Every Wednesday Media Create releases their official sales numbers for Japanese software and hardware. It’s an interesting look at market trends for Japan, since Western groups like NPD don’t release their numbers weekly, but a month at a time. This week Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze released in Japan, which has strong competition from the likes of Dragon Quest Monsters 2 for Nintendo 3DS.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze debuted in Japan selling 36,000 copies its first week. For comparison, Donkey Kong Country Returns sold 166,000 within its first week in Japan when it launched for the original Wii. Of course, there’s quite a bit of difference between the two platforms since the Wii was nearing the end of its life cycle when DKCR was released in 2010.
When it comes to software sales, the Nintendo 3DS continues to dominate, holding 8 of the top 10 slots this week. In fact, Nintendo itself dominated the software sales with all but one of the top ten software titles being for a Nintendo platform. The odd man out is a PS3 title clocking in at number nine, Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme vs. Full Boost.
Software Sales
[3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca’s Wonderful Mysterious Keys (Square Enix, 02/06/14) – 118,427 (562,083)
[Wii U] Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Nintendo, 02/13/14) – 35,717 (New)
[3DS] A-Ressha de Ikou 3D (Artdink, 02/13/14) – 27,009 (New)
[3DS] Kirby: Triple Deluxe (Nintendo, 01/09/14) – 23,017 (440,131)
[3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) – 22,230 (423,836)
[3DS] Magi: Aratanaru Sekai (Namco Bandai, 02/13/14) – 15,793 (New)
[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z (GungHo Online Entertainment, 12/12/31) – 15,462 (1,359,241)
[3DS] Puyopuyo Tetris (Square Enix, 02/06/13) – 13,717 (58,345)
[PS3] Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Full Boost (Namco Bandai, 01/30/14) – 13,704 (313,291)
[3DS] Pokemon X and Y (Nintendo, 10/12/13) – 12,750 (3,950,322)
Hardware Sales
3DS LL – 27,650 (36,306)
PlayStation Vita – 17,081 (16,951)
3DS – 12,066 (12,002)
PlayStation 3 – 10,226 (10,240)
Wii U – 8,782 (7,180)
PSP – 2,944 (2,948)
PlayStation Vita TV – 1,267 (1,331)
Xbox 360 – 256 (194)
