The Xbox Series S outsold the PlayStation 5 in Japan last week, according to new sales data.
According to sales data published byFamitsu, theXboxSeries S on its own (not including Series X) sold 6,120 units, whereas the PS5 and PS5 digital edition sold a combined 2,693 units.
For comparison, last week thePlayStation 5sold 49,798 units, whereas the Xbox Series S sold 10,00, which appears to suggest that, like in many other parts of the world, the sales fluctuation is due to the availability of consoles.
Similarly, the Xbox Series X sold 3,508 units last week, compared to only 105 this week.
This milestone is notable due to the Xbox family’s famously soft sales figures across the generations in Japan.
According to a recent report, as of February,only 2.3 million Xbox consoles had been sold in Japanacross all generations since the original console came to the country 20 years ago.
The vast majority of these wereXbox 360sales, of which there were 1,616,128.
As pointed out by @GameDataLibrary, Xbox hasn’t outsoldPlayStationsince the launch of theXbox Onein 2014. Since the inception of the Xbox brand, it has outsold PlayStation fewer than ten times.
Not since the launch of the Xbox One has Xbox outsold PlayStation in Japan.It’s happened less than 10 times overall.https://t.co/YWNh5UiiLwpic.twitter.com/c882RRJ03C
While the PlayStation 5 got off to a great start in Japan, even selling1 million units faster than the massively successful PlayStation 4, inconsistency of stock and the dominance of theNintendo Switchhas seenSonyfall to a firm second place in the market.
As of the start of March, the various Xbox consoles had sold the following number of units:
In context, Xbox console sales are tiny compared to the other platforms in the Japanese market (PS5 has already sold over 1m units in the country, and Switch has cleared 20m).
However, givenXbox’s historically poor market performance in Japan, Series X|S are off to a more positive start in a country where Xbox has typically struggled.
Microsofthas made renewed efforts in Japan with its most recent console launch. Xbox Series X and S launched day-and-date with other territories last November (compared to a year later with its previous console) and Xbox bossPhil Spencerhas saidit intends to better cater to Japanese playersthis console generation.
Since XBS launch less than 10 titles have boxed copies in JP. Even multiplatform games like RE8 and Elden Ring do not have boxed JP versions. With the lack of retail presence it makes sense for MS to shift focus to digital and Game Pass in JP. They now need more JP games!pic.twitter.com/aFdZoF6xFT
Further reading
In the months after it launched Xbox Game Pass for both console andPCin Japan in April 2020,Xbox saw more player activitythan in any time in its history in Japan, Spencer has previously claimed.
Following Microsoft’s acquisition ofBethesdalast year, Spencer also called the acquisition ofTango Gameworksas part of that deal“a great step”towards achieving Xbox’s ambitions in Japan.
