NintendObs Thinks: On the Switch’s hegemony that remains undiscussed.
Nintendo owns Japan. Period. It's time to seriously consider what that means.
This is something I’ve brought up earlier in the month, but that clean sweep actually lasted for two weeks and not just one until the latest numbers and the newest releases. For the week of August 2 to August 8, the entirety of Japan’s 30 top-selling titles were on Nintendo Switch alone, a first arguably for any platform ever since these numbers were publicly recorded by Famitsu. The feat continued to following week of August 9 to August 15, this time with the top 3 of these 30 all Nintendo Switch top sellers being exclusively from third-parties, dispelling if needed the myths that, one, Nintendo consoles are only for Nintendo games, and two, that third-parties cannot be successful on Nintendo’s hardware when competing with Nintendo. The sweep came to an end during the week of August 16 to August 22 with the launches of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PlayStation 5 (#5) and PlayStation 4 (#8), the only two games on Nintendo’s would-be competitor to have reached Japan’s top 30 in the span of literally three weeks.
But it doesn’t end there. Software isn’t the only place where Nintendo runs the Japanese console market since Nintendo Switch dominates when it comes to hardware too. Again according to Famitsu, per the latest numbers Nintendo Switch accounts for 16,907,165 units at home with Nintendo Switch Lite slightly over 4 million units for a current total nearing 21 million sold. Meanwhile, PlayStation 5 slowly approaches a million sold in its own country with combined numbers of 975,427 across PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. And if Nintendo Switch is to be compared with PlayStation 4 instead, Sony’s blockbuster standing at 7,803,924 units in Japan means Nintendo’s hardware is well on its way to triple that amount in the coming weeks. (Note: Xbox is virtually nonexistent in the country.)
Only a miracle would reverse that trend in favor of PlayStation, and granted, the videogame business is defined by miracles. But naturally Japan’s weekly sales show how unlikely such a scenario is to happen. The latest recorded weekly numbers show Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite combined selling 72,527 units, while the PlayStation 5 family of systems sold 12,638 bolstered by the launch of their latest high profile title. So that means Nintendo Switch, in its fifth year, currently sells in Japan at a rate more than five times faster than PlayStation 5 in its first year on the market. And if that wasn’t enough, when it comes to miracles, the odds are rather in Nintendo’s favor in the near future, since no PlayStation 5 release in the short term possesses the brand name recognition of the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild or that of Pokémon Legends Arceus.