Supply Constrained PS5 Sold Almost 1 Million Units in Japan in 2021

Pretty sure this is due to Japan being massively handheld leaning and Sony doing an incredible job of not supporting their last portable. Then Switch is obviously a handheld if you want it to be or entirely. So there should be no surprise from anyone.

@Uncharted2007 Sony's not going to make or support a handheld console that only sells in Japan. I don't think the current situation has anything to do with the supposed failures of the Vita.

Good numbers all things considered.

But on the mobile stuff. PS4 portable please Sony, allowing access to our existing libraries in 720-1080p and PS5 games via the cloud. Output to TV too.

@ShogunRok I think there's a distrust of Sony from the handheld consumer market that lingers from how Vita was handled. There's also the fact that Sony doesn't have a handheld in the race.

Not sure why Japan is so infatuated with the Switch or any other country for that matter. To be fair, I was a day one switch owner and for the last 3ish years it has mainly just sat there. I hope it gets better but it doesn’t look that way. They just quit making games I enjoy. Even XB has done a better job lately.

@Uncharted2007 @ShogunRok Sony didn’t outsell any Nintendo handheld ever as everyone knows Nintendo has dominated that area. So it’s smart for Sony and Microsoft to leave handheld gaming alone unless done on mobile. But power aside the switch is the perfect console. With the newly rumored switch successor being a touch more powerful than a base PS4 that too will sell like hotcakes in 2023. Which is good for the industry having all 3 doing something a little different. I’m happy with how healthy the industry is right now and truly think all 3 are selling well.

When games release that actually appeal to the broader Japanese market, there'll likely be an uptick in software sales. Assuming most of those PS5s that sold in Japan weren't snapped up by re-sellers and shipped out to Western territories, of course.

@Uncharted2007 I don't think it would matter. Sony would need a new Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest every other month to compete with Switch, even on a handheld.

Handhelds alone aren't enough to conquer Japan. Nintendo's shown that you need evergreen sellers like Mario Kart, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing. It's a completely different market with a completely different perception.

It's also never going to make you as much profit as dominating Western markets, where digital sales, much larger install bases, DLC, subscriptions, and microtransactions amount to an absolute fortune. Lest we forget PSN alone made more money than the entirety of Nintendo a couple of years back.

As much as some won't want to admit it, losing out on Japan isn't a huge deal to Sony. There's much more money to be made elsewhere, and Sony's adapted its business structure to take advantage of this.

@Culjoseth 2022 is rumored to have Zelda wind waker , new 2D donkey Kong, BOTW 2, Metroid Prime 1 or maybe all 3 in a trilogy pack. New Pokémon games , Kirby , advanced wars 1+2, fire emblem and I’m missing a few more. That alone will be the last major year of switch releases before the successor. Last year Metroid Dread was my game of the year. Even tho I don’t play JRPG’s those are there. It’s a great console on the go or docked. I really love this strategy and if Nintendo makes the switch their brand going forward like PlayStation is to Sony or Xbox is to Microsoft, then switch 2, 3 & 4 will continue to sell these huge numbers. Combining their home and portable market just makes sense to them and us players. Sure I’d like to see the online catch up to live and the Older games get more selection and performance. So there’s things to improve upon. But the switch 2, 3 and 4 is really all I want to see out of Nintendo over the next 2 decades. Surely they will try and innovate out of boredom from making the same machine over and over with only power being the focus. But I can’t imagine needing or wanting more from them.

@Rural-Bandit You're welcome to be a Nintendo fan as you obviously are. Saying Sony should stay out of that market though is saying they should just not bother selling their hardware in Japan. That's how handheld centric Japan is.

@ShogunRok So you're saying Sony would need more casual oriented games to go with a handheld?

@ShogunRok I agree Sony has westernize its business a lot since the PS1-PS3 days and for that very reason you mentioned. More money and players in those regions. But Nintendo has IP’s and characters that sell millions in a few days alone and that won’t ever stop. If they could get their online and services better they could pull in even more cash. But for me the switch minus not being able to produce cutting edge specs in a small chassis and Nintendo not being one to chase power, is the perfect combo for their business and us customers. Having 1 Nintendo to do it all is so rewarding for me that I will be a switch buyer for gen’s to come if they keep this as a brand like Sony does for PlayStation and Microsoft does for Xbox. The switch 2 or even 3 will never see a dip like Wii U did to the wii. That alone should make them not try and reinvent the wheel again and stick to what is a solid business move. Here’s hoping to switch 2 , 3 and 4 .

@Uncharted2007 Sony can and will embrace mobile in Japan and with the deal signed to use Microsoft azure, I’m sure Sony will have success in Japan with that strategy. But they don’t have a animal crossing or Mario Kart to sell 40 million copies. Ghost of Tsushima is a fantastic game. It sold 8 million copies. A handheld that plays that game or even a different game using that IP won’t make them enough money to justify building a Dedicated handheld.

@Uncharted2007 I don't really know — I suppose so. Nintendo just has such a grip on the market that I'm not sure how you could break it. Games like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest obviously sell like crazy in Japan, but even then I think you'd struggle against a Nintendo handheld.

I think you'd need a handheld that's specifically built to satisfy a Japanese audience and the country's gaming trends, and again, a company like Sony is never going to think that's an idea worth pursuing at this point.

That's not to say Japan's market will never change, though. Might take a while, but maybe in a future where PlayStation is a service and not necessarily a console, it'll be able to have a bigger impact.

@Uncharted2007 oh and for the record I’m a fan of video games in general. I don’t take sides, as I own a Series X , PS5 Digital and switch Oled. I want all 3 to do well and give me experiences that justify them making them and being an important role in the industry. But these sales numbers for Nintendo just show they have their winning formula. Now just don’t mess it up. Make a n improved switch two with better joycons , more power , improved online and they have another 100 million plus sales waiting.

@ShogunRok handheld and cloud will be the big players in Japan going forward I believe. Nintendo knows this and has the handheld. Sony knows this and signed a deal with Microsoft azure
There’s plenty of money to be made there using both these strategies.

@Rural-Bandit Especially in hindsight the Switch is a genius move — even if it was a pretty obvious move for Nintendo to make. Nintendo's always made incredibly high quality games (many of which were released on home consoles that didn't do very well), and it's always made handhelds that have sold gangbusters.

A hybrid Nintendo console like the Switch combines all of the company's strengths.

The Playstation 4 outsold the next gen Xbox Series consoles? Lolololololololololololololololololololol
That's hilarious.

@Rural-Bandit People like u are why Nintendo refuses to put out high powered hardware. They’re just like Apple, barely makes any upgrade and people still flock to it. I hope I’m wrong and they put out something that is amazing but I seriously doubt it. Dread was really good and it was the only game last year worth playing from them. The games u mentioned for this year also only has one worth playing and I bet it slips into 2023. If u enjoy the crap they put out, good for u. I just don’t bow down to them anymore. I want better not just passable. They do the bare minimum.

@JAMes-BroWWWn What’s funny?

The Switch is a phenomena that many myself included never saw coming. I play tested it pre-launch and I had no reason to believe this Wii U 2 would be a success but as others have learned you should never count out Nintendo.

Ultimately I think Sony know that Japan is an increasingly difficult market for them but in other territories where Sony's western action movie type games hit home they have hold of scores of hardcore fans and so they are doubling down. It makes business sense to a degree.

And there is never any shame in coming in second to Nintendo when it is on a role. They've been in the business a long time and they know a thing or two.

@ShogunRok it really does. It’s a great move for them and again I really hope it’s their strategy going forward. Let’s their teams focus on a single Mario game and not needing to build a home version and then a portable. Tho I did like some of those games that was either just handheld or just console. A game like Metroid Fusion comes to mind. But this is just better.

@Medic_Alert I expected it'd be successful (all Nintendo handhelds are successful; it's their bread and butter), but I'm still a little shocked that the thing is on the verge of outselling the Wii and still hasn't lost sales momentum.

The crazy thing is that if it keeps selling this well through 2024, it'll be on the verge of overtaking the NDS and PS2 as well.

@Culjoseth if you think Apple does the bare minimum, you haven’t even touched or read about their M1 and M1pro chips. That smash intel and use 60 % less power doing it. Or their innovations to health on the Apple Watch that google , Fitbit and anyone else isn’t even close to. Not to mention the iPhone is so highly optimized that with 4-6 GB of ram it destroys android at twice that amount. So the Apple comment isn’t even in the ballpark. What is in the ballpark is Nintendo has pulled itself out of the power game and rightly so even tho I want power. They aren’t trying to compete with specs against the likes of Sony & Microsoft, so everyone knows that going in , plus they are in the form of a handheld so they can’t be to crazy in power due to battery life and heat. Plus meta reviews says it’s making games just fine with the hardware they have. Breathe of the wild is widely acclaimed the best video game ever. While I don’t agree 100% with that , I do think it’s a generation defining game and if you for some reason don’t like Nintendo and their games, there’s always the right to not buy them. However me buying them and playing them with huge excitement and enjoyment with my family is hardly a reason to justify i’m what’s wrong with Nintendo. Now what is wrong with Nintendo? They need to be better in the online space. Some of that is they are a very Japanese company first and don’t listen to their American employees about the importance of online. Agreed that’s a problem. What’s a problem is overcharging for N64 games that ran with some hiccups. Agreed it’s a problem and I didn’t support it. I own all 3 console and all of them have something about them that could be better. But I’m not going to not purchase them and enjoy them cause they ain’t perfect. I got a LG C1 oled , it’s about $2 grand and supports VRR and PS5 doesn’t . That’s a problem to but I live with it and it will get patched. If I were you I would take some time to read about Apple and see that google and Microsoft envy their ecosystem and copy it’s integrated software and hardware as much as they can. Not to many people argue apples success. Your in the minority there.

Sony don’t cater towards the Japanese market specifically because it isn’t worth their effort to do so.

Japan is still 80% physical sales, and they don’t play the big money making western Micro transaction games because they have their own mobile games.

Physical sales represented 5.27% of PlayStation division yearly revenue in the last financial year.

Sony wants gamers that buy Digital games, the big 10m+ first party games, subscribe to PS plus or spend big on micro transactions. Those are the money makers, and that’s not Japan on any front.

Japan might have represented something like 8% of global PS4 hardware sales but it was probably like 2-3% of total global revenue attributable to Japan.

Also people don’t understand that Japan no longer buys “Japanese games” in significant numbers. JRPGs, visual novels, anime style games now sell considerably more in the west than in Japan.

Take something like Code Vein, that game is as anime as it comes yet it sold around 150k in Japan and broke 2M worldwide. Astral chain did less than 100k yet hit 1M worldwide in like 2 months.

If you want to understand the Japanese market then I always give this example:
Momataru Dentetsu sold more copies in 3 months than Breath of the wild did in 3 years. That’s a board game style video game about riding trains around a map.

Don't forget switch is in its peak years whereas ps5 released during a pandemic with chip supply issues. I fully expect ps to gain ground if not surpass nintendo's sales in the next years especially when the switch gets old and the next nintendo comes out

@Arisen maybe, but the next switch will still sell gangbusters. That still don’t change the fact that a great game like ghost of Tsushima sold 8 million copies and Pokémon , Mario kart , Zelda sell that in its first week of launch. Animal crossing to for that matter. Nintendo has ip’s people buy and play in huge numbers ,as long as Nintendo don’t get in the way of its hardware and marketing that won’t change. All 3 are doing well and it’s great to see the industry thriving. Hope all 3 continue to sell loads of hardware and software for us all to enjoy =)

@Rural-Bandit PS4 sold 1.5 billion Software units and the Switch is around 600M.

Selling Super high levels of a smaller number of games is not better.

The switch successor is absolutely not guaranteed to be successful. Nintendo’s Hardware success fluctuates wildly from generation to generation because the more casual userbase is harder to re-engage.

I love the idea that the issue is about outselling the best... If that was the case why would Microsoft make a console. Oh wait because it still makes money. Sony could bring out a handheld and it be a success financially just not compared to the switch. If any recent news stories are to go by Sony is not in it to just make money but want quality as part of the brand. (Days gone/Gof Tsushima)

@Rural-Bandit As an Apple user I can assure u they do the bare minimum. Do I still like them over android, yes. Can I be a realist and still see that each year their phones jump just so much, yes! I bought the M1 iPad this year and it’s great doesn’t mean they left things off the table so they could release a new one with that feature next year! That’s what Apple does. THE BARE MINIMUM! Just like Nintendo. The difference is, I need the iPhone and iPad. They are the best but could be better. I don’t need Nintendo and have stopped giving them my money until they start putting out better hardware that can play 3rd party games without compromising the game. I’m sorry if you don’t see that. Good for u that the bare minimum is enough for u and ur family. U will argue that u have the other systems for 3rd party but that’s a cop out. They need a system that can keep up with current systems. Doesn’t have to be the most powerful but needs to compete. It does not!

I added 2 Switches to my household this Christmas. Granddaughter got a Switch light and I got a Switch OLED just after Christmas. Thought about Xbox but Switch won over it. Last Nintendo in our house was a Wii. I have always seen the best console it the one that best for you personally! As a single player gamer PlayStation is king in my book. Nintendo is second but still the best at simply fun joy of gaming. I feel Xbox is still looking for its path in gaming. I think its new studios will really bring them up once they get rolling with single player content.

@Culjoseth we are getting somewhere here now, Cause I agree you don’t need Nintendo or for that matter any console. You do need a iPhone and iPad. I’ll try to stick to video games but Apple for a second. Technology has advanced so fast and to the point of how much better can it get? Especially cause while tech grows , batteries don’t , meaning everything is tied to a battery that they have to optimize around. What does Apple need to do to their phones , tablets and computers to make it seem like a huge next leap forward every 12 months? Especially when they already drag their opponents in the mud in performance and battery life. Sure I want lossless audio on their airpods for Apple Music but that’s tied to Bluetooth lacking bandwidth not Apple. Sorry but while every company has to have new products and features for new devices every year, I don’t find Apple giving me the bare minimum as you like to reference. If other companies were better than Apple then yes. Back to video games, you said you stopped buying Nintendo cause their hardware compromises 3rd party software. I agree sir, but I could make the argument if hardware limiting software was that much a deal breaker, we all should be on PC cause we aren’t limited to any spec sheet other than what our wallets can throw towards it. I won’t be that guy , today anyways. For consoles again I buy Nintendo knowing what they can do and not what I want them to do. What they can do is give me games on limited specs that are normally more fun and well made gameplay wise then sheer wow factor in graphics and frame rate. Never once has my 8 year old or wife said Mario kart should be 4K 60 , but Mario kart is the only game we play as a family. That alone is worth a messy $300 for a switch. So that begs the question has Nintendo’s limited hardware specs turned off gamers that aren’t casual and kids? In your cause it certainly has and that understandable and it’s good that you vote with your wallet. However other people buying Nintendo’s games isn’t making Nintendo worse. Case in point Wii U sold like crap, did Nintendo run to power trying to lure back the hardcore player? Nope just the opposite made a slightly more powerful hybrid. My point is Nintendo don’t give a flip about no agenda other than theirs. So why should I miss out on amazing games cause I want them to be 4K 60 or even 120. Which as a handheld hybrid those specs would fry ours hands off in 10 mins or less. As a 65 inch LG C1 user, Xbox series X and PS5 user, I don’t think your comment of bare minimum being good enough for me & family holds weight. Unless you want to hold my 8 year old accountable for liking Pokémon and Mario kart more than Red Dead 2 , my personal favorite game of all time by the way. Which if not for bit miners making GPU’s impossible to find, I’d build a $3-4 thousand dollar rig to max that game out more than my Series X can. Cause not to be that guy but if spec sheets are in the way of your enjoyment that’s the way to play. Personally I prefer consoles to PC. But since me and my wife make good money I suppose I could see how much PC would open up some games. But it seems like a bad investment cause gameplay is what matters and Nintendo has most games beat with that and the real joke is on company’s like CD project releasing a boring bug fest with all that power while Nintendo runs circles around them in fun gameplay with breathe of the wild with iPhone 6 specs. Hahaha.

@Culjoseth sorry for the long reply’s. It’s hard to capture Apple and video games in the same reply without being wordy for me. Hahaha , I say we agree to leave Apple out of this until anyone can even match the iPhone 11 , iPad or Apple Watch series 4 even. That’s how far ahead of the competition they are with certain products.

@ChrisDeku PlayStation has FIFA , Madden COD and many other 3rd party games that outsell Nintendos 3rd party offerings. Take god of war , Ghosts of Tsushima and Horizon combined to equal just Mario Kart. At one point Nintendo had every game in the top 10 in sales. But I agree with you Sony sell’s more overall games, but not exclusives in house. But sales rarely ever really matter as long as the game is profitable and justify its sequel or funds a new project and all 3 console makers are doing that. PlayStation is highly successful as it takes a safe approach to each Gen. Minus a few features here and there. Nintendo sometimes tries the unthinkable and leaves us scratching our heads like what were you thinking Nintendo? I believe that might change. Switch is the best business practices for them. Make one game that works in handheld and Docked, sell one hardware instead of two , tho the switch lite kinda throws 2 in from a hardware side of things , not software and just revise it each Gen with power , updated joycons and accessories. If and it’s a big if , if Nintendo makes switch to Nintendo what PlayStation and Xbox are to Sony & Microsoft, they have a winning formula. This is what works , let’s hope they don’t try and reinvented the wheel anytime soon. I don’t think they will, follow me here and feel free to call me out if you want , but NES to super NES was just a more powerful NES with better controls, Wii to Wii U was just a more powerful Wii with different controls, so in theory cause I have no idea what Nintendo will do but switch 2 should just be a more powerful switch with better joycons. If it is , say hello to another 100 million hardware sales.

I live in Japan and in my opinion Switch just suits the Japanese market more. Most households don’t have more than one TV, an extra small portable if any. Switch is much more convenient for kids to play by themselves and on the main TV when possible. Switch is also good for daily train commutes which a lot of city dwellers make.
Then there is the love affair with Nintendo. There was a huge poll on TV recently about the greatest games of all time (Breath of the Wild is number one). It was filled with Nintendo staples, as well as JRPGs. Japanese love tradition, and these games will continue to sell well no matter what the quality was - Momotarou Dentetsu a perfect example.
Finally Switch has been marketed really well to the casual crowd.

@Rural-Bandit u make some really good points but the point u made that is completely wrong is the one about making amazing games. They use to but they haven’t made more than 1 a year for over 3 years. I’m glad u and ur fam plays a 8 (yes I said 8) year old game with enjoyment. If that’s ur bar for greatness…………👍👍👍! Nintendo has put out rerelease after rerelease and charging $50/$60 for it! As u said, good for me for voting with my wallet. Hopefully more people will follow suit so we can get great games again. Cause it’s been bleak no matter what u say! XB has been better and that’s saying something. Maybe it’s just me and the games they put out aren't for me anymore. Considering I’ve been gaming for 44 yrs and grew up a Nintendo kid, I would say their greatness has lost the shine!

I’ve been gaming for 30 years and Mario Kart 8 deluxe along with Mario kart double dash are the best two in the series for my monies worth. Plus the age of a game and the tech it was built on don’t really define the fun of the game as much as the gameplay and how does it stack up years later. There’s no kart racer out there that touches Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and with the sales it receives monthly it’s kinda in the GTA 5 boat. Hard to replace something that is printing money. Now something I think you hit the nail on the head with is why does Nintendo over charge and over port older games so much ? A few would be fine but I agree lately it’s heavy on ports. Logical reason is they had a flop with Wii U sales even tho great games were made for it. So they wanted to bring those title to the switches larger audience. I still stand by my praise for you saying no I won’t buy those, they are overpriced and maybe you already played them or never wanted to in the first place. So I would agree it’s wise of you to say no money from me Nintendo. I do that also only to a lesser extent cause I will buy a few here and there. Further more why no greatest hits and reduced pricing on games that are now 4 years old on switch? Especially on the E-Shop, come on Nintendo. As for Xbox that’s my most used console as I play 95 % of my 3rd party titles there cause the controller is my preferred pad to play on, plus Read Dead 2 plays and looks better on OneX and Series X and I’m a diehard Gears of war fan. Have over 500 hours of multiplayer time on Gears 5. I have more playtime on gears 5 then my switch collection combined. Back to Nintendo, they are the most flawed of the big 3 but they happen to drop the occasional diamond that I can’t ignore. Metroid Dread however was the only game I bought in 2021, talk about a drought. 2022 will be a big year, then dev’s will start to move development to switch 2 I guess I’ll call it. However 2022’s big year will be half ports and have new, so that’s a mixed bag for even me. But I’m all for people choosing to spend their time and money where they see fit. Thankfully with the big 3 and PC there’s plenty to keep us all happy and busy and even broke if we try hard enough. Haha

@Culjoseth Are you slow? I already wrote it!

Think it’s more that ur not funny!

@Culjoseth I didn't see him reply too you so. I think james broww was poking fun at the article comparing the ps4 to the next gen xbox (that just released).

@lolwhatno @JAMes-BroWWWn Of course PS4 outsold series S & X in Japan. That’s a given. Japan isn’t ever going to buy Xbox in big numbers. However Series consoles in 1 year sold 95 % of what Xbox One sold in Japan in 4.5 years. So that’s something to look forward to. But it’s never going to be a huge market for them. It will stay Nintendos land with Sony in second.

@Rural-Bandit Wow, thanks for sharing the numbers.
Quite an impressive feat for xbox, I don't know if it's a good thing for ps gamers or not. On one hand competition should be a good thing for consumers, but on the other hand, xbox went on a whole different (and clever) direction with gamepass. I hope that Sony doesn't follow them.

@lolwhatno Sony will be just fine with their strategy, they need services to make money from also. They might not offer day 1 releases and that fine, but I want all 3 to continue to give us choices and choices that benefit us and them so the industry grows and stay healthy for us all to enjoy this great hobby in whatever ways that best suits us.

@Rural-Bandit U know it really sounds like in the end, u kinda agreed with me on the whole thing.😂😂 Really looking forward to what Sony and XB is putting out this year. Hopefully Starfield is an epic masterpiece!

@Culjoseth oh yeah buddy, I don’t completely disagree with your points. You make good points, and I’m sure you want all 3 to do well also. Sony should be a lock for some great titles. But my personal opinion is many are sleeping on Xbox. They are going to have some bangers. They’ve Scooped up a lot of talent. Starfield should be great and not sure about your play style. But Red Fall has my attention, I love Borderlands and this is suppose to be similar with vampires. I love the studio. So my interest level is high for it. Should be a great Gen to own both or even all 3.

Redfall has piqued my interest but need to see gameplay. Elden Ring will be my devotion for awhile I believe. I think the biggest things this year will be the things we don’t know about yet. Hopefully BOTW2 comes out this year but I kinda doubt it. Unfortunately that’s the only game Nintendo has that interests me. Several from both Sony and Ms do. With Horizon and GOW🤞🏻 this year, seems hard to beat what Sony got goin on. Also, if PSVR2 comes out this year, 🤯🤯🤯! Good time to be a gamer!!!