MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Famitsu released its yearly report on the Japanese games market, which saw growth in both software and hardware sales in 2017 for the first time since 2006.
Hardware sales reached ¥202bn (£1.33bn) in 2017, a 72.9 per cent increase compared to 2016’s ¥117bn (£0.77bn). 7.6m consoles were shifted in 2017 in Japan, compared to 4.9m in 2016, with the Switch selling 3.4m units last year. That means that most of 2017’s hardware growth came down to the launch of Nintendo’s new console.
On the software side of things, the growth was not as impressive, but sales were still up 3.8 per cent year-on-year, with revenue reaching ¥189bn (£1.7bn) in 2017 compared to ¥182bn (£1.6bn) in 2016.
The best-selling title in Japan last year was 3DS exclusive Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (which is considered as one entry and not two separate titles in its home country), with over 2m units shifted. Splatoon 2 landed at No.2 with 1.7m copies sold and was the best-selling title on the Switch last year.
The only PS4 title to make it to the 2017 Japanese Top Ten was Square Enix’s Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, which charted at No.5, with the 3DS version of the game landing at No.3.
Here’s the Japanese Top Ten for 2017:
