Despite being exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler has seen very good first week sales. In the UK, it debuted in third place and saw the highest revenue from a single platform game in that week. Meanwhile, in Japan, retailers are currently experiencing shortages for physical copies.
The situation got so bad that Square Enix took to Twitter and apologized for sold out stock at select retailers. It told fans that digital download cards were available at Lawson’s chain of stores. A rough translation of the tweet states, “We’re sorry for some out-of-stock shops on 3 consecutive holidays! You may consider download cards that are currently being sold for DL version at Lawson. #Octopath Traveler.”
The increased demand could also be due to Marine Day, a public holiday in Japan which resulted in a three day weekend. Regardless, despite actual numbers not being available (which this week’s Media Create charts should rectify soon enough), it’s good to see the game doing so well.
Octopath Traveler released on July 13th for the Nintendo Switch. It’s currently sitting at qn 84 Metascore with 35 critics in total weighing in. Though the fragmented nature of the story-telling has been criticized, the overall aesthetic, battle system and exploration have received praise.