87% of 2020 Console Sales in Japan Were Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch dominated the Japanese console market in 2020, fighting off the formidable challenge that PS4 and Xbox One served.

Even the release of next-gen consoles did not affect the craze surrounding the Switch.

According to Famitsu, Nintendo constituted 87% of total console sales in Japan for 2020. This means that over 6.2 million units of The Switch were sold in the land of the rising sun alone.

Nintendo sold over 4 million units of the regular Switch consoles, whereas the lite version accounted for the sale of over 2 million units.

	2019	2020	Difference	YoY %
Switch	4,493,903	6,269,064	1,775,161	+40%
PS4	1,196,160	555,665	-640,495	-54%
PS5	—	265,782	265,782	—
3DS	199,688	63,715	-135,973	-68%
Series X/S	—	31,558	31,558	—
Xbox One	8,020	3,559	-4,461	-56%

The nearest thing to Nintendo was Sony, as PlayStation 4 accounted for 542k in console sales for 2020 in Japan.

Despite the economic turmoil that 2020 brought, Japan’s videogame industry bloomed. A massive total of $3.5 billion was generated by the game market, seeing a 12.5% increase in contrast to 2019.

Consoles alone brought in $1.8 billion in 2020, witnessing a year-to-year growth of 16.4%.

On the other hand, Boxed games generated $1.75 billion last year, seeing a year-to-year rise of 9%. This figure means that Nintendo accounted for 50% of the sale of boxed games in 2020.

Animal Crossing: New Horizon was the best-selling boxed game of 2020, selling over 6.4 million copies.

The second position was given to Ring Fit Adventure as 1.5 million units of the boxed game were sold. The lockdown benefited the RPG as gyms were closed, so people looked forward to games for their fitness and physical well-being.

In third place lies Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa Heisei Reiwa mo Teiban! with 1.2 million copies sold in just six weeks.

Many analysts and statisticians further believe that even with the arrival of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Switch will continue to influence the Japanese market!

About Nintendo

Founded in 1889 as a playing card manufacturing company by Fusajiro Yamauchi, Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company and video game conglomerate headquartered in Kyoto.

They have produced extremely successful consoles like the Game Boy, Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. They have also released several big-ticket titles like Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros. and many more. With multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, Nintendo was declared the wealthiest company in Japan in 2020. Nintendo is, without a doubt, one of the most influential game developers on the planet.