Nintendo has now trumped Sony for 20 years in Japan
Switch comfortably took the majority of Japan’s best-selling games in 2024
Nintendo has now dominated Japanese game sales for 20 consecutive years, the latest sales data has revealed.
On Monday, Famitsu published its final weekly software chart for 2024. Although the publication has yet to collate an annual chart, Game Data Library’s archive confirms that at least 13 of the 15 best-selling console games last year were Nintendo Switch titles.
Only one non-Nintendo title made the top ten last year: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PS5, which charted tenth. The other PS5 title in the top 15 is Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake at 14th.
That means Nintendo has now dominated the physical software charts in Japan every year since 2005. In 2004, eight out of the top 10 best-selling games were PS2 titles, but Nintendo has taken the majority of Japan’s top ten sellers every year since.
Based on Famitsu’s weekly hardware sales for 2024, Switch was also comfortably the year’s best-selling hardware platform, with PS5 outselling Switch (all versions combined) during only three weeks of the year.
That means Nintendo has had the best-selling game hardware in Japan in all but one year (when PSP was the leading platform) for the past two decades, across Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Switch.
Despite approaching eight years since it launched, analysis of Nintendo’s financial data and weekly Famitsu sales shows that Switch sold just over 3 million units in Japan last year. That compares to over 4 million in 2023, and nearly 5 million in 2022.
Nintendo’s closest competitor in Japan, PlayStation 5, sold around 1.4 million units in 2024, based on Famitsu’s weekly sales data. That’s significantly lower than the 2.6 million units PS5 sold in 2023, when availability of consoles was boosted following Covid-related supply issues. Sony also raised the price of PS5 in Japan by 20% last year.
At over 35 million sales total, Nintendo Switch is Japan’s best-selling game console to date, beating Nintendo DS’s 33 million.
Japan’s Top 15 Selling Games 2024
(Source: Game Data Library & Famitsu)
- Super Mario Party Jamboree! (Switch)- 954,261
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) – 930,505
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – (Switch) 536,019
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) – 419,854
- Momotaro Dentetsu World (Switch) – 411,406
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – (Switch) 377,781
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch) – 372,903
- Minecraft (Switch) – 368,364
- Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2024-2025 (Switch) – 341,908
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) – 339,168
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) – 283,744
- Nintendo Switch Sports (Switch) – 267,937
- Pokémon Scarlet / Violet (Switch) – 244,663
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (PS5) – 230,581
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) – 222,524
