It's been a fairly big week for new PS5 games, but they've struggled to have any kind of meaningful impact on the latest Japanese sales charts. Although as always, we should stress that these rankings don't take digital sales into account.
The headliner here has to be Assassin's Creed Shadows, which shifted a meagre 17,700 copies on Sony's system. While Ubisoft's series has never been a heavy hitter in Japan, many expected this latest instalment to have a bit more weight, given that it's set in the country's feudal 16th century.
You may remember that Ghost of Tsushima ended up being a blockbuster in Japan for Sony and Sucker Punch — but it doesn't look like Shadows is going to enjoy anything close to that level of success. A shame, perhaps, given that Japanese reviews have been positive.
Elsewhere, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls barely registered at just 6,000 copies. We would assume that the stylish fighter has sold better here in the west, but that's still a really low total for what was once an incredibly popular manga and anime franchise.
But hey, at least Atelier Yumia has done pretty well for itself. Koei Tecmo's new RPG actually managed to sell best on PS5, beating out the Nintendo Switch version by 1,000 copies or so. It's all about the small victories!
Hardware Sales
- Switch OLED Model – 18,808 (8,889,054)
- PlayStation 5 – 9,558 (5,616,308)
- Switch Lite – 7,433 (6,496,781)
- Switch – 4,263 (20,078,991)
- PlayStation 5 Pro – 3,510 (185,728)
- PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 2,144 (960,016)
- Xbox Series S – 182 (333,515)
- Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 51 (20,043)
- Xbox Series X – 19 (319,620)
- PlayStation 4 – 18 (7,929,354)
Software Sales
- [NSW] Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (Nintendo, 03/20/25) – 74,689 (New)
- [PS5] Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land (Koei Tecmo, 03/21/25) – 27,810 (New)
- [NSW] Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land (Koei Tecmo, 03/21/25) – 26,315 (New)
- [PS5] Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom, 02/28/25) – 20,621 (763,490)
- [PS5] Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft, 03/20/25) – 17,701 (New)
- [NSW] Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo, 10/17/24) – 9,214 (1,237,762)
- [PS4] Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land (Koei Tecmo, 03/21/25) – 6,949 (New)
- [PS5] Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (Bandai Namco, 03/21/25) – 6,079 (New)
- [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 5,876 (3,838,839)
- [NSW] Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo, 01/16/25) – 5,803 (237,853)
[source famitsu.com, via gematsu.com]
Comments 41
Not surprised AC Shadows isn’t doing too great in Japan with all the controversy surrounding it.
There is a lot of fake news and twisted numbers about Creed right now. Having whatever million players is not sales. That number includes all the free keys and giveaways they have been doing in record numbers (I got two actually one with a CPU and another in a email from them) . It includes people on Steam that refunded it. It includes the people paying $17.99 for Ubisoft plus. It a few weeks we will see how it really did. And my money is still on huge layoffs for Ubisoft. Such a shame. My desk is covered with Assassins Creed collector edition figurines.
Here we go again...
KonstantTrouble wrote:
Assassin's Creed: Shadows could be a massive success and this might still happen. Ubisoft is in big trouble and one big game succeeding or not isn't going to change that. Though if it had flopped it would hasten it. It certainly hasn't flopped, but we don't yet know whether it's a big success either, but almost all early numbers from various sources are strong.
A couple years from now, people will be making some pretty long essays about how hard Bleach managed to fumble it's comeback.
I'm very glad my copy of Yumia arrived early. It's so delightful.
Not doing well in Japan ?
Quelle surprise !
@KonstantTrouble Shadows has had the second biggest launch in series history in terms of sales revenue (only behind Valhalla). That's all Ubisoft will care about given its financial situation.
Just remains to be seen whether Shadows' success is actually enough to pull the company from the brink (or at least set it back on the right track).
Seems the positive reviews didn’t really matter in Japan. 😬
@themightyant yes it's a good solid game, every bit as good as any other title in the new open world AC era.
It hasn't flopped like Veilguard, but there is certainly a chance that it underperformed and brought in far less revenue than it's quality deserved (ie similar revenue to prior titles), due to a bunch of very silly online hysteria from gamers.
That said, Ubisoft PR didn't read the room and should have used a different strategy from the start, as the hysteria was predictable and avoidable.
I wanna see how it does if the Switch 2 rumour about it it's true.
It made a great first impression, but I'm liking Shadows less as I get further in and the repetition starts to grate. Just more tasks for cookie cutter characters I won't remember an hour from now. Oh, for an Ass Creed that rolls credits under 20 hours again.
@Jireland92 Pretty sure it's much less about the controversy and much more about Japan generally not giving a s*** about Ubisoft.
Without digital sales these software sales dont paint the full picture.Physical media is a dying medium in all forms of entertainment, why dont these charts reflect that.
@KonstantTrouble I swear, like, 95% of people — regardless of if they're attacking or defending the game — understand the difference between 'players' and 'sales.'
While it's still fair to call out Ubisoft for being coy about actual sales numbers (though it's not like general audiences care, nor that they're ethically obliged to share them), I wouldn't really call them "twisted numbers" when they are exactly what they said they were and most people reading these stories understand the asterisk.
@Cornpop76 Absolutely there is a chance, but it came out 7 days ago
AC games typically have a very long tail, including later price cuts, DLC and other methods to keep the sales going for a long time. The fact it's outsold every AC except Valhalla in it's first week - and that was a PS5 launch title AND during Covid - suggests Shadows is on a pretty strong path, it would take a massive collapse to change that.
Other stats that have come out are:
All that points in one direction. Whether it's enough to save Ubisoft, who knows, but that's a completely different argument.
What is frustrating is seeing people dead set on seeing it fail, disregarding any data we do have, any concentrating on things like Veilguard having 1.5 players vs 2 million. The KEY difference, and why they are either being dense or disingenuous, is that it took Veilguard 3 months to hit that, it took Shadows just 2 days.
@Jrs1 Japan is still primarily a physical market in all media.
@RoomWithaMoose eh, bit of column a bit of column b
It’s very suspicious that Ubisoft are apparently sharing info (with insiders) not through official channels about how much revenue they are making. All the while the share price keeps falling! Large investors know the real story because they will have access to much more info.
They are all just still playing monster hunter is all
@Boxmonkey Sorry this is all wrong. Most shareholders do not have access to more data, this is why they have to wait for shareholder reports or shareholder meetings to ask questions like "how many actual sales did AC: Shadows have".
Additionally most of the data we have isn't directly from Ubisoft leaks it's from Industry analysts like Chris Dring or Circana that have access to industry sales data and announce the weekly sales charts.
And the share price isn't falling right now it's virtually the same today (€12.92) as when it launched a week ago (€13.09) and up 20% since a low of €10.85 a month and a half ago, it's currently trending upwards.
Where are you getting your info from?
@Jireland92 Eh, maybe. Also came out at the same time as Xenoblade and Yumia, and about a month after Monster Hunter.
It does seem like past entries have done better in their first week in Japan. But they also didn't have such steep Japanese competition at release.
@themightyant I don't know what people think it means to be a shareholder. I have Nintendo shares; they didn't call me up to tell me how Xenoblade is selling.
17k sales, but how many players?
The PS4 was one unit short of selling as many as the Xbox Series X.
@themightyant those are interesting stats.
Do you have a source for them? I’m interested to see the Monster Hunter Wilds ratio. Is that more popular on PC for example?
Do you know where I can find this info?
It's crazy how Switch is still the best selling console.
I also wonder how much total lifetime sales/revenue will pick up in a month or so after the game gets its 1st 'sale'.
Ubisoft are so notorious for putting their games on 'sale' very, very early, it is almost comical by this point, and must have an effect on buying patterns.
The whole 'wait for sale' argument takes on a different meaning for Ubisoft games.
NB i am saying nothing negative about the game, which seems really good - Ubisoft seem to do this no matter how successful a game is.
@Kienda No problem, I got you covered with receipts.
That MH:Wilds stat was from industry analyst Chris Dring, who announces the weekly sales directly from global GfK data. See here.
I don't have any data on if Monster Hunter Wilds is more popular on PC, but i'd assume so considering it's Steam max. concurrent players number. (Which is a pretty useless metric in most cases)
Biggest Ubi release on PSN store and PC split was from VGC. See here. It's worth noting there are many other metrics doing the rounds that suggest it's sold very well so far, but it's only been a week...
Damn only 6K copies of Bleach in its own home country.
That’s depressingly low for the development team
@Rich33 Yes Ubisoft always put their games on sale quite quickly, but it's usually a data driven tiered approach based on sales trajectories. I'd argue that, contrary to popular wisdom, this is actually smart business and in the past has led to a lot of sales and revenue for them.
The reason for this is basic psychology. Every player has a different "buy in" price. For some they just want it day 1 and will pay whatever, some will even spend £100 on the premium editions. Others don't like the game enough to pay £70 or refuse to spend £70 on a title, but they might pay £50; or for another person that might be £30; or £20.
Ubisoft knows that they aren't going to sell the game for £70 to more than X million people, but the might sell another Y million for $50, and another Z million for £30. Not to mention a group that will pay £50 in a year for the game and DLC or a bundle with another Ubi game. Any sale is better than no sale, it all adds up, and lower prices are often offset by sheer volume of sales.
You say you will wait, but in reality were you ever going to pony up £70 day 1? My money is on you buying in at the price you want to buy in at, feeling you got yourself a good deal. And that's what's most clever about it. We feel we won, that we played the system, when we were (very lightly) manipulated. Win:Win.
CDPR does similar it's why Witcher 3 is often on sale for £4.99 or £8.99 with all DLC, and part of the reason why they have sold 50+ million units.
@Lowdefal Japan is still primarily a physical market in all media.
Not from what I read, maybe on Switch, but the Mobile market and PC gaming market is exploding in Japan and PC’s and phones have no physical media. PC gaming is on fire at the moment world wide only further driving digital sales.
@themightyant I don't understand why these people are dead set on Shadows and Ubisoft failing.
If I look at my SSD, it's full of Ubisoft games. Mostly AC but Far Cry games as well.
They aren't exceptional, but they are good wholesome games that I always seem to pump a lot of time into. By the limited metric of cost per hour played, they are the best games I own.
Ubisoft have also been supportive of new hardware and new ideas. Thinking of their attempt at exploiting the Wii U's controller in ZombiU, as well as the excellent Quest VR game.
I really hope some of the early data is right and it did well. I had thought that given the nature of AC (the safe bet that anyone can buy someone for Xmas) that missing that holiday period would hurt it.
You are right about the tail though.
*Note to Ubisoft.
The Japanese don't like their cultural heritage messed about with.
Hm...
PS5 sales was on number 2 position.
It can be better on next week.
@HonestHick Not exactly comparing like for like is it. A digital only platform and a platform that is mostly digital only (pretty much aside from boxed eroge visual novels) versus Switch, PS5, CD and DVD/BD which all have strong physical markets in Japan.
I would have thought it went without saying that I was talking about where both are available rather than only one.
@RoomWithaMoose you mean you don’t get a call from Miyamoto every month to tell you how Nintendo games have sold… must just be me 😂
@themightyant
A lot of excellent points.
If we just take price into account, and no other conditions - eg In this case I am just waiting for them to sort the 30fps issue before I buy, as much less than locked 60fps is no go for me.
I will say again, as my original post, aside from this issue I have nothing against this game, and hate the reaction I have read to it, and what I have described as 'dog piling' in at least 1 previous comment.
I do buy a fair amount of games day 1, but there are others that I wait until a sale brings them to a price I have pre determined is acceptable for me - it may be that its a good game, worth it to most, but not a game I would personally get enough game time / replayability out of for example.
As you say, a 'buy in' price, and my buying behaviour is exactly as you say.
I will also add to your argument that its better to have a sale early rather than too late - more than once I have been in a position where a game I wanted to play has gone on sale (at the price I wanted) a fair time after launch, but I am now playing another game I wanted more / have a full schedule of games I want to play more coming up. I only have a finite time for games, so that game I waited for a sale for gets skipped.
However, in Ubisofts case, because of their history of putting games on sale really early after launch - even if I would normally have been perfectly willing to pay full price, I just couldnt justify to myself to pay that.
It really would be a case of - I want that game - but it will be on sale in a month or so - I just cant justify not waiting.
Maybe Im just odd - a distinct possibility lol, but Ubisofts behaviour with sales has changed my buying behaviour for their games. I hope I have explained that well.
If I include a counter example - Sony (historically) rarely puts a game on sale until a long time after launch, so even if it is the sort of game I would normally wait for a minor sale for, I would be MUCH more inclined to pay full price at launch.
Even with its Japanese setting, I don't really see why anyone would've expected it to do well in Japan. Sure, there was a chance it could catch on over there, but it's not exactly the type of game that generally does well in Japan.
Despite what some might want to claim, that isn't any sort of indictment of the quality or overall commercial success of the game. It's just a Western game failing to capture the Japanese audience, like so many before it. No more, no less.
@Rich33 I can understand Ubisoft's practices changing SOME individuals buying habits (I'm like you) but if everyone was doing what you are doing, or the vast majority, they simply would keep doing this. It's a very data led approach, based on how a game is selling and trying to keep it at a steady rate, as sales dip they will drop the price in a sale, then put it back up.
@Stevemalkpus And the Switch has sold 21million more systems than the PS4 and PS5 combined.
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