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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Zelda isn't big in Japan. Or is it?

I would say it's popular in Japan, just not huge like it is in the west.



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Fire Emblem gets more releases in Japan. It isn't more popular there though. The sales in NA are much better than Japan.



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Zelda isn't really that big at all here.



I think few recent years isn't big in Japan.



It used to be slightly big in Japan, but in recent years that hasn't been the case!



                
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Ka-pi96 said:
baloofarsan said:

USA has 2.5 times as big population as Japan (North America is 2.8 as big) If you factor this in you will see that there is not that big of a difference in the relative sales. For some reasons Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Link's Awakening and The Minish Cap sold considerabley less in Japan than NA when sales are adjusted for population.

Yeah but even so usually Japanese games sell better in Japan than the US so it is a bit of an oddity.

Besides if you are going to factor in population then Europe with like 2 times the population of the US looks really bad for videogame sales.

Yes, Europe is really bad: costs for localization, sales organisation for every country and low sales figures. Europeans should be happy for the support we get.

Nintendo games that sell well in Japan are: Pokémon, SMB, Animal Crossing. Outside of Nintendo the best sellers are FF, MH & DQ.

The JRPGs we want to associate with Japan do not sell that well (even when adjusted for population): 

Tales of..., Phantasy Star and Kingdom Hearts sell much better than Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey or Atelier Meruru.



I think it's more that the home console Zelda games have lost significant popularity there in the last decade, which can be said about nearly any home console title. Japan has shifted way towards portable gaming now. And as we can see with MM3D, a portable Zelda can still do very well there.



Zelda is not big in Japan like in the West.



Short Version:

Zelda in Japan is an upper-middle sized series for Nintendo, comparable to Kirby and Donkey Kong. However, it is simply overshadowed by its success in the west, where it is simply a tier higher on the totem pole.

 

Long Version:

Just over a year ago, I put together a bunch of sales data over the prior 13 years of Nintendo software to see what series were biggest in which of the three major regions. Numbers have changed since then, but not enough to invalidate some of the old data.

 

Summary:

  • Nintendo's games for Gen 6 hardware onwards, including both consoles and handhelds, have sold roughly 44% of their copies in North America, 25% in Europe, 25% in Japan, and 6% elsewhere.
  • Certain series are big hits in all three regions. These are the Wii Sports, 2D Mario, and Pokemon games you'd expect. Likewise, series like Rhythm Heaven and Art Academy are not huge franchises anywhere.
  • However, some series are more or less popular in certain regions even when accounting for their share of Nintendo's sales.
  • North America buys 44% of Nintendo's sold games. However, they have bought over 65% of Metroid games this century. They have also bought over 54% of Zelda, Super Smash Bros, Star Fox, and Mario RPG titles. On the flip side, Nintendo has shown disinterest in games that are fairly popular in Japan and Europe in comparison. These include some of the "Touch Generations" series like Art Academy, Brain Age, and Big Brain Academy, as well as Animal Crossing and Nintendogs.
  • Europe buys 25% of Nintendo's games. Their favorites included some of the DS-era casual games North America shunned (the trio mentioned above each sold over 40% of copies in Europe), Wii-brand games like Wii Sports, and Mario Kart. Europe is less interested in a lot of the more "traditional" Nintendo series, like Kirby, Super Smash Bros, Mario Party, and Pikmin.
  • Japan also accounts for about 25% of sales. Japan-heavy games, with 40% or more of sales in that country, include Kirby, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, and Rhythm Heaven. Pokemon main series games are borderline, being huge in the West as opposed to HUGE in Japan. On the other hand, a lot of console-based series, like Wii Sports, Metroid, Endless Ocean, and 3D Super Mario titles, sell 6% to 16% of their copies in Japan. Zelda is toward the upper end of that spectrum, but considering the sheer popularity of the series in America and moderate success in Europe, it is clear where Zelda's base of fans is.


Love and tolerate.

Salnax said:

Short Version:

Zelda in Japan is an upper-middle sized series for Nintendo, comparable to Kirby and Donkey Kong. However, it is simply overshadowed by its success in the west, where it is simply a tier higher on the totem pole.

 

-snip-

I agree with everything you wrote.

I of course only mean "big" as a relative term. Many people consider franchises like Persona to be absolutely huge in Japan, but in reality, Zelda typically sells more, or at least on par. Like I suspected, it seems as if people only have this notion based on the fact that Zelda is huge in the west, so in comparison, the sales in Japan seem insignificant. 



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