The Division 2 might be the highest selling 2019 release for the year so far globally, but as far as Japan alone is concerned, things are quite different. As per sales data compiled by Famitsu, the highest selling game of 2019 in Japan during the year’s first half has been Kingdom Hearts 3, which has sold over 830,000 copies so far. That’s really not surprising, considering the fact that it’s a Square Enix RPG – which are almost always guaranteed to do well in Japan – not to mention the fact that the hype and anticipation surrounding the long-awaited sequel prior to its launch were through the roof. At last count, the game had also crossed 5 million units in worldwide shipments, so it tracks that it’ll be doing very well in Japan as well.
The Division 2, incidentally, comes in at 21st place, having sold over 112,000 units. What’s surprising is that it has been outsold by BioWare’s Anthem, which occupies 20th place with over 114,000 units sold. Several other major new releases for the year have also done pretty well and managed to break into the top 10. Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, arguably the best game of the year so far, is Japan’s fourth best-selling game for the year so far, having sold nearly 400,000 units (Resident Evil 2 had crossed 4.2 million units in worldwide shipments at last count). Meanwhile, FromSoftware’s incredible Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice occupies ninth place, with sales of over 260,000 units from the day of its launch till the end of June. Devil May Cry 5 and Days Gone have also sold well, occupying fourteenth and fifteenth place with sales of over 183,000 units and over 182,000 units respectively.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which launched in December of last year, has also performed very impressively, coming in at second place with nearly 780,000 units sold, and not that far behind Kingdom Hears 3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, having launched in January, follows behind in third place, with over 643,000 units sold throughout the year so far. The recently released Super Mario Maker 2, which has been topping Japanese weekly sales charts since its launch, is in at twelfth place. Unsurprisingly, various other older Switch games have also continued to exhibit long legs and become among the top performers of the year in its first half. The likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch version of Minecraft, Splatoon 2, Pokemon Let’s Go, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey have all figured in the top 30.
You can check out the full top 30 for the first half of 2019 below.
Famitsu Sales: H1-CY 2019 (2018 Dec 31 – 2019 Jun 30) [Followed by lifetime sales, including sales before 2019]
01. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III – 838,927 / NEW
02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 779,845 / 3,140,500
03. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 643,426 / NEW
04. [PS4] Resident Evil 2 – 393,688 / NEW
05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 318,492 / 2,348,789
06. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Let’s Go, Eevee! – 312,278 / 1,565,955
07. [NSW] Minecraft – 305,640 / 830,685
08. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 284,170 / 1,049,023
09. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 260,223 / NEW
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 224,791 / 3,099,211
11. [PS4] Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – 215,421 / NEW
12. [NSW] Super Mario Maker 2 – 196,153 / NEW
13. [NSW] Yo-kai Watch 4: We Are Looking Up at the Same Sky – 191,097 / NEW
14. [PS4] Devil May Cry 5 – 183,627 / NEW
15. [PS4] Days Gone – 182,787 / NEW
16. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 168,697 / 1,348,389
17. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 153,197 / NEW
18. [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission – 125,308 / NEW
19. [PS4] Jump Force – 125,057 / NEW
20. [PS4] Anthem – 114,570 / NEW
21. [PS4] Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – 112,238 / NEW
22. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 109,728 / 275,146
23. [PS4] Super Robot Wars T – 102,767 / NEW
24. [PS4] Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain – 84,397 / NEW
25. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey – 80,407 / 1,980,613
26. [NSW] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball – 75,505 / NEW
27. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! – 75,318 / 345,733
28. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 – 72,980 / 236,862
29. [PS4] One Piece: World Seeker – 70,164 / NEW
30. [NSW] Kirby Star Allies – 68,085 / 732,900
[Via ResetEra]
