Japan’s physical game market up 82.5% YOY in August

The Japanese physical video game market was valued at 29.8bn in August, up 82.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest figures from Famitsu. This is down to a huge 206.8 per cent spike in hardware sales, prompted mainly by the Nintendo Switch, as well as a 21.3 per cent rise in software sales. As a result, this is the third consecutive month of year-on-year growth for Japan’s gaming market.

Looking at the software charts in more detail, the top three titles remain unchanged from July, with Square Enix’s 3DS and PS4 editions of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age taking No.1 and No.2 respectively, and Splatoon 2 at No.3.

Dragon Quest XI sold a combined total of 2.9m physical copies in August, but if you take into account the title’s digital download sales, says Famitsu, it’s highly likely that the title has already surpassed 3m – a figure that’s become a tradition in its domestic market ever since 1995’s Dragon Quest VI on the SNES. Famitsu also notes that the PS4 version of the game has became the first million-selling hit for Sony’s latest console in Japan, and as of August 27th, the game has sold 1.27m units in Japan alone.

Meanwhile, Splatoon 2 sold a total of 269,000 copies in Japan in August, pushing its lifetime sales to 1.07m. As we have previously reported, Splatoon 2 is now the first Switch game to break the million barrier in Japan.

The rest of Japan’s monthly chart saw a number of new entries, however, with Level-5’s The Snack World: TreJarers taking No.4 with 138,500 units, the Nintendo Switch version of Capcom’s Monster Hunter XX claiming No.5 with 95,000 units, and Capcom’s Dai Ace Attorney 2 entering the charts at No.6 with a total of 91,000 units.

Crash Bandicoot also debuted this month at No.8 with a total of 40,400 units, and Hitman: The Complete First Season entered the charts at No.9 with just under 28,000 units.

Unsurprisingly, Square Enix topped August’s publisher charts, claiming a market share of 46.6 per cent and generating 6.19bn in physical revenue. Nintendo came in second with a 19.6 per cent market share and 2.6bn in revenue.

On the hardware side, the Nintendo Switch continued to dominate the charts selling another 254,000 units last month. That’s a market share of 41.8 per cent. The PS4, meanwhile, came in second place, selling another 131,000 units to take a 21.6 per cent market share.

Here’s the August Top Ten software chart in full:

1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (3DS), Square Enix, 500,963
2. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4), Square Enix, 320,857
3. Splatoon 2 (Switch), Nintendo, 269,414
4. The Snack World: TreJarers (3DS), Level-5, 138,545 (New)
5. Monster Hunter XX Nintendo Switch Version (Switch), Capcom, 94,973 (New)
6. Dai Ace Attorney 2: Naruhodo Ryunosuke no Kakugo (3DS), Capcom, 91,265 (New)
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch), Nintendo, 50,445
8. Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy (PS4), Sony, 40,389 (New)
9. Hitman: The Complete First Season (PS4), Square Enix, 28,771 (New)
10. Layton’s Mystery Journey (3DS), Level-5, 26,805

And here are the hardware figures for the same period:

Nintendo Switch, 254,489
PS4, 131,667
New Nintendo 2DS XL, 102,921
New Nintendo 3DS XL, 60,594
PS4 Pro, 25,472
PS Vita, 19,064
Nintendo 2DS, 10,788
New Nintendo 3DS, 2,011
Wii U, 585
Xbox One S, 353
PS3, 307