Famitsu sales: Week 50, 2021 - (6th Dec - 12th Dec)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

RolStoppable said:

Endymion said:

It definitely started with PS3 (or post PS2).

PSP + PS3 combined have sold less software than PS2 in Japan.

People tend to look at PSP hardware sales without being aware that it sold less software than PS3 in Japan.

PSV is just the lowest point reached until now by the PlayStation brand in Japan, which is a hard proof that's patently stupid to put on every responsibility to the form factor without looking at the software side.

In general it's a rookie mistake to only analyze only the hardware sales when guaging the trends in a market.

PS1/PS2 were the dominant force in Japan because they had about 60% of the total software sales.

Nintendo comeback in Japan began for real when DS alone accounted for over 54% of the software sales in 2006 (and Nintendo platforms overal over 62%).

It's not a coincidence that since 2006, every year the Nintendo ecosystem has sold more software than the PlayStation ecosystem, bar one exception.

Finally the true leader in Japan that emerged with renewed strength since the mid 2000s is Nintendo because their first-party software gained more popularity while third-party software largely declined.

If the Sony decline is about software, then it started with the PS2 as the PS1 sold ~240m units and the PS2 only ~220m. That's followed up by the PS3 and PSP combining for ~160m. These are the tallies that VGC has put together for these platforms.

PS4 and PSV totals are incomplete on VGC because software tracking stopped altogether before these platforms reached the end of their lifecycles, but they combine for a notably lower total than the PS3 and PSP anyway. I'll just throw out ~100m for the sake of having a number.

This generation Sony should be happy if the PS5 reaches ~50m. That would be the third 50m+ decline in software sales in a row, in a history of perpetual decline in software sold for the PS business.

Instead of calling this the "Sony decline", it might be more accurate to call it the "PS1 fad".  After all Nintendo systems have been the most popular in Japan going back to the Famicom and Super Famicom.  Then the "PS1 fad" hit, which was Sony's peak, and since then Nintendo has been reclaiming it's dominance.

However, with the Switch, Nintendo is now doing better than it has ever done before.  I don't think there is another week in Famitsu's history where Nintendo systems had 99% of the hardware and every title in the top 30.  Not even the Famicom was that dominant.  The "Sony fad" is being completely overshadowed by Nintendo's unprecedented success.