Famitsu Sales: Week 9, 2023 (20 Feb - 26 Feb)

[Kyuu]

Zippy6 said:

Kyuu said:

What are Playstation hardware's best months in Japan since the PS3? Is it safe to say this is their best non-December? How high does this rank among all months including December?

According to the VGChartz hardware tool there are only 3 months on record for PS3/PS4 that beat this month for PS5.

PS4 Launch month in Japan, PS4 in December 2016 the year PS4 Slim and Pro launched and PS3 in December 2009 the year PS3 Slim launched.

This February beats every other month for PS3/PS4 including all other holiday months.

PS3
Launch Month = 306,609 (December 2006)
Best February = 108,253 (February 2010)
Best Non-Holiday Month = 345,136 (September 2009) (PS3 Slim Launched 3rd September 2009 in Japan)
Best Month = 622,087 (December 2009)

PS4
Launch Month = 378,509 (February 2014)
Best February (Non-Launch) = 256,864 (February 2018)
Best Non-Holiday Month = 326,318 (January 2018)
Best Month = 533,518 (December 2016)

PS5
Launch Month = 203,213 (November 2020)
Best February = 366,982 (February 2023)
Best Non-Holiday Month = 366,982 (February 2023)
Best Month = 366,982 (February 2023)

So yeah, this is the most a PlayStation console has sold in one month in Japan since December 2016.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Forgot to exclude launch but it looks like it wasn't far behind PS4's launch month! Would be nice if the baseline settles at around 40k after demand is met.

Switch 2 is around the corner though, I reckon that may deal a heavy blow on any serious PS5 progress in Japan, especially if it gets Dragon Quest 12 and the next Monster Hunter on day 1. I'm of the opinion that Sony should have prioritized Japan much earlier at the cost of slightly lower western sales, but I guess it wouldn't have made much of a difference, thanks to the pandemic slowing everything down.