Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Dominate 2021’s Final Japanese Sales Charts

Famitsu has released video game physical software and hardware sales data from Japan for the final two-week period of 2021, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have once again topped the charts, as they have done for a number of weeks running at this point. Over the course of the two weeks ending January 2, the remakes collectively sold over 231,000 units.

Of course, the Holiday season also saw other games enjoying boosted sales as well. Every game in the top 10 was a Switch release, which has been the case a few times now, and the likes of Mario Party Superstars at No. 2 (selling over 206,000 units) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at No. 3 (over 104,000 units sold) in particular sold quite well.

On the hardware front, the Nintendo Switch dominated proceedings. Collectively, all models of the Switch sold just shy of 400,000 units over the course of the two tracked weeks, with the Switch OLED model selling over 190,000 units, the base model selling over 116,000 units, and the Switch Lite selling over 86,000 units. The PS5, too, enjoyed stronger sales than usual, selling over 72,000 units.

You can check out the full software charts for the two weeks from December 20 and January 2 below.

Software sales (followed by lifetime sales):

1. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl – 231,275 (2,393,972)
2. [NSW] Mario Party Superstars – 206,145 (725,701)
3. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 104,540 (4,323,883)
4. [NSW] Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain – 89,970 (191,786)
5. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 83,491 (4,662,764)
6. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! – 78,350 (2,542,546)
7. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 78,311 (7,116,432)
8. [NSW] Minecraft – 74,644 (2,440,427)
9. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure – 46,111 (3,016,499)
10. [NSW] Pokemon Sword and Shield – 35,411 (4,277,522)

Hardware sales:

• Nintendo Switch – 396,980
• PS5 – 72,064
• Xbox Series X/S – 2,159
• PS4 – 68