Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion Sold Over 150,000 Retail Copies In A Week In Japan

The 50th game sales week of the year in Japan saw no change at the top, with Nintendo continuing its superiority. But there were a few entries in the top 5. Famitsu published the estimated data of physical game software and hardware sales.

Game software sales were dominated by Nintendo. 26 out of the top 30 sold games were for Nintendo Switch. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 had a combined total of 4 out of the top 30 games in Japan’s sales chart.

MAJOR TAKEAWAYS 

• Data published by Famitsu reveals that Nintendo dominated both the physical game software and hardware sales in Japan in the 50th week.
• Pokemon Scarlet and Violet was the best-sold game followed by Splatoon 3 in the second.
• This week’s top new release was Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. It sold 54,522 copies for PS5, 53,481 for PS4, and 48,527 for Nintendo Switch.
• Hardware sales were also dominated by Nintendo while PS5 was still recovering from supply issues. Xbox Series family continued to struggle to sell less than 1000 units.

According to the data, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet remained at the top with another 260,784 copies sold in the week, accumulating almost 4 million sales overall. Despite being at the top, the sales of the game saw a decrease of 6% in week-on-week sales. In the 49th week, the game had sold more than 310,000 retail copies.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is followed by Splatoon 3 in second place. The game is still clinging onto a top 10 spot almost 4 months after its release. In the 50th week, Splatoon 3 sold 68,927 copies with a week-on-week increase of 34%. It is projected to hit 100k weekly sales in the coming weeks.

In third place was the week’s top new release, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. The game sold 54,522 copies for PS5, 53,481 for PS4, and 48,527 for Nintendo Switch, occupying 3rd, 4th, and 5th places, respectively. The game sold 156,530 copies overall.

Week’s surprise inclusion was Gran Turismo 7. The game, released on March 5 this year, saw an increase of 134% in week-on-week sales with 7,864 sold copies of the PS5 version of the game. The Gran Turismo series is celebrating its 25th anniversary in December, so the increase could be attributed to that.

Mojang’s Minecraft also saw a considerable increase of 11% in its sales with 23,343 Nintendo copies sold. It takes the game’s overall tally to 2,922,071, less than 80k away from breaking the 3 million mark.

13 out of the top 30 games are published by Nintendo. Followed by Square Enix with 5 games, Bandai Namco with 3, and Sony and SEGA with 2 each. While Konami, Xbox Game Studios, and EA had 1 each game in the top 30.

Just like software, hardware sales were also dominated by Nintendo Switch. The console sold 173,083 units, an increase of 20k from last week’s 158,106. The console sales for NSW have been stable compared to last year.

There has long been an issue with the supply of PS5 units in Japan. But now Sony has been addressing the issue, largely resolving it. Owing to that, the console sold 70,496 units, a substantial increase from last week’s 18,822. Xbox Series family just sold 910 units in the week.

It is clear from these charts that the Japanese gaming market is Nintendo’s turf. While Sony is partly giving them competition, Microsoft’s Xbox has a long way to go to be even considered a competitor.

Will Microsoft will ever be able to establish itself as a competitor to Nintendo in Japan? Discuss in the comments below.