Japanese physical sales neared $3bn in 2023 | Japan Annual Report
Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game at retail, with Switch OLED the best-selling console
Almost $3 billion was spent on boxed games and hardware in Japan last year, according to Famitsu's annual report.
The total sales of physical games products amounted to ¥403.8 billion ($2.7 billion) from December 26, 2022 to December 31, 2023 – a 7.8% increase compared to ¥384.6 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2022.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game of the year with 1.9 million boxed copies shifted since it debuted in May.
Super Mario Bros Wonder was close behind in second place with 1.5 million boxed copies sold since its release in October.
Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins With Hope saw a surge in sales in December. Since we reported Japan's best-selling boxed games of the year up until December 3 in our annual Year in Numbers report, the Konami title moved up two places ahead of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
Every game in the top ten were for Nintendo Switch, with seven published by Nintendo (Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is published by The Pokémon Company in Japan).
In terms of hardware, Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling console in Japan with the Nintendo Switch OLED model being the most popular with 2.8 million units sold.
PlayStation 5 came in second at 2.5 million units sold, followed by Xbox Series X|S at 141,712 units sold.
Below are the top ten best-selling boxed games along with their sales totals for December 26, 2022 to December 31, 2023, courtesy of Famitsu:
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,929,603
- Super Mario Bros Wonder (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,549,401
- Pikmin 4 (Switch, Nintendo) – 1,119,027
- Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (Switch, The Pokémon Company) – 907,432
- Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope (Switch, Konami) – 795,681
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, Nintendo) – 617,223
- Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Switch, Nintendo) – 514,581
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (Switch, Square Enix) – 510,477
- Splatoon 3 (Switch, Nintendo) – 503,312
- Super Mario RPG (Switch, Nintendo) – 447,687