With June now well and truly behind us, we find ourselves in the second half of 2020. In that time, we might not have had quite as many top tier Nintendo releases as we might have expected, but the Switch continues to sell well and one title in particular has been smashing records all over the place.
Newly compiled data from Famitsu has given us a look at just how well things are going in the gaming world in Japan this year. A new report has detailed both hardware and physical software sales for the first half of 2020 (technically covering 30th December 2019 to 28th June 2020), showing us which games have been selling best and how the market has performed compared to the same period last year.
We’ll start with the games. Here’s a list of 2020’s top ten best-sellers (physical sales and download card purchases only):
01./00. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) {2020.03.20} – 5.004.720
02./00. [PS4] Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix) {2020.04.10} – 931.165
03./00. [NSW] Pokémon Sword and Shield (Pokémon Co.) {2019.11.15} – 650.859
04./00. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) {2019.10.18} – 577.875
05./05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} – 346.034
06./02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) {2018.12.07} – 284.717
07./07. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft Game Studios) {2018.06.21} – 280.662
08./00. [PS4] Resident Evil 3 (Capcom) {2020.04.03} – 263.625
09./00. [NSW] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Pokémon Co.) {2020.03.06} – 260.802
10./00. [PS4] Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Sega) {2020.01.16} – 259.580
Next up, hardware sales. As you can see, Switch is comfortably the best-selling console of the year so far in Japan, with its sales actually being significantly higher than the same period last year.
Famitsu’s report notes that the gaming market is doing particularly well this year in Japan, with both software and hardware sales being up year-on-year. Japan has actually had its best first half of a year since 2012, and this is reportedly the first time since 2006 that both hardware and software sales have risen. The table below shows the market value (millions, yen):
| First Half of 2020 | First of of 2019 | |
| Hardware Sales | 79,340 | 66,120 |
| Software Sales | 95,470 | 73,990 |
| TOTAL | 174,810 | 140,110 |
Will the Nintendo Switch continue to outperform last year’s sales as 2020 goes on? And will the likes Paper Mario: The Origami King be able to break into that top ten? Time will tell.
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2020/07/...20-so-far/