Japanese hardware sales, 15 Jan - 21 Jan: continued slump edition

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Jan 26th 2007 10:25PM

Slump. Just saying the word seems to underline its meaning, as if the fatigued letters just roll over your lips with nary a care in the world. The Japanese sales charts still find themselves in last week's post-holiday slump, with only the DS Lite removing itself from the couch and bothering to put on some decent pants. It looks like the supply lines are still recovering from the holiday sales explosion, with all of the new consoles continuing their unimpressive sales slide.

Next week should bring steadier supplies and, with any luck, a more abundant presence of the color green. We find it particulary soothing.

- DS Lite: 127,647

38,360 (42.96%)
- Wii: 86,395

7,313 (7.80%)
- PSP: 37,032

11,772 (24.12%)
- PS3: 21,105

4,426 (17.34%)
- PS2: 20,169

2,494 (11.00%)
- Xbox 360: 7,041

1,994 (22.07%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,864

95 (4.85%)
- GBA SP: 1,498

49 (3.17%)
- Gamecube: 554

57 (9.33%)
- DS Phat: 123

82 (200.00%)
- GBA: 94

15 (18.99%)

[Source: Media Create]

See also: Previous Japanese hardware sales charts

Tags: DS, GameCube, Japanese hardware sales, JapaneseHardwareSales, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (45)

First!

I wonder if the 15 Japanese kids that bought a GBA know each other?

Funny thing is.... the DSlite's numbers that went up actually make it an aggregate gain. The power of the DSlite.

wow... just about every thing but DS went down in sales...
I seriously dont get these Japanese people... how many DS do they have in every household?

why doesn't the Xbox360 give up already

The same reason PSP hasn't given up, Tadioku.

Was bored, and just calculated some numbers, to see how the year will end up if these numbers were sustained (rounded off to easier numbers, 52 weeks total).

PS3: 25,000 sold a week for a year = 1,300,000 units sold.

360: 10,000 sold a week for a year = 520,000 units. sold

Wii: 90,000 sold a week for a year = 4,680,000 units sold.

This will put the 360 at last place of course, but not by that much, which can easily be made up in other regions like Europe and North America. The PS3 although will not be even close to the Wii numbers, which might even have the chance to outnumber the worldwide PS3 sales total in just Japan. This would put the PS3 at last place, with top spot a fight against the Wii and 360.

SDF disclaimer: This was done out of boredom, and I realize system sales will not sustain at those numbers, so shut the fuck up in advance.

I still don't know why Joystiq doesn't post the software sales. If they want comments, that would be a good way to do it.

For instance, even though it didn't push 360 hardware, Gears of War is in the top 10 for software sales this past week. There are no PS3 games in the top 50 at all. Excite Truck which also debuted last week, just barely missed out on the top 10.

Here are the software numbers:

vgcharts.org

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ds/gears-cracks-japanese-top-ten-sales-charts-231307.php

Can you say "Videogame crash of 2006"?

Er, "Videogame crash of 2007", I mean.

Virtua Fighter 5 comes out soon, expect big spike in sales, not only is it huge in Japan. but the 360 version isn't coming out there.

@14

The Japanese would rather play it in arcades, instead of on the console. It will help sales a bit (at this rate, another FPS would help there), but don't think it will cause some revolution.

"Was bored, and just calculated some numbers, to see how the year will end up if these numbers were sustained"

Except it doesn't work that way. These are post-holiday numbers, traditionally the lowest point of the year in Japan. They'll go up again around Golden Week and stay there until the next holiday season, then spike dramatically.

The Xbox 360 is still enjoying its post-Blue Dragon spike, but it's been steadily downhill since. No surprise there. But those numbers will continue to drop.

Most other systems will rise. By the end of the year, it's going to look more like PS3 at 2.5 million, X360 at 250,000 and Wii at 5 million. It's not going to be nearly as close as you think. (People have been making predictions like yours since the first year of the original Xbox release, and they get all excited every time a new game comes out and the Xbox has a spike. But it doesn't last. Trust me.)

Actually, sorry, there's another spike around Valentines Day, which works the reverse in Japan as it does here (girls buy stuff for guys). Expect a big PS3 and PSP spike that week and not as much of one for the DS and Wii. The X360 may also get a bit of a spike, but not much. Those numbers will hold for a while and then the run-up to Golden Week will be the next big spike.

They probably have a DS for every game....

Doesn't look too bad: Nintendo first, Sony second, M$ last.
PS2 still up there killing all the bastard children below it.

"Except it doesn't work that way. These are post-holiday numbers, traditionally the lowest point of the year in Japan. "

Read the damn SDF disclaimer.

"Except it doesn't work that way."

Sorry, but...no shit.

All other non-Nintendo systems combined at 85,347 could not beat the Wii at 86,395 (which is still in tight demand around the world). Concerning the xbox360, 10K/week is too generous and I see it go down to 3-5K/week on average for most of the year. The PS3 outnumbered the xbox360 on its launch day so Microsoft will be lucky to see 3 million in Japan by its lifetime.

And this goes to Gears of War, the weak install base of the xbox360 will guarantee that the game can't stay in the top 10 for more than another week or 2. There is a direct correlation between how much software you can sell against how much hardware is sold. If they all bought the game now, that's only 300K. A decent PS3 game will do better and we don't need to get into the Wii or even the DS.

I lol'ed at Wii Fanboy's edition: http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/01/26/japanese-hardware-sales-15-jan-21-jan-voiceover-edition/

mushiking, Sorry to disappoint you but all of the real hardcore VF fans play in the arcades. They aren't going to buy a $500 game system for it. VF has been a hot series in Japaense arcades but has NEVER been a system seller.

I am wondering if arcade machines there have HDTV built in? or they are still running the old good CRT on them :D ?

Where's my amusing Japanese hardware sales post Joystiq?

LOL! The original Xbox has sold so few it has been

ELIMINATED!

(from this list at least)

@26

That is a pretty ignorant thing to ask. Of course they have screens that is capable of 720P resolutions. Don't go smiling, thinking Sony's PS3 will be superior to the arcade one.

@29.

The next casualty will be the PSP

@Jounin, actually, Gears sold out. Microsoft pretty much undershipped it (or to be more accurate, retailers understocked it). That pretty much guarantees it won't even be in the top 30 next week, as there aren't enough copies to be sold.

As for VF5, it's debatable whether it will spike hardware at all. It's a pretty big game sales wise (although it's been steadily decreasing for years), but it's never been a system seller. It will sell to everyone who already has a PS3, but I can't see many people dropping the yen for a PS3 and VF5 if they don't already have one.

Why is it that the DS Lite's sales always have 2 pictures that refuse to load on my web browser? What are they supposed to be? I'm sick of seeing those 2 red Xs every time the sales stats go up.

Of note: every single console that went down by a margin of less than 10% was a Nintendo machine. And this includes *all* of the Nintendo machines. Even GameCube (although barely).

All non-Nintendo machines went down by 11% or more

Even when they lose, Nintendo still wins. (see N64 profits/sales vs. PS1 profits/sales)

Wii went down to supply issues. Trade in value is extremly high with used prices being higher then retail.

PS3 went down due to lack of interest even with stores reducing the price. Trade in value is incredibly low with used units falling below retail.

Gamecube is no longer being made in a year or two all the store retail units should be sold or the tracking companies will no longer track the sale.

Same with the DS phat.

Most GBA varieties appear to be made for the US instead of Japan. The Japanese have moved onto the DS.

The DS lite is sold out everywhere here in America too... can only find PINK now... Weird.

Just so you guys know, the "supply lines" statement really only applies to the Wii and DS as there are no reported shortages of PS3 at all (according to Gamasutra/everyone else). One store even lowered the 20 gig PS3 to $329 in an effort to get it out of their stores (Don Quixote).

The PS3 lifetime sales in Japan are ~575,000 despite Sony having shipped 1 million so until we pass that million mark there is no reason to suspect shortages there. At the current rate that should happen sometime in the summer.

(And yes, I know that "supply issues" applies to Gears of War as well, but that's not hardware now is it)

thats the amazing thing about nintendo, they landed bottom for gamecube sales last gen and still came out with overall profit. nintendo had still got the portable market apparently and its looking optimistic for the console market anway at this time, though if it lasts is to be seen. hope so.

"Why is it that the DS Lite's sales always have 2 pictures that refuse to load on my web browser?"

Same here. Always happens to me too. I'm using IE7.

I get those two red X pictures when I'm viewing Joystiq through an RSS feed reader.

The 2 pictures that refuse to load are:

It's going to fail to load file's off of Ludwig's harddrive!

Let's try that again:

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LUDWIG%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg
file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LUDWIG%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg

Can we someday have a pic of some Nintendo exec swimming in money? They sure can do that with the sales of the DS lite alone.

Apparently Ludwig linked to a copy of the image on his local machine instead of the sever, whoops.

I want a picture of everybody at Nintendo swimming in a Mario-shaped pool filled with gold coins, Scrooge McDuck style.

"Why is it that the DS Lite's sales always have 2 pictures that refuse to load on my web browser?"

Ive been asking myself that question too for some weeks now, and just today I've noticed that these 2 broken images look a lot like a DS lite when u look at it sideways...But then again maybe I'm looking too much into this.

Um...who cares about these numbers. I don't live in Japan and I don't care what they buy.

Yeah, keep your Japanese people off my Internet!

Since when are the Japanese able to use web browsers!

Next thing you know, the crazy Europeans will be using the Internet and we might see news stories from Europe!

Luckydob, you should care b/c many of big-name game developers are Japanese companies, 2 of the hardware companies are Japanese, and their influence on video games isn't going to disappear anytime soon. One of the battles taking place is the blue water vs red water debate. What happens in Japan will help either doom Nintendo, or see Sony and Microsoft coming out w/ copycat controllers.

And Gears of War will probably be a forgotten game in Japan b/c there are not enough xbox360s sold in Japan to keep it in the news. It might have sold out now, but if Blue Dragon couldn't keep selling systems, then GoW won't do much good either.

I live in Japan and I care what they buy....
..and my opinion is more important than yours.

Nice to see the DS lite rebounding again. I ove my DS lite, but I gotta say I'm constantly amazed by quite how insanely popularit is. It seems know no limits.

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Japanese hardware sales, 15 Jan - 21 Jan: continued slump edition

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