This Week In Sales: Yakuza Kiwami Glares Down From The Top

Period: The week of January 18th – January 24th (2016)

Top-seller: Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) – 103,256

Nintendo 3DS sales: 2,813

Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 697

New Nintendo 3DS sales: 4,715

New Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 31,452

PlayStation Vita sales: 14,999

Wii U sales: 11,298

PlayStation 4 sales: 24,441

Xbox One sales: 52

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week, sales in Japan continued with the trend from the week prior of having some interesting releases that certainly mixed up the top-20 software sales from top to bottom. Media Create provides us with sales data of video game software and hardware for the week of January 18th through January 24th, 2016.

One of the key releases this week in Japan is Yakuza Kiwami from Sega, their “ultimate” remake of the very first Yakuza game on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. Both versions took the top two spots, with 103,256 units sold for PS4 and 60,427 units for PS3, combining for a total of 163,683 units across both platforms.

Here’s a look at how the previous Yakuza games have performed in sales during their debuting weeks:

• (2010) Yakuza 4 – 383,972
• (2011) Yakuza: Dead Souls – 307,019
• (2012) Yakuza 5 – 356,757
• (2014) Yakuza Restoration – 220,698
• (2015) Yakuza Zero – 236,329

As you can see, Yakuza Kiwami’s sales are much lower than they have been compared to the previous two releases, but it can be argued that Yakuza Kiwami is a remake and also the second title in less than a year for the series after Yakuza Zero’s release in March 2015. It’s also worth noting that the original game has had two HD remasters, with one on PlayStation 3 (2012) and the other on Wii U (2013).

Nonetheless, 163,683 isn’t exactly a bad number of sales, it’s actually pretty good during this time of year when sales are slow, so it comes to show that this retired Yakuza still knows how to collect money. But it’s probably a good thing that Sega will release Yakuza 6 this year, as the next title in the main-numbered series for the game is probably what fans have been waiting for in Japan.

Next on the list is Hyrule Warriors Legends at the #3 spot, which sold 54,429 units in its debut week. Hyrule Warriors for Wii U sold 60,090 copies in its first week, but the 3DS version’s total sales aren’t exactly a homerun when you look at past The Legend of Zelda games on 3DS. It’s safe to assume that it’s because it’s not a regular game from the series, and it’s also a 3DS port of a title that’s been out for over a year. It should also be noted that the game itself isn’t like the other Musou/Warriors spin-offs that are based on popular franchises with much larger fan bases in Japan.

As far as other new releases go, at #4 we have Just Cause 3 in 4th place with 33,660 units sold in its first week. Meanwhile, Capcom had a couple new releases in Japan with Resident Evil Origins Collection for PlayStation 4 in the #5 spot with 21,015 units sold, and Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 at #7 with 15,639 copies sold in its first week. And finally, 5pb. released Muv-Luv Double Pack for PS Vita, which sold 4,366 copies on its debut.

The top-20 software sales chart for last week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.