Sales of Sony PS5 in Japan Soar by 70% Thanks to Hot Selling Game Software, Final Fantasy XVI
The sales of Sony PS5 in Japan experienced a massive boost last week, with a 70% increase, reaching a four-month high. The surge in sales was primarily fueled by the popularity of the game software, Final Fantasy XVI. According to statistics released by Famitsu, a Japanese game general intelligence media, both Nintendo Switch and Sony PS5 witnessed significant growth, resulting in an overall increase in game console sales in Japan.
Last week, the combined sales of game consoles in Japan, including Switch, PS5, XSX/S, reached 200,102 units, a 37% increase from the previous week. This growth marked the first time in four weeks that the overall sales volume of game consoles in Japan showed an upward trend, hitting a new high for this year.
Sony’s PS5 series models, including the standard version equipped with a disc drive and the digital version without a disc drive, experienced a sales volume of 85,385 units in Japan last week. This marked a 67% increase from the previous week’s sales of 51,251 units and showed growth for three consecutive weeks. The sales volume hit a new high since February 20-26 when it reached 91,729 units. The standard version of PS5 saw a surge of 52% in sales, reaching 71,415 units, while the digital version surged by a remarkable 216% to 13,970 units.
The hot sales of Final Fantasy XVI greatly contributed to the increased sales of PS5 in Japan. The game sold approximately 336,000 sets (excluding the online download version) last week, making it the top-selling game software. Square Enix, the publisher of Final Fantasy XVI, revealed that the game sold over 3 million sets, including the online download version, in its first week of release.
Meanwhile, sales of the Switch series, including the regular version of Switch, Switch Lite, and the newly launched OLED version of Switch, also witnessed growth in Japan. Last week, sales of the Switch series rose by 30%, reaching 105,990 units. This marked the third time in four weeks that Switch series sales experienced growth and continued to dominate the Japanese game console market for 15 consecutive weeks. The regular version of Switch saw a 22% increase, selling 20,941 units, while the Switch Lite witnessed a 32% growth, with sales of 18,674 units. The OLED version of Switch experienced a 33% increase, with sales reaching 66,375 units.
In contrast, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S (XSX/S) faced a decline in sales in Japan. Last week, the Xbox Series X/S sold 8,727 units, a 33% drop from the previous week’s sales of 12,978 units. The XSX sales witnessed a significant decrease of 96%, reaching only 279 units, while the XSS sales increased by 30% to 8,448 units.
Sony recently announced its financial report, revealing that its annual sales target for PS5 this year is 25 million units, representing a 31% increase from the previous year. If achieved, this will set a new record for the highest annual sales of PS models.
(This article is reproduced with authorization from MoneyDJ News; source of the first image: Unsplash)