don't know I don't think it will ever be huge in the west until they vastly change the series. with that said I've held off getting the ps4 version because of the long announce switch version

Actually, I kind of have a feeling that Dragon Quest 11's sales are very similar to that of the original Xenoblade's in the west. For example, about 100k-200k copies were sold on Steam, and while some of that could be in non-Western countries the majority is definitely from PC gamers in the West. When you account for the fact that the game would be most popular on PS4, it probably has already sold 550k-600k in the West, which while not amazing, is a lot better than people are making it out to be. It's not like it was a flop, especially because it already has the backing of great Japanese sales, they probably have already made a hefty profit off of the localization. And this is just the sales after about 5 months.

That being said, the biggest problems are A ) Releasing the same week as Spider-Man and B ) Not being a worldwide release. I think being a worldwide release helps a title like DQ11 out quite a bit.

You bring up a good point. Considering how relatively apathetic the western markets are to JRPGs that aren't Pokemon or Final Fantasy, they generally need bigger hooks than usual to get decent numbers here. Good reputation usually does the trick, it worked with Xenoblade and with Persona 5, but if the game doesn't get enough traction in that regard, it gets quickly buried over the plethora of other games coming each year.

Jokes aside, JRPGs do very well on the Switch, and with the userbase growing (and the fact many people are waiting for this version), it could end up selling really well, probably reaching PS4 numbers in a short time.

Its sold close to 600k on the PS4 without including digital or the PC version. I think its safe to say it's sold over 1 million in the west which is good.

Another way to ask this question is, "Why is Dragon Quest 11 so popular in Japan?"  If you look at it that way, then I think the answers become more obvious:

1. Most importantly is lineage.  It's a sequel to a franchise that is already huge.  The game pretty much sells itself, because it has been one of their biggest gaming franchises since the NES days.  To Japan, Dragon Quest is at least as big as Mario.  It's kind of like asking "why does Mario sell" or "why does GTA sell?"  Once a franchise gets that popular, it will just sell.

So, that begs the question, "how did Dragon Quest get big"?

2.  The first one on NES was Japan's first real RPG with any decent quality to it.  Meanwhile in the west we had CRPG's like Ultima which were a lot more sophisticated than Dragon Quest.  Also D&D was a lot more popular in the US in the 80s, and Dragon Quest seemed more dumbed down than either Ultima or D&D.  In contrast, Final Fantasy 1, while still a niche title, was better received than DQ1 because you could make your own party of classes which were very similar to D&D classes.

3. Dragon Quest has always had it's art done by Akira Toriyama (in all or in part).  While almost no one knows that name in the West, he has always been extremely popular comic book artist in Japan.  (He, for example, created Dragonball.)  Imagine if one of the best action games on the NES was an Avengers game written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  That would have been friggin' awesome right?  Now imagine they continued to make these games every generation in the same style only bigger and better.  It would just continue to be huge forever.  Well Japan basically did get the equivalent of a high quality Lee/Kirby game and it was Dragon Quest.

4. Name recognition and continuity.  Everyone in Japan knows what Dragon Quest is.  I say this mostly, because Dragon Quest has poor name recognition and continuity in the West.  I really loved the first two "Dragon Warrior" games on the NES.  Then the next one I play is actually "Dragon Quest" 8.  I am actually a fan of the series and I had to skip 6 games.  "Dragon Warrior" 3 and 4 were NES games released after the SNES launch, so they weren't on my radar.  DQ 5 and 6 didn't even get a current gen release outside of Japan.  DQ 7 wasn't on my radar either, because I didn't realize it was the same as "Dragon Warrior".  By the time DQ 8 came out I was on the internet enough to know that this was the same series, so I played it.  Then DQ 9 was on the DS, so I skipped it.  While DS was the most popular platform in Japan, the West still prefers home consoles.  DQ 10?  It's a MMO that is available in Japan only.  DQ 11, I plan to play when it comes on the Switch.  But out of the first 10 games, I managed to only play 3, and I consider myself a fan of the series.  Really Square has almost made it as hard as possible for someone to get into this series outside of Japan.

And last, but not least

5.  Marketing.  Since Square knows that a Dragon Quest game is basically like printing money in Japan, they always market the hell out of it and the launch becomes a huge event.  Outside of Japan the game is barely marketed at all.


Put all of that together and you can see why Dragon Quest would be much, much more popular in Japan than in the West.  

Because Dragon Quest is not exciting. Dragon Quest does not stimulate the western world.

They dishonored my waifu, Martina, by changing her name to... (yuck! Can't even say it!) during localization. That is why it failed among other things.

Well, DQ8 and 9 are some of the best performing niche JRPGs in the west, Last P5 PS4 numbers were 2-2.5M WW, while DQ8 did ~1.2M in the west alone. I think the series has done okay in the west even compared to that of games like Persona, Ni No Kuni, etc.

VGChartz has Ni No Kuni II at 870K, but it has well surpassed 1M units, but that's World Wide. While, Dragon Quest XI on VGChartz, which released far later than Ni No Kuni II, has sold around 500K units World Wide. And I'm sure digital probably isn't included. In Japan, Both also released on Steam, with estimates from ~100K-200K despite being released months apart. Xenoblade is actually less popular than it is in the West, so there's 2 sides to every coin.

I think a lot of people are waiting for the Switch version and when it arrives it will be among the best JRPGS on the platform, hopefully Nintendo fans bite. A while ago, it was noted that Dragon Quest XI has the best opening in series history in the west, so they're doing something right, they just need to keep going. Perhaps Smash will be the last chance it'll get to be insanely popular, but I think what it's doing now is passable.

It had the best selling first month for a Dragon Quest game in the West. It will be the best selling game overall in the West.

What were you expecting?

What reasoning do you have that a Switch version would outsell the PS4 versions lifetime "in a short time"?