The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was the biggest selling boxed game in Japan for September, with over 200,000 copies sold.
Despite only being on sale for four days – with Famitsu’s latest charts encompassing data from August 26 to September 29 – this was more than double the number of units sold by any other game last month.
Its closest competitor was Bandai Namco’s Gundam Breaker 4 on Switch, which shifted just shy of 68,000 units and was the second best selling game of the month. When combined the PS5 and PS4 versions, Gundam Breaker 4 sold almost 130,000 units – and that’s after a full month of sales (released on August 29).
The mech game’s success lifted Bandai Namco to become the second biggest publisher in terms of revenue, only behind Nintendo. Gundam Breaker 4 has already surpassed the lifetime sales of 2018’s New Gundam Breaker, which shifted 106,000 copies, although 2016’s Gundam Breaker 3 managed 190,000 during its own launch month.
More than half of the Top 30 games – 18, to be precise – were new releases. Other notable hits included the Switch version of Cygames’ Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash at No.3 (just over 50,000 sales), Square Enix’s Visions of Mana on PS5 and PS4 (a combined 54,000 sales), and PlayStation hit Astro Bot (35,000).
Nintendo only had one other new release in the Top 30 – new Famicom Detective Club outing Emio: The Smiling Man at 31,000 copies sold – but held nine positions in the chart thanks to the ongoing success of Animal Crossing, Nintendo Switch Sports, and Mario Kart 8 – the latter of which has now sold six million copies in Japan.
Finally, there were just three new Western releases breaking into the charts, with EA Sports FC 25 on Switch and PS5 at No.27 and 28 respectively (a combined 16,500 sales), and Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws at No.29 (12,500).
The Switch OLED was once again the biggest-selling console of the month at 193,647 units – in fact, it accounted for exactly 50% of hardware sales, so one in every two devices purchased last month was a Switch OLED.
PS5 accounted for 15.6% of hardware sales at 60,427 units – down on the 86,000 it sold the previous month.
Here are Japan’s Top 10 best-selling physical games from August 29, 2024 to September 29, 2024, courtesy of Famitsu:
Ranking | Platform | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Switch | The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom | Nintendo |
2 | Switch | Gundam Breaker 4 | Bandai Namco |
3 | Switch | Umamuse: Pretty Darby – Party Dash | Cygames |
4 | PS5 | Gundam Breaker 4 | Bandai Namco |
5 | Switch | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo |
6 | PS5 | Visions of Mana | Square Enix |
7 | Switch | Nintendo Switch Sports | Nintendo |
8 | PS5 | Astro Bot | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
9 | Switch | Animal Crossing New Horizons | Nintendo |
10 | Switch | Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club | Nintendo |