Why Sengoku Basara 4 Sold Far Less Than Sengoku Basara 3

Sengoku Basara 4 was released in Japan on January 23rd, and the game sold 176,313 copies, and sales tracker Media Create reports that the game saw a sell-through of 67.91%.

Additionally, as previously reported, Sengoku Basara 4 sold less copies at launch than Sengoku Basara 3 did on PlayStation 3, back when it was released in 2010. Sengoku Basara 3 on PS3 sold nearly 243,000 copies. Additionally, it sold another 50,000 copies on Wii.

So, why the lower opening sales for Sengoku Basara 4? Media Create say this is due to stagnant “non pre-order sales”. This would indicate that Sengoku Basara 4 managed to sell to fans of the series, but failed to gain traction among the broader audience.

In the case of Sengoku Basara 3, an anime adaptation of the series had helped increase its launch sales beyond those of 2006’s Sengoku Basara 2 (135,850 sold). Due to the fact that there was no such promotion prior to the release of Sengoku Basara 4, sales dropped off.