You will not have escaped your notice: in this part of the world, the calendar renewal makes it possible to do the accounts, and to discover that the Switch has once again dominated the year 2021.
As every year, the famous weekly Famitsu compiled the hardware and software charts of the Archipelago, just to do the accounts and award the crown for the best builder. You had probably seen it coming: this year again, Nintendo sold its Switch by the millions, and once again won the bet.
Full box (s)
The most transportable console on the market therefore climbs to first place on the hardware charts: with 5,381,073 million Switches sold (the figures including the classic, Lite and OLED versions), Nintendo remains number 1 in Japan. While the beauty will soon celebrate her fifth birthday, sales are therefore a drop of 10% compared to the record for the year 2020 and its 5.9 million.
Not surprisingly, the second and third places are occupied by Sony, since we find the PlayStation 5 and 4, with respectively 942,798 and 103,786 consoles sold. We can bet that if the shortage of semiconductors had not marked the year 2021 with its seal, the Japanese manufacturer would undoubtedly have been able to cross the symbolic mark of one million units. Sony had recently revised its targets downwards, and now hopes to distribute 14.8 million PS5s during the current fiscal year, against 16 million previously.
With 95,598 Xbox Series X and S sold in Japan, Microsoft logically inherits fourth place, and retains its place of eternal outsider with Japanese players.
10/10, thank you, you’re welcome, goodbye ladies and gentlemen
Therefore, it is not very difficult to imagine what the Top 10 of the best physical sales looks like, since the year 2021 will have also been dominated by the Nintendo console, which places as in 2020 seven of its games among the laureates:
- Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)
- Sparkling Diamond / Sparkling Pearl Pokémon (Switch)
- Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! (Switch): 1.233.023
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Switch)
- Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
- Animal Crossing New Horizons (Switch)
- Minecraft (Switch)
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch): 560.122
- Mario Party Superstars (Switch)
This is sure to put some industry analysts into perspective on the recurring imminent death of Nintendo, or the absolute need to quickly release a new model. With the repeated boxes (and records) of titles that sometimes date from 2014, we imagine that CEO Shuntaro Furukawa must face the future with a certain serenity.