by Colin Moriarty

Now that we're in the year 2012, we can look back with some clarity on what happened in the gaming space in 2011. Indeed, fresh on the heels of the 2011 NPD report that shed light on how gaming hardware and software sold Stateside, new details have emerged about how that same hardware and software did across the Pacific in Japan.

These sales reports from Japanese gaming website 4Gamer (as translated by Andriasang) paint an interesting picture about what's going on in the Japanese industry. Particularly interesting is how each console and handheld did on the hardware front throughout the year.

  • Microsoft Xbox 360 (Year: 115,548 | Lifetime: 1,536,045)
  • Nintendo 3DS (Year: 4,282,143 | Lifetime: 4,282,143)
  • Nintendo DS Lite (Year: 20,724 | Lifetime: 24,680,117)
  • Nintendo DSi (Year: 290,326 | Lifetime: 5,834,051)
  • Nintendo DSi LL (Year: 346,736 | Lifetime: 2,294,319)
  • Nintendo Wii (Year: 883,586 | Lifetime: 12,163,221)
  • Sony PlayStation 2 (Year: 78,015 | Lifetime: 21,774,107)
  • Sony PlayStation 3 (Year: 1,548,895 | Lifetime: 7,636,386)
  • Sony PlayStation Vita (Year: 439,986 | Lifetime: 439,986)
  • Sony PSP (Year: 2,063,609 | Lifetime: 18,553,397)
  • Sony PSP Go (Year: 15,563 | Lifetime: 175,986)

As you can see, the top performers on the hardware side were, in total units sold, Nintendo 3DS, PSP, PlayStation 3 and Wii. The worst performers were PSP Go, Nintendo DS Lite, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.

It's interesting to note that Nintendo 3DS in particular had a humongous sales spike at the end of the year. Its worst month, May, saw only 88,997 units sold, while at its height in December, 1,604,126 units sold at retail. In fact, Nintendo 3DS sold more units in December in Japan than it did in July, August, September, October and November combined.

PlayStation Vita is also holding its own. It sold 439,986 units between December 17th and December 31st in Japan, outpacing Nintendo 3DS in all months of the year that it was out with the exception of March, November and December. Still, it's being heavily outpaced overall.

On the console front, PlayStation 3 is the clear winner, outselling Xbox 360 by a ratio of over 13:1. However, that's to be expected in a region that never embraced the Xbox 360. Nintendo's Wii is still pushing units also, outselling all other hardware on the market not named PS3, PSP or Nintendo's own 3DS.

Software sales are also represented. The top 30 best-selling games in Japan in 2011 have plenty of titles that will interest western audiences. Out of the 30 games, PlayStation 3 had the most best-sellers: eight. PlayStation Portable is next up at seven. Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii has six best-sellers each, while Nintendo DS had three.

Here's how some games did on the top 30:

  • 1.) Mario Kart 7 (3DS, 1,160,169)
  • 2.) Super Mario 3D Land (3DS, 1,080,192)
  • 3.) Monster Hunter 3G (3DS, 985,498)
  • 4.) Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP, 746,203)
  • 5.) Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3, 704,236)
  • 6.) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP, 682,651)
  • 13.) TLo Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS, 483,432)
  • 14.) Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy (PSP, 465,198)
  • 19.) Pokemon White and Black (DS, 433,876)
  • 26.) Prof. Layton & the Miracle Mask (3DS, 361,503)
  • 27.) Dark Souls (PS3, 353,549)

It's worth noting that two games listed above didn't actually come out in 2011, but still charted. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on PSP sold 682,651 units in 2011, but a staggering 4,532,557 overall. Likewise, while Pokemon White and Black pushed 433,876 units in 2011, it's at lifetime Japanese sales of 5,400,613.


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