Japan Sales Charts: PS5 sales beat by Switch but hold steady

PS5 sales in Japan flatlined last week, bucking the steady decline in console purchases Sony has seen in the region over the past month or so. After shifting 65,000 systems in a seven-day span, sales are starting to settle around the 40,000 mark when both models are combined. Case in point: for the week starting March 20, 2023, 38,964 PS5 units were sold (34,154 disc versions and 4,810 digital editions).

Breaking down each platform holder’s offering into their individual models, the Nintendo Switch OLED was named the best-selling console in Japan last week, with 36,604 systems sold. Then came the PS5 (with a disc drive) after the standard Switch and Switch Lite. The PS4 sold 1,531 units, while the Xbox Series X managed 450 sales and the Xbox Series S 133.

For software, Resident Evil 4 took first and second place in its PS5 and PS4 versions, respectively. It sold a total of 175,003 physical copies in Japan during its opening week. Another new entry was Atelier Raiza 3: Alchemist of the End and The Secret Key, which made its third thanks to its Nintendo Switch version. In fact, the entire rest of the top 10 was made up of Switch titles, with the exception of the PS4 and PS5 versions of the aforementioned game coming in fifth and seventh.

The latest sales data is provided by Famitsu And below is totally viewable.

Software sales

1. [PS5] Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, 03/24/23) – 89,662
2. [PS4] Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, 03/24/23) – 85,371
3. [NSW] Atelier Ryza 3: The Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key (No Tecmo, 03/23/23) – 31,140
4. [NSW] Return to Kirby’s Dream Land Deluxe (Nintendo, 02/24/23) – 27,198 (336,143)
5. [PS4] Atelier Ryza 3: The Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key (No Tecmo, 03/23/23) – 17,240
6. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet (The Pokemon Company, 11/18/22) – 15,044 (4,959,637)
7. [PS5] Atelier Ryza 3: The Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key (No Tecmo, 03/23/23) – 14,787
8. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 12,146 (3,958,873)
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 10,781 (5,214,116)
10. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 8,317 (3,083,009)

Hardware sales

1. Replace OLED models – 36,604 (4,104,933)
2. PlayStation 5 – 34,154 (2,757,837)
3. Switch – 10,008 (19,242,001)
4. Switch Light – 7,169 (5,256,921)
5. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 4,810 (443,519)
6. PlayStation 4 – 1,531 (7,862,074)
7. Xbox Series X – 450 (183,385)
8. Xbox Series S – 133 (250,790)
9. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 84 (1,191,077)