Japanese Sales Chart: Dragon Quest Builders 2 Makes Its Debut

Many may be coming off of celebrating Christmas (or any other holiday this time of year), but that didn’t stop games from releasing. The week ending December 23, 2018 saw the release of a few new games in Japan, most notably Dragon Quest Builders 2. The Dragon Quest series is a well-documented phenomenon in Japan, even more than thirty years after its debut. While Dragon Quest games always do good numbers in Japan, it wasn’t enough to dethrone a trio of high-profile Nintendo Switch games from the top.

Interestingly, the PlayStation 4 version of Dragon Quest Builders 2 sold better than the Switch version, debuting at number four (it was also the only PS4 game to crack the top five). It was one of only five PS4 titles to make it on the chart, which was dominated by Nintendo. That’s also reflected in the sales charts, where the Switch was the top-selling system of the week, taking in around 278 thousand units. The PS4 was certainly no slouch, however, selling around seventy-five thousand units. And with games like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 doing very well in Japan, Sony certainly had a pretty good 2018.

Interestingly, hardware sales overall were down this week. Possibly as a result of the holiday shopping season winding down, we may see sales come up in the next week.

Here are the full Media Create Sales charts for the week of December 17-23, 2018:

Software

1. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 452,617 (2,079,769)
2. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 155,060 (742,355)
3. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!/Let’s Go, Eevee! – 144,770 (1,265,790)
4. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 110,285 (NEW)
5. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 97, 673 (NEW)
6. [NSW] Minecraft – 48,359 (479,769)
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 47,096 (1,958,270)
8. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 41,405 (2,809,117)
9. [PS4] Judgment – 37,643 (185,889)
10. [PS4] God Eater 3 – 25,039 (175,562)
11. [NSW] Kirby Star Allies – 21,643 (691,939)
12. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey – 21,384 (1,902,226)
13. [PS4] Onimusha: Warlords – 21,367 (NEW)
14. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 16,093 (1,212,043)
15. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! – 15,5580 (259, 863)
16. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion – 15,325 (79,700)
17. [NSW] Katamari Damacy Reroll – 11,665 (NEW)
18. [PS4] Super Neptunia RPG – 11,521 (NEW)
19. [NSW] Mario Tennis Aces – 10,957 (392,757)
20. [3DS] Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon

Hardware (Week Prior in Parenthesis)

1. Nintendo Switch – 278,701 (281, 213)
2. PlayStation 4 – 75,793 (81, 594)
3. Nintendo 3DS – 26, 936 (20,037)
4. PlayStation Vita – 3,939 (2,647)
5. Xbox One – 377 (1,051)

[Source: ResetEra]