The Japanese video games industry sales have gone down 8% between 2010 and 2011, the fifth year in a row it’s declined, although system sales went up 2.4% because 2011 saw the early launch of the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. That said, the 3DS is clearly the most popular game machine of the past year.
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu lines up the bestselling video games and systems of 2011 from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. What bothers me about that is that they are excluded other mobile devices (not to mention PC, Mac & Facebook), which can have massive download sales of the games that appear on them. According to my friend in Japan, the trend is that Apple iOS devices like the iPhone as well as Android mobile phones, are actually used by everybody for gaming nowadays. So it’s surprising those game download sales are excluded, since no device is game-only anymore.
Top video game system sales in 2011:
1. 3DS: 4,135,739
2. PSP: 1,960,177 (18,237,108 total)
3. PS3: 1,467,261 (7,417,148 total)
4. Wii: 937,451 (12,167,743 total)
5. DS: 711,204 (32,835,502 total)
6. PS Vita: 402,794
7. Xbox 360: 114,075 (1,520,738 total)
Top video game sales in 2011:
1. Mario Kart 7 (3DS): 1,082,391 units
2. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS): 1,042,511
3. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (3DS): 1,021,457 (4,502,446 total)
4. Monster Hunter 3G (3DS): 809,322
5. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3): 697,146
6. Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP): 696,428
7. Rhythm Heaven Forever (Wii): 633,429
8. Tales of Xillia (PS3): 632,151
9. Wii Sports Resort (Wii): 612,807 (2,732,655 total)
10. Wii Party (Wii): 584,545 (2,123,773 total)
A Nintendo 3DS Japanese Commercials Collection.