Japanese Sales Charts

There was a time when we used to cover the Japanese sales charts every single week here on Push Square, without fail. But as we moved into the latter stages of the PlayStation 4's life — especially once the Nintendo Switch had been released — our coverage fell off a cliff. Why? Well, just take a look at the latest charts and you'll get the idea.

As our pals over at Nintendo Life enthusiastically point out, Nintendo completely dominates the current top ten. There isn't a single non-Switch title in sight, and honestly, it doesn't come as much of a surprise anymore. The Big N has Japan on lock these days, with evergreen Switch games routinely taking spots that haven't otherwise been claimed by the latest blockbusters. Even if a PlayStation title does creep into the top ten, it's almost guaranteed that it'll be gone within a week.

To be fair, though, the Japanese charts — currently published by Famitsu — are just as flawed as the UK charts that we usually write about. They still don't provide data on digital sales, so it can be difficult to gauge just how popular a new release actually is. Don't get us wrong, Nintendo's titles would likely still be miles ahead of the competition, but there's no getting away from the fact that we're missing key information on each and every game that hits the market.

However you slice it, the bottom line here is that Japan's buying habits are wildly different to what we see in the West. The region has long leaned towards handheld and mobile gaming, but we're now at a point where traditional home consoles barely get a look in. That's why we're seeing Japanese publishers like Capcom, SEGA, and Square Enix shift their attention overseas, where home consoles are still immensely popular.

So yeah, that's why we don't cover the Japanese charts on a regular basis — they're barely relevant from a PlayStation perspective these days.

But hey, at least the PS5 is close to 1 million sales!

[source famitsu.com, via gematsu.com, nintendolife.com]