Period: The week of December 3rd – December 9th (2012)
Top-seller: Yakuza 5 – 356,757
Nintendo 3DS sales: 75,126 | Total sales: 7,318,510
Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 136,373 | Total sales: 1,480,868
PlayStation Vita sales: 11,039 | Total sales: 1,074,621
Wii U sales: 308,142 | Total sales: 308,142
<< Last week’s software sales chart
The Wii U launched in Japan this past weekend. Nintendo released their latest console on December 8th, and it sold 308,142 units at launch. Here’s how that stacks up compared to the last few major console launches in Japan, with all figures provided by sales tracker Media Create:
PlayStation 3: 81,639 (2006)
Wii: 350,258 (2006)
Nintendo 3DS: 374,764 (2011)
PlayStation Vita: 324,859 (2011)
The highest-selling Wii U game was, of course, New Super Mario Bros. U, with 163,528 copies sold. That’s a far cry from New Super Mario Bros. Wii’s debut of 934,739 copies sold. For what it’s worth, New Super Mario Bros. Wii’s launch figures accounted for four days of data, whereas U only has two days, and the game also sold to a significantly larger Wii userbase upon release.
Meanwhile, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate sold 106,388 copies, which isn’t bad considering that this is the fifth game based on Monster Hunter 3 and is virtually identical to the Nintendo 3DS version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which has been available for over a year now in Japan.
Nintendo Land, however, did not do very well. The game wasn’t bundled along with the Wii U Premium Set in Japan and sold a mere 72,121 copies. Ouch. Maybe we’ll see sales pick up over time, but that doesn’t make for a very good first impression.
The real story of Wii U’s launch will be told over the next few weeks, as we find out how it holds up over the holidays. Nintendo and third-parties have been cagey with details on major game announcements outside of the “launch window,” which extends up until March 2013, so the Wii U has a lot to prove.
The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Weekly Sales | Total Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| New | 01. | Yakuza 5 | 356,757 | New | PS3 | Sega |
| New | 02. | New Super Mario Bros. U | 163,528 | New | WiiU | Nintendo |
| New | 03. | Paper Mario: Sticker Star | 129,054 | New | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 04. | Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate | 106,388 | New | WiiU | Capcom |
| 04. | 05. | Animal Crossing: New Leaf | 89,195 | 1,301,507 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 06. | Nintendo Land | 72,121 | New | WiiU | Nintendo |
| 03. | 07. | Taiko Drum Master: Super Splendid Edition | 58,655 | 174,610 | Wii | Namco Bandai |
| 08. | 08. | New Super Mario Bros. 2 | 47,929 | 1,501,086 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| 05. | 09. | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate and the Infinite Labyrinth | 43,005 | 212,524 | 3DS | Pokémon Co. |
| 02. | 10. | Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney | 29,271 | 158,127 | 3DS | Level 5 |
| 01. | 11. | The 2nd Super Robot Taisen OG | 24,175 | 241,885 | PS3 | Namco Bandai |
| 06. | 12. | Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational | 22,645 | 161,381 | PS3 | Sony |
| 13. | 13. | Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) | 17,742 | 54,067 | 3DS | Capcom |
| 07. | 14. | Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Subtitled) | 17,237 | 250,821 | PS3 | Square Enix |
| New | 15. | ZombiU | 13,000 | New | WiiU | Ubisoft |
| 17. | 16. | Run for Money Tousouchuu | 11,512 | 263,402 | 3DS | Namco Bandai |
| 21 | 17. | Pokémon Black/White 2 | 11,498 | 2,858,740 | DS | Pokémon Co. |
| 16. | 18. | Style Savvy: Trendsetters | 11,286 | 199,291 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| 22. | 19. | Taiko Drum Master: The Little Dragon and the Mysterious Orb | 9,306 | 282,180 | 3DS | Namco Bandai |
| 26. | 20. | Mario Kart 7 | 8,611 | 1,851,264 | 3DS | Nintendo |
Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.
Published: Dec 12, 2012 12:30 pm