PlayStation 5 tops Japanese monthly charts for the first time

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The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in its home market of Japan last month – the first time Sony's current console has outsold the previously dominating Nintendo Switch in that market.

Famitsu, translated by Google and spotted by VGC, released sales data for Japanese games retail from January 30 to February 26, which showed the PS5 sold 367,000 units throughout the four-week period.

By comparison, the Switch – which has been the top-selling device in Japan every month for the past few years – sold 221,000 units in February, encompassing the standard, Lite and OLED models.

Nintendo, however, sold the most games during the course of the month at 510,000 boxed units, outranking Square Enix's 162,000 and Warner Bros Games' 127,000.

Nearly 40% of Nintendo's boxed game sales came from Kirby: Return To Dream Land DX, which launched in February. That game was the biggest selling title of the month at 189,031 units.

The PlayStation 5 version of Hogwarts Legacy came in second at 126,086 units, following by Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which sold a combined 107,506 units.

Octopath Traveler 2 was the third biggest new release of the month and fifth biggest seller at 53,995 units.

Regarding physical game units sold during the period, Nintendo had the lion's share at 34.5%. Square Enix was second as it commanded 11% of copies purchased, while WB Games' was third, with the sales of its boxed titles making up 8.6% of the market.

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