Switch sales top five million in Japan

Dekuman · Sep 5, 2018

SpeedyBlueDude said:
Personally not my thing, and to be honest, of all 20 friend who I play Smash with and geek out over Nintendo with, we all have the same opinion on Splatoon.

Boring lame game that's fun but extremely basic and we wish Nintendo wouldn't focus so much on.

It's just weird to me seeing the love Splatoon gets online and in Japan when I literally never met anyone in real life who likes Nintendo that is actively excited with the franchise.

I'm one of those old guard Nintendo gamers who don't get Splatoon. From what I can see, Splatoon's fanbase are in their teens/20s, so kids who grew up on Wii/DS and GameCube. Different generation.

I don't begrudge it at all, bigger tent is always good. And there's no evidence Nintendo's focus on splatoon is affecting anything. The game's lead designer is among the crop of young developers at Nintendo. Aonuma, or Koizumi isn't being asked to contribute and Miyamoto is virtually retired from game development at this point.

Fularu · Sep 5, 2018

AcademicSaucer said:
That Splatoon 2 attach rate, Nintendo should let their younger staff make more online games

How big is smash in japan?

Bigger than Splatoon

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

SpeedyBlueDude said:
Personally not my thing, and to be honest, of all 20 friend who I play Smash with and geek out over Nintendo with, we all have the same opinion on Splatoon.

Boring lame game that's fun but extremely basic and we wish Nintendo wouldn't focus so much on.

It's just weird to me seeing the love Splatoon gets online and in Japan when I literally never met anyone in real life who likes Nintendo that is actively excited with the franchise.

The ink alone has more depth that anything you could find in other shooters. It is used to shoot you enemy, hide, speed up/slow down your movements, recharge your weapon...

And on this deep gameplay feature is built a 4vs4 TPS with the strategy it involves.

If you think it is basic, you only scratched the surface.

klanar · Sep 5, 2018

c0de said:
Yeah I think it has a chance of overtaking it but it depends on whether they have enough hardware available.

Their forecast is 5M for japan if 25% shipments stay consistent. The supply is there and we will see if there is great demand this holiday.

mopinks · Sep 5, 2018

I'm old as hell and I love Splatoon

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
Bigger than Splatoon

Nope.

Only three franchises could beat Splatoon 2 this gen. Pokemon, Animal Crossing and 2D Mario. It is going to sell 4m+ like it is nothing whereas Smash never crossed 3m.

Deleted member 5535 · Sep 5, 2018

kickz said:
Awesome job, at this rate they will surpass PS4 in their first 2 years lol

But 4 out of those 5 titles are from 2017, 2018 has been very lack luster

4 of those titles had plenty of time to reach those numbers with their legs even if their debut also was high and Aces is in the top 10. Pokémon Let's Go and Smash Ultimate will surpass Kirby too since both are bigger.

CeroMiedo · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
Bigger than Splatoon

lol no

JustJavi · Sep 5, 2018

mopinks said:
I'm old as hell and I love Splatoon

Me too :-)

sfortunato · Sep 5, 2018

3DS was much cheaper after a few months from launch and had a better third party support; also, it was coming off the DS, which was the biggest thing in Japan back then.

Nevertheless, Switch is selling greatly and on par with PS2 launch aligned. It still has a high price for being also a handheld platform targeted towards kids.

Top seller are selling a lot because of their quality and also because there are fewer retail games overall so sales tend to concentrate around them. This was also happening on 3DS, where there were few games between 500k and 1m but plenty of million sellers.

CaviarMeths · Sep 5, 2018

kickz said:
Awesome job, at this rate they will surpass PS4 in their first 2 years lol

But 4 out of those 5 titles are from 2017, 2018 has been very lack luster

All four of those 2017 games have literally never left the top 20 software chart. Especially amazing for Breath of the Wild, which has been a weekly best seller every week for the last 18 months, despite Zelda historically not being anywhere near that leggy.

Point is that 2017 games have had much longer to grow in sales than 2018 games. By the end of this year, the top 10 should be pretty much half-and-half 2017 and 2018 games. Aces is already there, and will be joined with Pokemon, Smash, and Yokai Watch 4.

ClickyCal' · Sep 5, 2018

Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

Sammy Samusu · Sep 5, 2018

Lmfao at the Splatoon attach rate.

Sandfox · Sep 5, 2018

yuoke said:
Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

The expectation with a lot of people was that it would sell less than W101.

American Eskimo · Sep 5, 2018

DecoReturns said:
Who would've thought Zelda would be so high.

I'm expecting a Splatoon Spin-off. Has to happen eventually. What type of game? Who knows. Just seems like a smart thing to do.

Wave race, but with squid kids.

CaviarMeths · Sep 5, 2018

yuoke said:
Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

Never forgetti

Sander VF · Sep 5, 2018

yuoke said:
Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

There's a GAF thread predicting Splatoon 2 sales and that has posters proudly betting on it selling lower than the first game because that was a fluke or something.

allan-bh · Sep 5, 2018

foxuzamaki said:
Wow. in the thread everyone was saying 2 weeks until it reached this but it didnt even need that

2 weeks based on Media Create numbers. This is Famitsu.

Platy · Sep 5, 2018

yuoke said:
Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

The biggest red mark in my success prediction history.

New IP, WiiU, weird designs... It made sense back in the day

Dark Cloud · Sep 5, 2018

yuoke said:
Remember when splatoon 1 was going to be a flop and not even pass 1 million?

I remember when it was going to be the Wonderful 101.

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

Sander VF said:
There's a GAF thread predicting Splatoon 2 sales and that has posters proudly betting on it selling lower than the first game because that was a fluke or something.

So less than on the WiiU ? Despite legs showing that interest was not fading away ?

Femto0 · Sep 5, 2018

And pokemon isn't even out already

Fularu · Sep 5, 2018

Lelouch0612 said:
Nope.

Only three franchises could beat Splatoon 2 this gen. Pokemon, Animal Crossing and 2D Mario. It is going to sell 4m+ like it is nothing whereas Smash never crossed 3m.

CeroMiedo said:
lol no

Lelouch0612 said:
Nope.

You both realise that Smash in Japan had always been hindered by the hardware it was on to reach full sales potential right?

Smash's attach rate in Japan is abnormaly high (even higher than Splatoon's in both the N64 and GC days). Wii U was an anomaly due to the game beeing available on the 3DS (and even then it still went on to sell over 2.6 million units combined despite the 3DS proving to be a rather poor fit for Smash).

I'm expecting a launch week over 1 million for Smash and lifetime sales over 3.5 million. It will be interesting to see how much Smash is going to eat into Splatoon's sales (or if they feed off of each other and propel both franchises in the Animal Crossing zone)

Dark Cloud · Sep 5, 2018

Remember when Splatoon 2 was a port?

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
You both realise that Smash in Japan had always been hindered by the hardware it was on to reach full sales potential right?

Smash's attach rate in Japan is abnormaly high (even higher than Splatoon's in both the N64 and GC days). Wii U was an anomaly due to the game beeing available on the 3DS (and even then it still went on to sell over 2.6 million units combined despite the 3DS proving to be a rather poor fit for Smash).

I'm expecting a launch week over 1 million for Smash and lifetime sales over 3.5 million. It will be interesting to see how much Smash is going to eat into Splatoon's sales (or if they feed off of each other and propel both franchises in the Animal Crossing zone)

Yes we do but so was Splatoon and it still manage to outsell SSB, Melee and 4 WiiU even though the N64 and the GC outsold the WiiU.

3.5m+ is doable for Smash yes but Splatoon 2 will be in the 4.5m+ range.

Mbolibombo · Sep 5, 2018

foxuzamaki said:
Wow. in the thread everyone was saying 2 weeks until it reached this but it didnt even need that

Mediacreate is still 2 weeks off which probably why everyone said 2 weeks off =)

SpeedyBlueDude said:
Personally not my thing, and to be honest, of all 20 friend who I play Smash with and geek out over Nintendo with, we all have the same opinion on Splatoon.

Boring lame game that's fun but extremely basic and we wish Nintendo wouldn't focus so much on.

It's just weird to me seeing the love Splatoon gets online and in Japan when I literally never met anyone in real life who likes Nintendo that is actively excited with the franchise.

You say it's boring and lame as well as fun in the very same sentence :P
And of all things Splatoon 2 is... basic is not one of them.

Deleted member 4021 · Sep 5, 2018

It's not hard to see why Splatoon is a big success in Japan. Aesthetically it has huge appeal, with the cute squids, the ability to customize their fashion with hairstyles and "Brand-name" gear, pop idols, an eclectic soundtrack, bright bubblegum colors, etc. It exudes the image of "Cool Japan" without it seeming force, and it's also more obviously family-friendly than most shooters. Gameplay-wise, it allows people to contribute without necessarily getting huge kill counts, and the mechanics are simple to understand but difficult to master. The motion controls are more intuitive for newbies and young gamers than dual analog, and since it's a Nintendo game, it's actually on a platform that people in Japan play.

Colossal Moo · Sep 5, 2018

Nemesis162 said:
Total sales of Switch hardware in Japan have surpassed five million units as of September 2 with a total of 5,007,368 units sold since its March 3, 2017 launch, according to Famitsu sales data.

...

https://gematsu.com/2018/09/switch-sales-top-five-million-in-japan#t1kdQeiacZG7iwWt.99

The Switch is a huge hit in Japan and a successor to the PS2, DS & 3DS. Since the launch of the PS2, these are the only systems which have sold more than 20 million units in Japan and are the only systems which appear to have broad appeal.

Dark Cloud · Sep 5, 2018

I want Splatoon to be bigger in the west. It deserves to be a 10 million seller ever gen.

Fularu · Sep 5, 2018

Lelouch0612 said:
Yes we do but so was Splatoon and it still manage to outsell SSB, Melee and 4 WiiU even though the N64 and the GC outsold the WiiU.

3.5m+ is doable for Smash yes but Splatoon 2 will be in the 4.5m+ range.

No it didn't

SSB N64, Melee and BRawl all outsold it

It only Outsold Smash 4 if you don't combine the WiiU and 3DS releases (talking about the first Splatoon here, Splatoon 2 is propelled by the Switch hardware itself to heights not foreseen, we shall see if Smash will get the same treatment (and I have the feeling it definitely will))

Watershed · Sep 5, 2018

The pace of hardware sales is incredible. I hope Nintendo has plans to sustain it heading into year 3.

SinCityAssassin · Sep 5, 2018

SpeedyBlueDude said:
Personally not my thing, and to be honest, of all 20 friend who I play Smash with and geek out over Nintendo with, we all have the same opinion on Splatoon.

Japan may be up to something but I have now verified with over 30 GameStop locations nationwide in the US. Their system shows that Splatoon 2 is poop. Every store manager I've spoken to has said there is absolutely no precedent for Splatoon 2 to be good.

The unanimous consensus from every GameStop employee is that unless you like a boring lame game that's fun but extremely basic, don't believe any claim that Splatoon 2 is worth marketing. Full Stop.

SMD · Sep 5, 2018

c0de said:
Yeah I think it has a chance of overtaking it but it depends on whether they have enough hardware available.

Think they've been cranking them out over the summer, haven't they? I'm expecting a big global push, to be honest. Lot of people might be down on Pokemon but for the majority of people I can see this being a hit.

And Smash is Smash.

Dark Cloud · Sep 5, 2018

Watershed said:
The pace of hardware sales is incredible. I hope Nintendo has plans to sustain it heading into year 3.

Why wouldn't they have plans? Kind of an odd thing to say.

Sander VF · Sep 5, 2018

Dark Cloud said:
I want Splatoon to be bigger in the west. It deserves to be a 10 million seller ever gen.

Splatoon 2 is well on it's way to 10m.

Splatoon is selling well all over the place.

This "Splatoon is only popular in Japan" is a delusion perpetuated by fervent detractors trying to cope with it's success.

Do not fall for it.

NintendoMariah · Sep 5, 2018

JustJavi said:
Me too :-)

me three :)

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
No it didn't

SSB N64, Melee and BRawl all outsold it

It only Outsold Smash 4 if you don't combine the WiiU and 3DS releases (talking about the first Splatoon here, Splatoon 2 is propelled by the Switch hardware itself to heights not foreseen, we shall see if Smash will get the same treatment (and I have the feeling it definitely will))

Famitsu numbers :

Code:

[WIU]    Splatoon    156.610  /  1.679.880

Code:

[N64] Super Smash Bros.            183.097 / 1.632.046
[NGC] Super Smash Bros. Melee      357.101 / 1.349.418
[WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U  244.747 / 789.947

Fularu · Sep 5, 2018

Lelouch0612 said:

Famitsu numbers :

Code:

[WIU]    Splatoon    156.610  /  1.679.880

Code:

[N64] Super Smash Bros.            183.097 / 1.632.046
[NGC] Super Smash Bros. Melee      357.101 / 1.349.418
[WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U  244.747 / 789.947

Click to shrink...

Mhh the database I was checking has 1.9 million for Smash N64 and 1.7 for Melee

srtrestre · Sep 5, 2018

Sounds like a good fact

To point out during

A

Direct

Lelouch0612 · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
Mhh the database I was checking has 1.9 million for Smash N64 and 1.7 for Melee

I used the game data library, it is really good :

https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/game-search

Nocturnal · Sep 5, 2018

Famitsu Top 10 2018:
1. [PS4] Monster Hunter World - 1.944.083
2. [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 869.832
3. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 634.758
4. [NSW] Kirby Star Allies - 591.721
5. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey - 463.948
6. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 377.736
7. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon - 323.104
8. [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces - 315.320
9. [NSW] Minecraft - 238.634
10. [NSW] Mario + Rabbids - 200.131

NSW - 8
PS4 - 1
3DS - 1

Zedark · Sep 5, 2018

Fularu said:
Bigger than Splatoon

Not in Japan of isn't (unless you use franchise totals instead of sales potential on Switch, which would be unfair imo). Splatoon 2 should sell comfortably more than 5M. I don't see Smash doing that tbh.

SMD · Sep 5, 2018

Dekuman said:
I'm one of those old guard Nintendo gamers who don't get Splatoon. From what I can see, Splatoon's fanbase are in their teens/20s, so kids who grew up on Wii/DS and GameCube. Different generation.

I don't begrudge it at all, bigger tent is always good. And there's no evidence Nintendo's focus on splatoon is affecting anything. The game's lead designer is among the crop of young developers at Nintendo. Aonuma, or Koizumi isn't being asked to contribute and Miyamoto is virtually retired from game development at this point.

I'm in my 30s and grew up on the Master System, NES and PC. I can't stand CoD, not a big fan of Destiny and Halo and I love Splatoon.

Zedark · Sep 5, 2018

kickz said:
Awesome job, at this rate they will surpass PS4 in their first 2 years lol

But 4 out of those 5 titles are from 2017, 2018 has been very lack luster

By thr end of the year 2 more titles from 2018 will take their place in the million seller category, it's just that 2018 is more unbalanced than 2017 imo.

Evergarden · Sep 5, 2018

Splatoon is an absolute monster and bigger than Smash in Japan. I'm very glad that Switch sales are going pretty well and I expect great things from it in 2019.

Nocturnal · Sep 5, 2018

Zedark said:
By thr end of the year 2 more titles from 2018 will take their place in the million seller category, it's just that 2018 is more unbalanced than 2017 imo.

Smash, Pokemon Lets Go, Yo-Kai Watch 4, Minecraft?

Zedark · Sep 5, 2018

Nocturnal said:
Smash, Pokemon Lets Go, Yo-Kai Watch 4, Minecraft?

Hmm, Minecraft's a good question: maybe it counts if we only take its physical sales? Yokai Watch is a good contender, too, although it might depend on how late in the year it releases.

Deleted member 4021 · Sep 5, 2018

Zedark said:
Hmm, Minecraft's a good question: maybe it counts if we only take its physical sales? Yokai Watch is a good contender, too, although it might depend on how late in the year it releases.

Minecraft Bedrock Edition is technically a different game from Minecraft Switch Edition even if you count digital sales.

jariw · Sep 5, 2018

Nemesis162 said:
Total sales of Switch hardware in Japan have surpassed five million units as of September 2 with a total of 5,007,368 units sold since its March 3, 2017 launch, according to Famitsu sales data.

The platform's top five selling games in Japan (also as of September 2) are as follows:

Splatoon 2 (07/21/17, Nintendo) – 2,621,928 units sold

Super Mario Odyssey (10/27/17, Nintendo) – 1,788,228 units sold

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (04/28/17, Nintendo) – 1,738,502 units sold

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 1,065,780 units sold

Kirby: Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 591,721 units sold

https://gematsu.com/2018/09/switch-sales-top-five-million-in-japan#t1kdQeiacZG7iwWt.99

So in Japan, Splatoon 2 will probably sell more units by the end of this year than the lifetime sales of Wii U HW units?

Mr Swine · Sep 5, 2018

CaviarMeths said:
3DS was the fastest to 5m in Japan with 52 weeks. Switch is tied with PS2 with 79 weeks each.

To be fair, 3DS sold that much thanks to the price drop to ¥15000 from ¥25000 it got when it didn't perform all that well.

Switch is even more impressive since it's more expensive than 3DS and has a healthier user base

Switch sales top five million in Japan

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