Japanese sales: Watch Dogs hits Japan, Mario Kart slips

Another week has passed and Media Create have released their sales data for Japan. Japan had an interesting release week with several new titles for both handheld and console, so previous contenders are starting to slip from the charts. The biggest takeaway from this week is that first week sales in Japan are highly important and after that, it begins to trail off.

The top six games this week are all new to the charts, with Freedom Wars for PS Vita managing to claim the top spot. Second place goes to Watch Dogs for the PS4, which managed to sell just under half of what Freedom Wars sold, proving that handhelds do reign supreme in Japan. After that, the PS3 saw the release of Kamen Rider: Battride War II, the 3DS got Taiko Drum Master: Don and Katsu’s Space-Time Great Adventure, and the PS3 version of Watch Dogs hits the charts at six.

At seven Yokai Watch continues its stranglehold on Japan, while Mario Kart 8 slips to eighth spot. It’ll be interesting to see if these two games manage to reclaim spots near the top of the chart next week, as newcomers might slip faster than games that have a long-tail, as we’ve seen with Yokai Watch reclaiming spots in the chart for weeks now.

Software Sales

1. [PSV] Freedom Wars (SCEJ, 06/26/14) – 188,888 (New)
2. [PS4] Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, 06/26/14) – 63,595 (New)
3. [PS3] Kamen Rider: Battride War II (Bandai Namco, 06/26/14) – 62,649 (New)
4. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Don and Katsu’s Space-Time Great Adventure (Bandai Namco, 06/26/14) – 53,095 (New)
5. [PSV] Girls und Panzer: Master the Tankery (Bandai Namco, 06/26/14) – 31,526 (New)
6. [PS3] Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, 06/26/14) – 31,028 (New)
7. [3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) – 29,590 (1,147,202)
8. [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 23,520 (492,837)
9. [3DS] Pokemon Art Academy (Nintendo, 06/19/14) – 15,373 (46,454)
10. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2014: Aoki Samurai no Chousen (Konami, 05/22/14) – 13,026 (136,893)

Hardware Sales

1. 3DS LL – 22,803 (21,459)
2. PlayStation Vita – 22,192 (11,937)
3. Wii U – 10,653 (10,715)
4. PlayStation 4 – 8,059 (7,009)
5. PlayStation 3 – 7,480 (6,339)
6. 3DS – 5,081 (4,582)
7. PlayStation Vita TV – 2,727 (1,444)
8. PSP – 1,445 (2,335)
9. Xbox 360 – 201 (214)