Microsoft has traditionally struggled to sell Xbox consoles in Japan, but a new report from Weekly Famitsu magazine and spotted by VGC has revealed that the company has made some positive headway lately.
The combined sales figures for all four generations of Xbox consoles sold in Japan is now around 2.3 million units in total, the lion’s share of that number going to the Xbox 360 generation. The good news is that the Xbox Series X|S consoles have already outsold the Xbox One generation after being available for over a year after its original global release, an impressive feat thanks to factors like the continued pandemic and semiconductor shortage. Technically, this currently puts the Xbox Series X and S consoles on par with Nintendo Virtual Boy sales in Japan as well.
With over 142, 000 units sold so far, the Xbox Series X|S still has a way to go before it beat the sales figures of the original Xbox or the Xbox 360, the latter of which was boosted by exclusive games such as The Last Remnant and Blue Dragon when it was originally available.
According to Famitsu, the consoles sales for each generation are:
- Xbox — 474,992 units
- Xbox 360 — 1,616,128 units
- Xbox One — 114,831 units
- Xbox Series X|S — 142, 024 units
And the best-selling Xbox titles in Japan are:
- Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) — 271,149 units sold
- Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) — 208,521 units sold
- Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) — 204,305 units sold
- Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) — 203,740 units sold
- The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) — 154,493 units sold
Sony and Nintendo still dominate the Japanese gaming market, with the Nintendo hybrid console having sold over 20 million units in that country alone since it launched five years ago. The PS5, which has also faced stock shortage issues, has predictably done much better than the Xbox Series X|S, having sold over a million units so far.
Globally, Sony has sold 17.3 million PS5 consoles as of December 31, 2021, while Microsoft is estimated to have sold around 12 million Xbox Series X|S consoles so far.
