Retail

Nintendo on top as Japanese market declines

Thu 05 Jan 2012 10:38am GMT / 5:38am EST / 2:38am PST
Retail

Total revenue from console hardware and software drops by 8 per cent in 2011

Nintendo

nintendo-europe.com

Japanese sales of console hardware and software declined by 8 per cent in 2011, Andriasang reports.

A Famitsu report, based on data from Enterbrain, put total revenue for the period beginning December 27 2010 and ending December 25 2011 at ¥454.3 billion.

Hardware sales were up 2.4 per cent to ¥179.7 billion, largely due to the launches of the 3DS and PlayStation Vita. However, software sales fell by 13.7 per cent to ¥274.6 billion.

Nintendo products took the top two spots in the 2011 software sales charts with Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, while the Nintendo 3DS was the most popular hardware by a wide margin - selling more than double its nearest competitor, the PSP.

The full hardware chart is listed below. Total life-to-date sales are in parentheses.

  • Nintendo 3DS: 4,135,739
  • PSP: 1,960,177 (18,237,108)
  • PlayStation 3: 1,467,261 (7,417,148)
  • Wii: 937,451 (12,167,743)
  • Nintendo DS: 711,204 (32,835,502)
  • PlayStation Vita: 402,794
  • Xbox 360: 114,075 (1,520,738)

The full software chart is listed below. Total life-to-date sales are in parentheses.

  • 01. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/1/2011): 1,082,391
  • 02. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/3/2011): 1,042,511
  • 03. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Capcom, 12/1/2010): 1,021,457 (4,502,446)
  • 04. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3G (Capcom, 12/10/2011): 809,322
  • 05. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Square Enix, 12/15/2011): 697,146
  • 06. [PSP] Final Fantasy Type-0 (Square Enix, 10/27/2011): 696,428
  • 07. [WII] Minna no Rhythm Tengoku (Nintendo, 7/21/2011): 633,429
  • 08. [PS3] Tales of Xillia (Namco Bandai, 9/8/2011): 632,151
  • 09. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, 6/25/2009): 612,807 (2,732,655)
  • 10. [WII] Wii Party (Nintendo, 7/8/2010): 584,545 (2,123,773)

6 Comments

Antony Cain
Lecturer in Games Development

Lancaster and Morecambe College

I picked up Mario Kart 7 and 3D Land over the holiday period and I have to say they are 2 of the best games I've ever been able to carry around with me. Hopefully the numbers above, and the actual games themselves, will go some way to quashing the (in my opinion, unmerited) negativity surrounding the 3DS and handheld gaming in general.

Posted:A year ago

#1

Michael Shamgar
Post-CEO

Nocturnal Entertainment Australia

Goes to show, even on a "quiet" year in Japan - they are still top dog. Haven't got Mario Kart yet, but Mario Land has really taken platformers to a whole new level IMO. Its amazing how important playing in 3D is as well!

Posted:A year ago

#2

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

Notice a trend in the top 6?

Mario, Mario, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy.

You can even put 9 and 10 in their with Wii, Wii.

Posted:A year ago

#3

Tony Johns

WHERE IS OUR TALES OF XILLIA NAMCO BANDI????

While I am happy with the service of games from Nintendo and SQUARE-ENIX, and to some degree CAPCOM, there is a real problem with most other big name Japanese developers who release games in Japan that are awesome but never release those same games into Western Markets or release them years later when so many people who would have been interested in the game would have already either imported from Japan or try to download the game online with english language patch just to play the game they wanted.

Also it is almost near the end of the PS3 market lifecycle so the strong sales for Tales of Xillia should be no excuse for Namco Bandi from failing to bring it out into western shores.

Sometimes, I wish I was the head of Namco Bandi and fire all those market analysists who still insist that the Tales series won't sell in the west no matter how amazing it does in Japan.

-_-

Makes me want to run my own Japanese company someday.

Posted:A year ago

#4

Tony Johns

Also Nintendo, you are doing well, but you forgot to get one game in that list to the west...

Rhythm Heaven for the Wii, that one that is number 7 on the Japanese charts...

Once again...I have some fear that some Japanese Companies are selling their unique Japanese games short from people in the west who would really love to pay their $$$$ for some nieche market games that DO sell well in Japan.

Posted:A year ago

#5

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

Tony, Feb 13th is going to be a good day for you.

Posted:A year ago

#6

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