The last of us

Sony clearly doesn't need Japan to make the PlayStation 4 a success, but the company would surely rather have its home nation on board. While the system is now close to surpassing one million units in the region, it's limped to that milestone. The firm will be pinning all of its hopes on Dragon Quest Heroes, Yakuza Zero, and Bloodborne to turn its fortunes around – especially after a dismal 2014.

Indeed, new data coming out of the country paints a damning picture of PlayStation's presence in the region, with not one PS4, PS3, or Vita title breaking the nation's best sellers list. Instead, the likes of Yokai Watch and Pokémon utterly dominated the competition, with all of the most popular software from the previous year launching exclusively on Nintendo hardware. To be fair, the Vita was the second most popular system, but its respectable 1.1 million units fell significantly short of the 3DS' staggering 3.1 million units.

Famitsu's bar chart shows how sales have declined since 2007

While those numbers may appear big, though, this was actually the worst year for the Japanese gaming industry in 24 years – which is when the Super Famicom first released. The industry as a whole brought in ¥369 billion ($3.1 billion), which is almost half of 2007's impressive ¥688 billion ($5.7 billion). Unfortunately, the sector has been in steady decline for several years now, as the market transitions to mobile games, where companies like GREE currently rule the roost. Dark times, readers – dark times.

Japan's Best Selling Software in 2014

1. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke <RPG> (Level 5) {2014.07.10} (¥4.937) - 3,050,178
2. [3DS] Pokémon OR / AS <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2014.11.21} (¥4.937) - 2,464,850
3. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate # <ACT> (Capcom) {2014.10.11} (¥6.264) - 2,381,177
4. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for 3DS <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.09.13} (¥5.616) - 2,066,022
5. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 2: Shin Uchi <RPG> (Level 5) {2014.12.13} (¥4.968) - 2,007,327
6. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch <RPG> (Level 5) {2013.07.11} (¥4.800) - 994,346 / 1,280,799
7. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 # <RCE> (Nintendo) {2014.05.29} (¥6.156) - 842,053
8. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters 2 <RPG> (Square Enix) {2014.02.06} (¥5.490) - 748,139
9. [3DS] Kirby Triple Deluxe <ACT> (Nintendo) {2014.01.11} (¥4.800) - 687,957
10. [WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U # <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.12.06} (¥7.776) - 478,366

Japan's Best Selling Hardware in 2014

1. 3DS - 3,153,045 / 17,847,056
2. PSV - 1,147,936 / 3,423,075
3. PS4 - 925,570
4. WiiU - 604,856 / 2,123,283
5. PS3 - 450,034 / 10,018,534
6. XBO - 45,958

[source famitsu.com, via neogaf.com, eurogamer.net]