Japanese Sales: Smash Bros 3DS dominating, Wii U still stagnant & Xbox One takes a tumble

This week’s Japanese sales figures from Media Create are in and we’re hardly surprised by the way the numbers fall. Starting with hardware, it’s much of the story it’s been for the past few weeks — the Wii U isn’t doing so hot, though it’s still selling fairly well up against competition. It dropped a couple hundred unit sales this week but it’s nothing we’d worry about for the time being.

Wii U saw stiffened competition in the PlayStation 4. The latter system spiked to 23.6k from around 7.3k last week thanks to a pre-Tokyo Game Show presentation Sony put on to show the Japanese market what would be in store for them in the months to come. We’re sure that number is bound to drop the next time we’re talking sales, but Sony sure will enjoy the spike.

Who isn’t enjoying another type of spike is Microsoft. After an underwhelming launch in Japan last week, the Xbox One plummeted to around 3,000 sales. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as Microsoft has never gained much traction in the region, and it’s largely agreed upon that their wares simply don’t appeal to the Japanese consumer. Microsoft plans to open some eyes at the Tokyo Game Show so we’ll see if that helps anything.

For handhelds, Nintendo’s 3DS LL has seen a nice rise in units, and you can likely attribute that to the launch of Super Smash Bros for 3DS. We’re not sure how long it can sustain this level of sales but it should still outperform the PlayStation Vita for a while to come.

On the software side, we see Super Smash Bros for 3DS living up to its potential. Media Create shows nearly 1,000,000 units. If you don’t remember, Nintendo announced that the game sold more than 1 million in its first two days of being on sale so it’s possible the full numbers weren’t submitted in time for Media Create’s release. It’s also possible that they aren’t accounting for digital sales of the game through Nintendo’s eShop.

Nintendo enjoyed 4 other games in the top 10 this week, including Yokai Watch 2, Dragon Quest X Online and Yoshi’s Island. Be sure to let your eyes wander below for the full numbers this week.

Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 09/13/14) – 944,644 (New)
2. [PS4] Destiny (SCE, 09/11/14) – 91,277 (New)
3. [PS3] Destiny (SCE, 09/11/14) – 49,503 (New)
4. [3DS] Yokai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke (Level-5, 07/10/14) – 47,065 (2,469,211)
5. [PS3] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution (Bandai Namco, 09/11/14) – 40,180 (New)
6. [3DS] Dragon Quest X Online (Square Enix, 09/04/14) – 22,977 (75,351)
7. [PSV] Toukiden Kiwami (Koei Tecmo, 08/28/14) – 15,338 (121,320)
8. [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 6,839 (665,918)
9. [3DS] Yoshi’s New Island (Nintendo, 07/24/14) – 5,734 (179,714)
10. [3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) – 4,898 (1,269,742)
11. [PS3] Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (Atlus, 08/28/14) – 4,709 (106,181)
12. [PS4] Samurai Warriors 4 (Koei Tecmo, 09/04/14) – 4,534 (16,291)
13. [PSV] Chain Chronicle V (Sega, 09/11/14) – 4,178 (New)
14. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2 (Bandai Namco, 08/07/14) – 4,084 (137,143)
15. [3DS] Medarot 8 Kabuto Ver. / Kuwagata Ver. (Rocket Company, 08/28/14) – 3,766 (45,306)
16. [PSP] Toukiden Kiwami (Koei Tecmo, 08/28/14) – 3,657 (20,485)
17. [PSV] Love Live! School Idol Paradise Vol. 1: Printemps Unit / Vol 2. BiBi Unit / Vol 3. Lily White Unit (Kadokawa Games, 08/28/14) – 3,467 (76,033)
18. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Don and Katsu’s Space-Time Great Adventure (Bandai Namco, 06/26/14) – 3,452 (160,821)
19. [Wii U] Hyrule Warriors (Koei Tecmo, 08/14/14) – 3,365 (100,177)
20. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto V Low Price Version (Take-Two, 06/26/14) – 3,300 (60,307)

Hardware Sales (followed by last week’s sales)

1. 3DS LL – 31,602 (23,624)
2. PlayStation 4 – 23,623 (7,299)
3. PlayStation Vita – 12,331 (14,441)
4. 3DS – 7,967 (5,931)
5. Wii U – 7,062 (7,349)
6. PlayStation 3 – 6,083 (6,139)
7. Xbox One – 3,015 (25,674)
8. PlayStation Vita TV – 817 (910)
9. PSP – 101 (288)
10. Xbox 360 – 96 (126)