Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 and Danganronpa V3 Lead Japanese Sales

The end of the holiday season has lead to the first week of new game releases in Japan, with new entries of Kingdom Hearts and Danganronpa claiming the two top spots on the list of best selling games. In the hardware chart, PlayStation 4 takes the first place in a list marked by a general decline by at least half the sales from last week for all consoles.

Outside of the top positions, the remaining titles in the software list dropped an average of 60% with two honorable exceptions: Yokai Watch 3: Sukiyaki for Nintendo 3DS barely reduced its sales 2%, and Grand Theft Auto V for PlayStation 4 actually increased its numbers a 6%.

On the hardware list, Nintendo 3Ds sold 34,546 units, down more than half from last week’s number, PlayStation Vita had 13,816 sales, while Wii U sold 1,169 units.

It’s also interesting to see that PlayStation 4 is the only console that improved its sales compared to the same week of last year. Sony’s home console moved almost double the units it did a year ago, while Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita reduced their sales a few thousands. Wii U’s numbers showcase the collapse of the console during 2016, dropping from 15,398 sold last year to barely selling more than a thousand units this week.

The arrival of Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue signals the last release of original story content before Square Enix launches the third main entry in the franchise. The game compiles a new chapter called 0.2: Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, and the remastered versions of Dream Drop Distance, originally released for Nintendo 3DS, and the cutscenes of the mobile title Kingdom Hearts X. The 137,797 sales for this release are higher than what the previous HD compilations sold in PS3 (128,414  for I.5 and 84,935 for II.5), so it seems like the series is building some interest towards the release of Kingdom Hearts III.

The other main game launch of this week is Danganronpa V3, the third main entry in the popular visual-novel series that makes the jump to PlayStation 4 for the first time. Thanks to this double PSV-PS4 release, V3 achieves the biggest launch for the franchise, with a combined amount of 116,172. This is a solid improvement over the numbers of Ultra Despair Girls (70,596) and 1-2 Reloaded (76,172) for PS Vita, and Danganronpa 2 (69,000) for PSP.

Software list:

01. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue – 137.797 / NEW
02. [PSV] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – 76.166 / NEW
03.  [PS4] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – 40.006 / NEW
04. [3DS] Pokemon Sun / Moon – 31.656 / 3.071.241 (-65%)
05. [3DS] Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS – 23.845 / 914.683 (-76%)
06. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki – 23.192 / 608.398 (-2%)
07. [3DS] Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon!! – 16.732 / 261.089 (-65%)
08. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price Edition] – 10.066 / 245.418 (+6%)
09. [PS4] Final Fantasy XV – 10.004 / 917.772 (-57%)
10. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition – 8.890 / 1.083.384 (-72%)
11. [PS4] SG/ZH: School Girl/Zombie Hunter – 8.439 / NEW
12. [3DS] Miitopia – 7.334 / 152.172 (-69%)
13. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo – 6.410 / 107.764 (-59%)
14. [PSV] Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni – Bikini Party Edition – 5.078 / NEW
15. [PS4] Yakuza 6: The Song of Life – 5.064 / 331.388 (-63%)
16. [WIU] Minecraft: Wii U Edition – 4.940 / 275.984 (-63%)
17. [PS4] Watch Dogs 2 – 4.656 / 102.611 (-47%)
18. [PS4] Battlefield 1 – 4.647 / 249.053 (-31%)
19. [3DS] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Heroes – 3.714 / 77.274 (-73%)
20. [PS4] Resident Evil 6 – 3.272 / 28.196

Hardware list: