This Week In Sales: Splatoon 2 Makes A Big Splash

Period: The week of July 17– July 23 (2017)

Top-seller: Splatoon 2 – 648,085 (Nintendo Switch)

Nintendo Switch sales: 98,999 (Last week – 31,906)

Nintendo 2DS sales: 2,300 (1,901)

New Nintendo 2DS LL sales: 17,717 (43,315)

New Nintendo 3DS sales: 1,020 (1,242)

New Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 13,108 (12,101)

Wii U sales: 176 (146)

PlayStation 4 sales: 23,841 (28,569)

PlayStation 4 Pro sales: 7,037 (7,649)

PlayStation 3 sales: 142 (129)

PlayStation Vita sales: 4545 (4,655)

Xbox One sales: 77 (200)

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week, Japan saw one of the biggest weeks of the year, and the biggest week for the Nintendo Switch since its launch, with the super successful debut of Splatoon 2.

Other new titles include Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy, Sumikko Gurashi: Koko, Doko Nan Desu?, Fate.Extella on Switch, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]. Japanese sales tracker Media Create shares the latest on software and hardware sales data from the week of July 17 through July 23, 2017.

#1 of the week goes to none other than Splatoon 2, which debuted at 648,085 units sold for Nintendo Switch. When the first Splatoon on Wii U released back in May 2015, it sold 144,818 copies in its opening week and made the top-20 chart its home for quite a while. The first game made an impressive debut for a new IP, and the sequel impressed even more by having the best debut of any Switch title in Japan to date.

To put things into perspective, Splatoon 2’s debut of 648,085 units is close to the combined total of Switch’s current million-seller debuts in Japan. Going by Media Create’s numbers, we haveThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (186,379 units), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (284,823 units), ARMS (100,652 units), and 1-2-Switch (79,536 units) with a combined total of 651,390 units.

Next, at #2 we have Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy with 70,867 units sold on its debut. It may not be a six-digit debuts like we’ve seen from the mainline series, but those are pretty good numbers for a spinoff title with a new protagonist.

Sumikko Gurashi: Koko, Doko Nan Desu? charted at #4 with 20,883 units sold, and Fate/Extella made a return with its Switch release debuting at 10,248 copies. French-Bread fighter Under night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] sold only 5,013 units for its debut, but it’s hard to say that it was much of a shock considering that it’s one of the more niche anime fighters even in Japan.

Cars 3: Driven to Win released on Switch to take #16 with 3,220 units sold, and GN Software’s PS Vita visual novel game World Election placed #18 with 3,017 units sold.

On the hardware front, the Nintendo Switch stood out with 98,999 units sold for Splatoon 2 release week, and that’s the highest we’ve seen the Switch sell since its launch week. Going by Media Create’s numbers, that puts the Switch at 1,195, 985 units sold in Japan to date since its March launch. The PlayStation consoles and Nintendo’s 3DS family on handhelds showed stable numbers again, including the recently released New 2DS LL.

The top-20 chart of the week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.