Japanese hardware sales, 12 June - 18 June: Phat's back

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Jun 23rd 2006 3:25PM

Quite possibly the only sane thing we've received from Japan this week, the Japanese hardware sales charts show it like it is -- no silly comparisons, half-truths or fuzzy mathematics in sight. The ranking, according to number of units sold:

- DS Lite: 141,487

9,460 (7.17%)
- PSP: 24,653

2,997 (13.84%)
- DS Phat: 22,748

21,377 (1559.23%)
- PS2: 20,737

1,756 (9.25%)
- GBA SP: 4,642

526 (12.78%)
- Xbox 360: 1,407

307 (27.91%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,294 360 (21.77%)
- Gamecube: 1,002

41 (4.27%)
- GBA: 20 10 (33.33%)
- Xbox: 15 5 (25.00%)

Aside from the soothing abundance of green, the most noticeable aspect of this week's chart is undoubtedly the DS Phat's performance, indicating either a surge in its popularity or a surge in desperation amongst those who couldn't track down a DS Lite. Perhaps it's time to import a black one from Europe?

[Source: Media Create]

Source

Tags: DS, DS Lite, DS Phat, DsLite, DsPhat, GameCube, Hardware Sales, HardwareSales, Japan, Japanese Sales, JapaneseSales, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (67)

Same history DS selling a lot of units, PSP selling well, PS2 incredibly still selling well and well yeah Xbox ... how can i say this?

Wow...Just 15 Xboxes sold in the entire country. How about that.

These Japanese numbers are also interesting, if not predictable. They really hate MS, huh? The Xbox 360 barely outsold Gameboy Micro.

That 15 is just laughable.

There is a difference between 'hate' and 'having no interest' in a product. If they 'hated' the Xbox they would be bashing it left and right and slamming Microsoft. Very few people buy the Xbox there b/c almost all the games are VERY western-centric instead of being appealing to a broader audience.

As for the PSP doing well? Somehow I don't think 141k vs. 24k is 'well.'

Hey at least the 360 IS selling. That's a good thing right?

And to think...

There were 20 people in a country of over 60 million. 20 people that thought the original Xbox would make a sweet purchase. How on earth does a tiny percentage of a dead platform break down in retail space? I mean are extras just STACKED on shelves?

Well what do you expect,the 360 is out now,people would rather have that then an x-box.

That picture never gets old. And seeing the DS kick major butt in sales never gets old either.

Personally, I look at that chart and wonder why there is an uptick in 360 sales.

The Japanese front has been nothing but bad news. Did a game release? Is the PS3 price setting in? Word of mouth?

Odd. And I should point out that, IMHO, Microsoft should just continue stabling Japanese development talent and leave that market for five more years. It's stagnant at best, outside of the handheld space.

With X360 sales this pathetic in Japan, just imagine the sales of an XBoy released in Nintendo and Sony's homeland? Now that would be truly pathetic....

It's amazing how popular portable consoles are in Japan. Maybe we'll see the same wave of popularity hit North America in the future.

While the 360 isn't doing well, it's interesting to see that it's the second best-selling non-portable console on the list (above the Gamecube by a fair margin) and that it's the console with the highest sales increase (proportionally) besides the DS Phat. The old Xbox is rather pathetic however.

At least the 360 is breaking the thousand mark, there was a while were it barely reached 1000.

Is this a sign of things to come? Wii will see...

@GSI

"As for the PSP doing well? Somehow I don't think 141k vs. 24k is 'well.'"

Comparitively, perhaps not. But the PSP is the secondest most popular video game system in Japan, and that's something that some companies (um, Microsoft) could only dream of.

I also think when you look at DS sales, while its no at all unfair to compare them to PSP sales, Nintendo is successfully getting people to buy the DS who would never even consider buying a PSP. That is the "charm" if you will, of the new Nintendo. They're creating new consumers for themselves. The Wii (presumably) and DS's domination of the sales charts it's not because its the choice of "gamers" its because its the choice of non-gamers.

doesn't japan have like 200 million people...not 60 mil?

If I didn't make a mistake in calculations it seems that there has been 218 005 consoles sold on that week, and 171 193 come from Nintendo which means that 78,5% of all the sold consoles in Japan are Nintendo consoles. O_o

Not bad at all, Go Nintendo! ^^

It'll be interesting to see how that list looks like in the end of november when both Wii and PS3 are out.

So how come we get Japanese hardware sales charts in abundance, but I dont see any US charts? Am I missing them or is that data simply unavailable?

Supposedly in Japan (and the asia region) there have been 22 million PlayStations sold through the end of November, 2005.
http://www.ps3portal.com/sony/article/219.html

Now, as a rough estimate the number above is 0.1% of the 22 million. Multiply this by 52 weeks and you get 5.2% a year. This is probably just replacement of existing units by existing owners. Basically, it means that 5 out of every 100 units have to be replaced in the course of a year -- due to things like lightning, theft, and the dog peeing on the PS2 :). Furthermore, remember that some of these existing units are up to six years old. Therefore I think that most of the PS2 numbers are due to the replacement market, not due to growth.

I'm not sure I'd consider 400 units "a fair margin", Pag.

Especially not when the margin between the 360 and the PS2 is 19,000 units.

*shrug* Not that it matters. We're comparing a system that came out late last year to one that is practically dead. If the 360 outsells the PS3 and the Wii, then it'll be something worth noting.

I think people tend to forget that just because DS is doing extraordinarily well, it doesn't mean the PSP is failing. I mean, sure, they're far from #1, but it's not going to be discontinued anytime soon, and the race is a lot closer in america (before lite launched).

I've actually accepted my DS as a bright GBA player since all the DS games are shallow garbage, but hey, that's a different story.

KrazyIan: American retailers have a tendency not to want to share sales data. Especially Walmart, which you may imagine does a sizable portion of the country's game sales.

Funny how people will say things like "I think people tend to forget that just because DS is doing extraordinarily well, it doesn't mean the PSP is failing. I mean, sure, they're far from #1, but it's not going to be discontinued anytime soon" (I'm just using your post as an example Erik)...and when they talk about the Gamecube and Xbox sales, they make it seem like 23m (Xbox) vs. 21m (cube) is like night and day.

I'm in serious need of a larger version of that picture. Please post one!

"There were 20 people in a country of over 60 million."

I suppose this is technically true, but it's kinda like saying a banana split has more than 5 calories.

Japan's population is 127,417,244.

And Michael - you really can't be serious, can you? That theory comes up every time a list of sales numbers comes out and it gets shot down immediately. I mean, according to guys like you, there must only be about 5 actual PS2 owners in the world and they've all just rebought their PS2's about 5 million times each.

I mean, how many individual PS2 users do you really think there are, and how many of them do you think have replaced their PS2's by now?

Japan has about 60 million *households*, and Asia is bigger than just Japan. It doesn't seem unreasonable at all, given the popularity of the PS2, that a large percentage of households would own one. (Hey, 40% of American households owned an Atari 2600 at one point too, and Japan's at least as advanced in video games now as we were back then!)

Who are the 20 people that bought a gameboy? and the 15 that got an xbox?

japan has 125 million people, 27 in tokyo alone.

hahahahahaaa that caption is priceless.
"it prints money!!!" it might as well...

they should make the 360s without region and lower the prices in japan so my friend can send me one. yes. this is excellent cuz its the only way im gettin it. for $200. the premium too none of that standard crap.

Wow.. 15 Xboxes were sold... and 20 GBAs were sold as well.. that's pretty laughable too.

As for the 360, i think someone else stated it. The Japanese don't HATE micrsoft.. but their games and.. hell marketing is Very US centric. I have a Japanese XBL silver account, and.. it's rather pointless. All the demos they get over there are the same as ours. they have some anime for download, but everything else is redially available on my US XBL account.

MS Japan REALLY needs to step up their game HARDCORE if they want to pick up japan.

People it has nothing to do with the hardware this time, or the company.. it's the games MS is releasing over there. Though it is odd to see that Famitsu's hightest rated game for the week was GRAW. http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm

the 360 is coming along look at it
like this it's better to be up then going down. damn 15 xbox's damn

Of course the Gameboys are outselling the xbox 360, it costs less and is much smaller that you can take anywhere and has a wide variety of games available for it, With the Xbox 360 costing what it does I'm surprised it's selling systems even though it might not seem like much it' better than nothing I guess.

GREAT picture! :D

Also: LOL at xbox and xbox 360.

i have had my full size ps2 for years and have had no problems..

meanwhile, go ds!

The picture is great. Good humor there.

Wonder how the XBLA version of SF2T:HE will affect sales, if at all over in the land of the rising sun (I guess the sun never sets anywhere's else in the world, huh). Japanese, maybe more so than "Westerners", love 2D fighting games and competition with others.

Is it enough to put the 360 over 2k sales in a month? If so, will Nintendo respond with a DS that prints Yen also?!

And what about Sony... will they introduce UMD-Ray for the PSP?!? Only time will tell...

hey i think that for 1500 is not bad for the 360 and all u stupid fanboys we will see when the ps3 comes out here in usa youre average joe wont see at as a blue ray player they will see at as gaming console and will be like hey the 360 has the samethings ill get that Wii60 rules yeah and get a wii and 360 not the BS3

Instead of showing the same thing over...and over...and over, how about Jostiq gets some stats for the U.S.?!? I mean...isnt this the country this site was created from? Japan stats for an American gamer does not mean much to me (but seeing how this has turned into "Jostiq - The Nintendo Blog" maybe you should stick with it). Yes...the 360 is geared (like the reference?) toward American gamers who like FPS and online gaming (playing with others across the world..not alone). If thats not what Japanese gamers want then more power to them. In the meantime, Microsoft has changed the landscape of gaming for Americans as WE are the demographic. Japanese gaming is secondary. Maybe thats why there is a backlash from Japanese programmers? What a joke. Im glad Microsoft is in the market.

wow, carlos. i have never read anything articulated that well.

its funny, because without sales in japan microsoft will lose money again. they lost 4 billion with the original xbox and the 360 isnt selling as well as the original was this far in its life cycle. you should care about japanese sales because in a sense they matter more. A majority of gaming revenue for hardware companies comes from japanese consumers.

I wish there were charts for US hardware sold ,but sadly, there isn't, Sony likes it that way.....

Thus is why we get the Japanese chart so much.

The psp is going to get a lot of developers leaving it when the lite gets the DS to PSP Japanese ration going in other regions.

Only reason people seem to get the psp in Japan is because they cannot find a DS and need some portable gaming and porno movie watching. Then they get the DS and no longer use the psp except for porno watching.

The Japanese charts are used because A: they are tracked accurtely while American charts usually neglect online stores and 50% of brick and mortar stores. B: American sales charts you have to pay money to get. Say 5000 dollars a year. Japanese sales data is free.

My PS2 is 6 years old, without a single problem. So to say that the PS2 numbers are primarily replacement units is just not true. Even if there is a percentage of PS2's bought for that purpose, its more than likely a very small portion of the overall sales.
The truth is, despite the early days near launch when there were quite a few defects, the vast majority of owners never have a problem. And to say that the thousands of PS2's sold each week is mostly replacements just doesnt make sense. Moving consoles is a seldom affair at best, and freak accidents could not possible amount to over 20 thousand being sold weekly.

Im kinda sad that the original "phat" DS is still outselling the PSP even though its sleeker, cooler brother is out. =P

Name - Sold this week [This Year]
DS Lite - 141,487 [2,329,621] units
PSP - 24,653 [870,267] units
NDS - 22,748 [915,404] units
PlayStation 2 - 20,737 [711,646] units
GBA SP - 4,642 [159,492] units
Xbox 360 - 1,407 [53,895] units
GB Micro - 1,294 [100,435] units
GameCube - 1,002 [53,337] units
GBA - 20 [2,803] units
Xbox - 15 [1,558] units

Oh, also...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/Raynre/nintendoprints_money.gif

It seems more likely to me that the upswing in DS phat sales might be more due to resales of DS phats by new DS lite owners rather than desperate DS lite shoppers. I mean, who would buy a lite instead of a phat if their true goal was a lite? It seems much more likely that phat owners are trading in.

Well...according to Best Buy (I apologize for using an American company/site) here are the top selling games for this week (for some that care about American gaming):

1. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
2. GRAW (360)
3. MotoGP 06 (360)
4. Fight Night 3 (360)
5. Brain Age (Nintendo)
6. New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo)
7. FIFA World Cup (PS2)
8. GTA: Liberty City (PS2)
9. Hitman (360)
10.Big Brain Academy (Nintendo)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=pcmcat39400050001

"9. It's amazing how popular portable consoles are in Japan. Maybe we'll see the same wave of popularity hit North America in the future."

I doubt that. I mean if ppl really want something for portable gaming most use cell phones. Japanese gaming in general is different then NA gaming. The differences in the popularity of arcades, genres of games, and other stuff shows that. I mean here the PSP and DS are neck and neck while the DS is owning in JPN. I just can't see portable gaming getting to big here.

Funny enough, I don't think the Wii will do well based on this. I have a DS (the ugly one) and like Erik, I feel it's rather lame in the software dept, aka a hunk ' plastic fadware. Once it's time to upgrade the console, these prior DS'ers will look elseware based on their real world experience with the DS.

Ummm...where in Erik's post did he say that the DS's software library is 'lame.' Good job trying to twist someone elses words around to back you up since no one else will.

Can we PLEASE stop using the term 'DS Phat' now? It wasn't witty when it was first used, and it's not witty now.

"I've actually accepted my DS as a bright GBA player since all the DS games are shallow garbage, but hey, that's a different story."

Posted at 4:44PM on Jun 23rd 2006 by Erik Novak

Ooops...my bad. Either way though both of their opinions are in the minority so it doesn't really mean much.

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Japanese hardware sales, 12 June - 18 June: Phat's back

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