This Week In Sales: Hatsune Miku Returns In Project Mirai 2

Period: The week of November 25th – December 1st (2013)

Top-seller: Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 – 88,708

Nintendo 3DS sales: 25,964 | Total sales: 9,021,936

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 82,409 | Total sales: 4,898,856

PlayStation Vita sales: 20,202 | Total sales: 2,091,881

Vita TV sales: 5,391 | 55,431

Wii U sales: 28,518 | Total sales: 1,219,474

<< Last week’s software sales chart

Last week, Sega released rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 in Japan. Project Mirai, unlike its more well known counterpart, Project Diva, uses super-deformed versions of the fictional Vocaloid characters, based on figurines called Nendoroids.

In its first week on store shelves, Project Mirai 2 sold 88,708 copies. In comparison, the original Project Mirai, released in 2012, sold 86,676 copies at launch, so both games’ launch figures are near identical.

Personally, I expected to see Project Mirai 2 sell a little more at launch for a variety of reasons, and while it’s too early to say why the game hasn’t seen a significant increase in sales from its predecessor, one theory is that the audience for these games is waiting for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd instead, which is slated for release next year. Hopefully, we’ll receive more data on this front soon.

Meanwhile, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII sold 60,000 copies in its second week on store shelves, while Super Mario 3D World sold another 40,000 copies. Wii U sales for the week saw an increase despite no new releases, which could indicate that the holiday effect is starting to work its magic on the Japanese market. The rest of this month should be extremely interesting for sales observers as the holiday season kicks in.

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.