Wii U Sales Rise 151% in Japan Thanks to Pokkén Tournament

Pokkén Tournament initially released last summer in arcades exclusively around Japan. Now with a worldwide release on the Wii U, more people can get their hands on the Pokémon and Tekken fighter crossover from Bandai Namco. Overseas Pokkén Tournament helped boost Wii U hardware sales, quickly shooting to the top of the game charts. According to Famitsu’s sales data, the Wii U moved 3,836 units in Japan last week; rising to 9,644 this week. That’s an increase of 151%, which is appropriate for a Pokémon fighting game.

Selling 72,502 copies within its first week in Japan, Pokkén Tournament helped out Wii U sales significantly, which is sitting in fourth place in hardware sales for the week. Sony’s PlayStation 4 rests in first place with 27,354 units sold this week. Thanks to exclusive games like Pokkén Tournament, Nintendo saw a nice bump in Wii U sales, even Splatoon is still splashing in tenth place in software sales for the week.

Here are the top ten selling games for the week:

1. Pokken Tournament (Pokémon) Wii U – 72,502
2. Digimon World: Next Order (Bandai Namco) Vita – 52,521
3. Tom Clancy’s The Division (Ubisoft) PS4 – 26,208
4. Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo) 3DS – 13,930
5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Nintendo) Wii U – 9,435
6. Pocket Monster Red/Green/Blue/Yellow <Download Card Version> (Nintendo) 3DS – 9,323
7. Gundam Breaker 3 (Bandai Namco) Vita – 8,596
8. Senran Kagura: Estival Versus Sakura Edition (Marvelous) PS4 – 8572
9. Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (Sony) Vita – 8,263
10. Splatoon (Nintendo) Wii U – 7,878

Nintendo still has a few exclusives headed for the Wii U later this year, with Star Fox Zero and Paper Mario: Color Splash slated for a 2016 release. Wii U sales should see an increase through out the year in Japan, and everywhere else Nintendo is selling their home console. It will be interesting to see if the Wii U will get a price drop in light of Nintendo’s new console the NX, expected to launch sometime in 2016-17. Only time will tell. For now we can enjoy the games being released on the Wii U like Pokkén Tournament.