621 (1.5%)
14. Level 5 - 178.104 (1.2%)
15. Electronic Arts - 81.156 (0.5%)
16. From Software - 71.559 (0.5%)

Nintendo saw an small increase YoY of between 5-10% despite most evergreen titles selling less compared to last year. Mainly Mario Kart World leading to this increase with its bundle making up about 40% of Nintendo's sales in the Top 100. Next year we still only know about smaller franchises of which Tomodachi Life probably the biggest seller in Japan of the games we know with the last game in the franchise hitting nearly 2 million physical on the 3DS in Japan

Pokemon Co was the main reason market is up YoY with Legends Z-A leading to nearly 500% increase in their sales YoY. Pokemon will see further growth next year with Pokopia which could very well perform better than Legends Z-A long term with strong WoM, in the fall we also expect a Switch 2 exclusive mainline game for the fall for the 30th anniversary of the franchise (Project Gaia)


Not a single third party publisher managed to surpass 1 million units in the Top 100 something Square, Konami managed last year.
In the end this year was the Switch 2 story and honestly third parties didn't capitalize in terms of new major titles exclusive to the system besides Hyrule Warriors.

Konami did manage to be the top in terms of the third parties their decline YoY is going to be less than 20% when official numbers come in. Games like Silent Hill f & Snake Eater could have targeted the Switch 2 and had much higher potential compared to what they ended up selling in Japan. As Konami has been riding high these past few years in Japan mainly due to the success of their Switch lineup. It would have made more sense to push these games back and add a Switch 2 version while further polishing them. In the end of the day Konami are probably still okay with the results but I think with more time as a Switch 2 SKU at a later launch date could have easily doubled their physical totals. This year we are likely to get a new eBaseball game so they should be in a similar place in 2026.

Square likely will finish ahead of Capcom when official numbers come out due to better legs for titles outside of the Top 30 but they will likely have a decline of over 55% YoY due to weaker slate of games in 2025. 2026 should be stronger as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is shaping up to have a larger launch than Dragon Quest I&II Remakes. Also beyond Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade we will likely see Rebirth launch later in the year - I don't expect a lot from old ports but 100K after a small start is possible for the year. Big question is whether Dragon Quest XII will be launching this year in the fall... that would be a huge release big enough for Nintendo to ride out the holidays in Japan without any huge 1st Party title besides Pokemon.

Capcom might come in 5th or 6th due to Monster Hunter Wilds with a 450% increase YoY but when we compare results to the launch year of Rise or World its over 70% less than 2021 and over 60% less than 2018. After the disappointing results for the PlayStation 5 Capcom have pivoted and Switch 2 is central to their plans to remain relevant in their home market. Resident Evil, Pragmata and likely a Wilds port in time for the expansion could see them actually see growth YoY in 2026.

Bandai will have a slight increase YoY mainly stemming from Tamagotchi Plaza doing great and not having any hits in 2024. It's possible they end up overtaking Capcom depending on how their titles did outside of the Top 30. With the exit of Harada we will likely see a change in their strategy of late ports to Switch / Switch 2 but this will take at least another year to materialize in the end they had a lot of flops in the past few years and anime games underperforming due to their strategy - so they are the last domino to fall.

Microsoft are nearly flat YoY with Minecraft while Koei Tecmo & Sony right behind. Koei last year didn't have a single game in the Top 100 so a huge growth YoY as in 2024 their top selling SKU was Winning Post 10 with 18K units, when official numbers come in its possible Koei ended up ahead of Microsoft. With Dynasty Warriors coming to the Switch 2 its only Team Ninja that continues to ignore the ecosystem. Ports of Nioh games would definitely signal that the strategy has changed for them but so far these haven't materialized and its likely there is some kind of exclusivity contract with Sony in return for distribution/marketing outside of Japan.

Sony are down over 30% YoY mainly because they only published two new titles and didnt have a forced bundle for much of the year. Death Stranding 2 did much worse than the first game, while Ghost of Yotei definitely won't be reaching 1 million in Japan like Tsushima without being a forced bundle for the rest of the systems life so its also likely to be down in a major way. Doesn't seem that Sony has anything major line-up for Japan in 2026 so we are probably going to see further decline for them this year.

We have a few more third party publishers that managed over 200K units Sega/Atlus, Aniplex, Marvelous and maybe Level 5.

Sega/Atlus had a big drop YoY from selling nearly 1 million to just about hitting 300K. But we do see a change in their strategy with Yakuza building an audience on the Switch 2 still Atlus doesn't seem to be following the same path but we will see as it's Persona's 30th anniversary this year and their next games hitting the Switch 2 will be a big shift compared to what they provided on the Switch(very late ports).

Aniplex, Marvelous and Level 5 on the other hand had much stronger year compared to 2024 where none made the Top 15. For Aniplex the new Demon Slayer sequel rode high due to the movies and most sales came on the Switch. We can continue to expect this Sony Music Studio to focus on the Switch 2 as majority of their IPs sell best on the most popular platform in Japan. Last year Hundred Line didn't even get a PS port.

Marvelous had a strong showing with their spin-off Rune Factory game selling better than their last mainline game due to much better WoM, while the Grand Bazaar also did very well for a remake. Hopefully this is a sign they have learned their lesson as Rune Factory 4 and Olive Town both suffered due to lack of polish and could have done a lot better if they had been pushed back a bit.

Rounding up the Top 10 we have EA as the only Western AAA publisher represented in the Top 15 publishers. Obviously without help in terms of physical distribution most Western AAA games treat Japan as an after-thought Call of Duty went from nearly half a million half a decade ago to below 50K nowadays. Without physical they are pretty limited outside of a small niche that probably also owns a PC. We will see if things change with the Switch 2 getting more AAA support - GTA VI will be a major test as the original game sold over a million in Japan but being PS5 exclusive might mean a huge drop in Japan.

From Software (Kadokawa) are the final publisher in the rankings with Kadokawa investing more and more into self publishing and Spike Chunsoft / From Software focusing on the Switch 2 we are likely to see them rise up in the rankings in the coming years. Elden Ring will be the first major title and despite it being a late port I expect it to do very well on the Switch 2(200K+ physical lifetime) with Duskbloods following we can expect the next multiplatform From Software title to also end up on the Switch 2.

Finally we can look at the indies which are mostly digital heavy games - this year in terms of new games Urban Myth Dissolution Center & The Exit 8 + Platform 8 are probably the most successful Japanese indies while Silksong was the most successful Western indie title. With the revenue based eShop charts its a bit more difficult to track how games end up selling outside of some official numbers being revealed.

Quoted for Myself

Thanks

 

[pulicat]

The tragic fate of the most expensive Monster Hunter game in Japan after releasing it on an unpopular platform.
Monster Hunter Wilds - 833,968(Base version)

Last mainline Monster Hunter game
Monster Hunter Rise - 2,358,671(Base version)

Monster Hunter Wilds sales number is closer to a spin-off series sales number instead of mainline.
Monster Hunter Stories - 333,854
Monster Hunter Stories 2 - 242,876

Capcom's CEO blamed PS5's price for MH Wilds underperformance in Japan.

PS5’s steep price a barrier for potential Monster Hunter Wilds players, Capcom president says - AUTOMATON WEST

Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto also commented on the success of the Switch 2, which reaffirmed how cost-conscious gamers are.

automaton-media.com