Today is Wednesday, and Media Create released its sales charts for the week between January 22nd and January 28th, 2018, depicting the situation of the Japanese video games market. This time around we get to see the results of a very relevant test, as we're looking at the debut of Monster Hunter World.
You can check out the software sales chart below.
- Monster Hunter World - PS4 - 1,245,169/New
- Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle – Switch – 26,088/92,780
- Splatoon 2 – Switch – 25,776/1,971,810
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Switch – 21, 834/1,286,634
- Super Mario Odyssey – Switch – 16,664/1,571,976
- Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon – 3DS – 12, 702/1,528,001
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Switch – 10,240/834,968
- Dissidia Final Fantasy NT – PS4 – 7,999/134,100
- Yo-kai Watch Busters 2: Sword/Magnum – 3DS – 7,755/490, 853
- The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia - PS4 - 6,961/New
- Mario Party: The Top 100 – 3DS – 6,535/142,308
- Gintama Rumble – PS4 – 5,800/44,243
- Pokkén Tournament DX – Switch – 4,765/214,730
- ARMS – Switch – 4,399/356,031
- 1-2-Switch – Switch – 4,375/386,695
- Call of Duty: WWII – PS4 – 4, 203/379,286
- Gintama Rumble – PS Vita – 3,790/27,207
- FIFA 18 - PS4 - 3,720/78,169
- Earth Defense Force 5 – PS4 – 3,292/221,894
- Monster Hunter XX Nintendo Switch Ver. - Switch - 3,162/207,939
Here is the chart related to hardware.
- PS4 - 110,023
- Switch - 47,107
- PS4 Pro - 30,122
- New 2DS XL - 6,842
- PS Vita - 3,744
- New 3DS XL - 3,377
- Xbox One X - 1,618
- 2DS - 1,094
- Xbox One - 68
The result of Monster Hunter World is definitely interesting, as (at least for now) it proves that the Monster Hunter franchise will sell like hot ramen bowls in the winter in Japan regardless of whether it's on portable or home consoles. Its debut numbers are in the same order of magnitude as the latest releases on 3DS, despite the much smaller comparative installed base of the PS4.
For the sake of comparison, Monster Hunter 4 debuted on 3DS in 2013 with 1,715,060 units sold in its first week, but the 3DS had over twelve million consoles sold by then.
It's also worth mentioning that now the Japanese market sees a much stronger penetration of digital sales, especially on PS4, and Media Create tracks only retail. It's quite probable that the actual gap is much smaller.
Of course, the game boosted PS4 unit sales as well, with Sony's console placing firmly at the top of the pack for the third week in a row. Considering the 140,145 sold last week, the PS4 family of consoles is now sitting at 6,220,546 units sold as of January 28th.
Incidentally, Monster Hunter World is now the best-selling PS4 game in Japan at debut, beating Dragon Quest XI, which sold 1,148,888 units in its first week. It's a PS4 exclusive in the country, while it released for Xbox One as well in the rest of the world (where it sold five million copies during its first three days on the shelves).
It'll now have to stand the test of longevity, as Monster Hunter games tend to have a long tail in Japan. Ironically, Switch users found some small measure of comfort in Monster Hunter XX, that resurfaced at the bottom of the chart after a long absence.
There wasn't much else in terms of new releases this week in Japan, as basically every publisher stepped aside to make room for the hundred-ton Nergigante. The only game which was left on the field was Bandai Namco's The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia. It definitely paid the price for the affront with an abysmal debut under 7,000 copies sold, which is really poor for a game derived from a popular anime and manga series.
For the sake of comparison, you can check out the charts related to the week before.