That’s according to a new report in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Xbox in Japan.
According to the report, a total of 2,345,975 Xbox consoles have been sold in Japan as of February 6, 2022.
The report also confirms that the Xbox Series X/S has already overtaken the Xbox One‘s lifetime total sales in the country.
In context, Xbox console sales are tiny compared to the other platforms in the Japanese market (PS5 has already sold over 1m units in the country, and Switch has cleared 20m).
However, given Xbox’s historically poor market performance in Japan, Series X|S are off to a more positive start in a country where Xbox has typically struggled.
The total sales for each console in Japan are:
Xbox – 472,992 Xbox 360 – 1,616,128 Xbox One – 114,831 Xbox Series X/S – 142,024
The article also reveals that the best-selling Xbox game in history in Japan is Dead or Alive 3 on the original Xbox, which sold 271,149 copies. This meant 46% of Xbox owners in Japan owned a copy of Dead or Alive 3.
The best-selling Xbox games in Japan in the last 20 years were:
1. Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) – 271,149 2. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) – 208,521 3. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) – 204,305 4. Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) – 203,740 5. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) – 154,493
Microsoft has made renewed efforts in Japan with its most recent console launch. Xbox Series X and S launched day-and-date with other territories last November (compared to a year later with its previous console) and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said it intends to better cater to Japanese players this console generation.
In the months after it launched Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC in Japan in April 2020, Xbox saw more player activity than in any time in its history in Japan, Spencer has previously claimed.
Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda last year, Spencer also called the acquisition of Tango Gameworks as part of that deal “a great step” towards achieving Xbox’s ambitions in Japan.
“I’ve talked for a long time about our desire to have more of a first-party presence in Japan,” Spencer said at the time.
“This is a great step there. Thinking about the map of where these teams are, and talking about all the games they’re working on… I can’t wait to speak to the Tango team and get to know them.”
I bet it's all the Series S. Japan hates big consoles.
Adam Phillips
shieeeeet that's alot
Carson Jones
I wouldn’t really call the series x big, just tall
Julian Powell
xbox has the hardest path in japan if they want to sell consoles, but i guess just focusing on their streaming shit really helps over there too
Noah Flores
>japan did something who fucking cares
Brody Powell
Xbox is a murrican console for murricans, it doesn't have a "hard path" it doesn't have a path at all PERIOD.
Unless they change their philosophy Xbox will keep selling like shit, nips would make a secondary PC before buying Xbox crap.
Ayden Hill
the famitsu sales of this week were around 6000 consoles and over 5000 of those were Series S but famitsu also reported that the split is around 90.000 series X, 80000 series S
Daniel Roberts
delicious tears
Landon Carter
probably all the rapist mutt soldiers stationed there buying xboxes
>Apple is a murrican phone for murricans >somehow sells like gangbusters in asian markets your logic is retarded and they're actually seeing growth in membership for their service, but not the consoles yet
David Morales
I'll just assume these were all bought by US servicemen.
Jayden Torres
>but not the consoles yet but they already outsold the bone, they are seeing an increase, still small compared to the others but it is there
Don't see DOA4 there user, I know it's a 360 game but you should have that too.
Evan Flores
We seaniggers like cheap version consoles because we know that no matter what kind of expensive $1000 super elite pro deluxe edition we bought its still gonna be obsolete 2 years later when the next gen comes out.
>still gonna be obsolete 2 years later when the next gen comes out. >current gen started in 2020 >previous gen effectively dead by end of this year console generations typically last 6 years or more. given the production issues and low sales caused by them right now, a pro console is still at least 2-3 years out.
Xavier Moore
Ashamed of the game or that it's a platinum hit? The fact you have it at all is pretty based.
Cooper Evans
Platinum hits. On another note, I look at these games and the good memories just start coming, we had it good back then
Yeah Xbox got a lot of great action games that are still platform-locked to this day. It's a fucking blessing that shit like Otogi, Gunvalkyrie and all the Itagaki fightan/action gaems work on the new box. Still sad about JSRF and Mechassault though. Personally wan't big into DOAX but I know that soundtrack is a big part of why it ain't back compat.
Isaiah Smith
> I know that soundtrack is a big part of why it ain't back compat. yep, I never thought DOA3, 4 and ultimate would be BC because of Oatmeal cookie man's obsession with Aerosmith music, i'm glad i was wrong
Daniel Jackson
>he never played king of fighters, tekken and metal slug with his favorite mexibros at the arcade feel sad for you, mexibros are based and play more games than faggoys like yourself
Jeremiah Thomas
I think it was the fact that he went with just Aerosmith for the most part, and a majority of the songs (not all, can't believe he used Dream On) aren't necessarily Aerosmith hits.
Alexander Scott
>It's a fucking blessing that shit like Otogi, Gunvalkyrie and all the Itagaki fightan/action gaems work on the new box. Still sad about JSRF and Mechassault though I totally agree that it's sick that Gunvalkyrie and Otogi got rereleased in some form. Those are games that I'd never expect to see come back at all. I just wish they could have got all the rights settled with JSRF. There's tons of other games that aren't BC that I'd love to see added but if I could pick just ONE it's JSRF hands down. I own DOA3 and 4 but admittedly haven't played them much. Which game has Dream On and where?
Easton Campbell
Mexico is white indeed. 40% of the population is white, that's bigger than in Burgerland.
Chase James
>1. Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) – 271,149 >2. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) – 208,521 >3. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) – 204,305 >4. Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) – 203,740 >5. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) – 154,493 To put this into perspective, the best selling PS5 game right now is Elden Ring at 130k
Asher Stewart
Digital really is taking over... physical bros, we are dying...it all started going downhill when games stopped having manuals
Matthew Butler
user, japan tracks ps5 digital sales too...
Nathan Cox
aren't the famitsu thread physical only? the dude making the threads said so and he wouldn't lie to us... r-right?
>if I could pick just ONE it's JSRF hands down. Me too user, me too. Thanks for answering the user I replied to. I think Dream On is kind of a weird choice but yeah, that was probably the most expensive song of the bunch for them to relicense.
Wyatt Richardson
now that you mention it, i'm not entirely sure, but i think the only company that keeps digital numbers to themselves is nintendo, at least when it comes to western sales numbers
Nolan Moore
>OG Xbox didn't even sell Half a Million >360 is the only one to sell over 1 Million. >The others didn't even sell a combined 300,000 Why haven''t they just given up?
Asher Sanders
Yeah, made by Americans.
Charles Brown
Apparently music licensing doesn't cost much if it's a legacy title as its just updating the contract. It's why Embracer got so many titles on the backwards compatibility program despite having a ton of licensed music. From what I saw from the back compat team at Microsoft, the real killer was if the record companies or bands still existed. Apparently they lost one "big" game because both the band and the label didn't exist any more so they couldn't update the contract (Supposedly that was Burnout 3) while in JSRF's case, the label was in legal hell because it was folded over a decade ago and still technically in debt.
Andrew Davis
Why give up on a market when you can just change your approach. Microsoft's new approach in Japan is hybrid gaming where you can stream your game on a phone while you are out and about, then come back home and boot it up on your console and pick up right where you left off with the stream. Considering how well it's tracking compared to previous consoles. It's a working strategy.
Josiah Young
It's not even that tall, really. Mine is sitting right next to my PS3 and PS4 and they roughly the same in height, within a half inch.
Noah Harris
360 was the last time MS went big with Japanese outreach and it shows
Jaxon Green
>Microsoft's new approach in Japan is hybrid gaming where you can stream your game on a phone while you are out and about, Massive problem here - Xcloud's library is only what is on Game Pass, and if something leaves Game Pass it leaves Xcloud too. Tons of Jap games have left Game Pass and MS doesn't really do much to replace them. There are only about 25 Jap games on Game Pass out of like 300.
Michael White
So with Geforce now, do they just keep the entire library of games supported on every single machine, or are they all pulling from some central hard-drive when it comes to loading the game, or is it something else entirely?
Chase Ward
If MS would at least give it another shot, I would get an Xbox. They more than have enough to do little projects like these that garner certain fanbases, and people like me already want an Xbox for the backwards compatibility, so more Jap support would tip the scales.
Hunter Williams
Console market in japan is way more xenophobic than phones it similar to cars they view it as some kind of national pride thing to use domestic products and shun everything else.
Levi Diaz
>If MS would at least give it another shot, I would get an Xbox >all the yakuza mainline games are on xbox >octopath is on xbox but not playstation >touhou luna nights is on xbox but still not on playstation >tons of minor inbetween jarpigs are now on xbox >the definitive console edition of kingdom hearts is xbox >bamco considers xbox lead platform for their inhouse releases >biggest marketing push in japan since the 360 i know you're probably hung up on the word "exclusive" but it's an absolute mistake to say they aren't trying to garner support from jp devs
Leo Fisher
A lot of retailers in Japan don't carry Xbox at all because of gamepass. Most small developers there and stores make their money off of physical merchandising which gamepass hurts.
Parker King
You have a point. I guess there's also Atlus giving Xbox a shot with Soul Hackers soon too, Atlus releasing an RPG on Xbox used to be unthinkable, putting aside SMT Nine. If I just had some way of knowing for sure Persona 6 would be at least multiplat, I'd go all in.
Chase Williams
it's chinese resellers buying them abroad for their internal markets
Thomas Richardson
It's mainly Series S selling though which is not being scalped. They are readily available.
Jordan Robinson
Good. Fuck them.
Bentley Howard
you do realize that because of that xbox will never receive small jap games like those from vanillaware, right
Dominic Gray
It's weird, Atlus seems to hate money as much as Sega. And then Sega put their shit on gamepass and got a shitload of money and attention. I have the feeling Sega might force Atlus to put a couple games on gamepass to see how it goes.
Jackson Baker
But are you *hardcore*, Yea Forums?
Chase Taylor
Because Japan is behind the times. It made sense back in the day when internet wasn't widespread to sell your selfmade game for $100 a piece for few days at comikets. Now some of the small devs realize it's insane to do it now and they migrate to full online, either Steam, consoles or whatever. If their game is good then it can even be picked up by some publisher (see Sakuna, literary another random comiket game made into Steam and Console game that sold fuckload). Especially now there are countless no name devs that got quite a sum by putting their games on gamepass. The only one being "hurt" is the middle man, meaning the big chain stores that buy back used games for points.
Ethan Jenkins
Does anyone have the image of Phil Spencer replying to a Japanese developer who was telling a fan that his game was denied and to ask Microsoft and Phil said Japanese games don't meet their standard of quality?
James Collins
No because it doesn't exist
Evan Edwards
In which one of your hallucinations did this happen?
Brandon Bennett
Sega has a number of PC games coming out on Game Pass and said they love the service, especially because Yakuza did huge numbers so I wouldn't be surprised if they were getting Atlus involved. A few more Japanese publishers like Namco Bandai and Spike Chunsoft have said they are really happy with Game Pass as well when it came to releasing Japanese games on it (Scarlet Nexus and DanganRonpa Anniversary edition apparently did really well on Game pass) that I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if we see a good few Japanese games in this years Xbox/Bethesda showcase in June.
Charles Fisher
>make console explicitly to rival japanese tech giant >market console as an end to japanese hegemony in video games >reflect this sentiment in the core design of the console (atomic energy) >make controller and console too big, don't take international audiences into account at all >only make western-centric action games and shooters >B-B-BUT APPLE
I'm sorry but that is, entirely fucking wrong. In fact most developers lose money by going to steam unless they are a giant like Bandai, sega or square because Steam is a system that perpetuates high sales volume in order to actually move games, and steam still takes a 30% cut many Japanese devs don't put their games on sale in the ecosystem and as a result get no sales at all. People aren't willing to buy PC games at full price unless it's heavily advertised and even then it's not going to reach the margins of physical pretty much ever there because corporate identity is huge in Japan and how long do you think it's gonna take if and only if steam does get big for store chains to tell developers they won't carry their shit at all just like they did Xbox? That is a threat most developers in Japan can't live with. Steam might be growing in Japan but it will never be one of the big boys there
Jonathan Anderson
I swear to you I'm not making it up, it was in a thread like 3 days ago and had to do with some anime mahjong game
Hudson Wood
>B-BUT THEY HATE JAPAN AND NEVER TRIED IN THEIR MARKET >xbox releases with controller s in japan >xbox gets exclusive jp titles like magatama, metal wolf chaos, double s.t.e.a.l., etc >xbox gets itagaki to make doa and ninja gaiden exclusive to xbox, doa 3 and 4 still locked to xbox
you're braindamaged if you think their aim was only the western audience
Jose Perry
i didn't say they never tried, but it's hard to market a product that's been designed from ground up as a big fuck you to your entire country
Caleb Ross
>It's mainly Series S selling though No it's not, see
