The Japanese console gaming market is officially back on the upswing- after spending some years in the doldrums, owing to the Wii’s early death, the Wii U’s failure, and the PS4 not selling well until very recently, the market is now on the rise again thanks to strong Switch and PS4 sales. We’ve already reported on the Nintendo Switch’s strong start in the region, but how is Sony’s console doing?
Very well, it turns out. This week marks the PlayStation 4 hitting 4.5 million units in sales in Japan- launch aligned, it is doing far better than the PS3. With Japanese support for the PS4 showing no signs of relenting, this can only bode good things for the system’s future in the region. Conversely, fans of Japanese games can be assured that their PS4s will be supported with games for a very long time to come.
The one black mark in this good news is the performance of the PS4 Pro- the console has simply failed to move the needle in Japan, and its sales are only 200,000- less than 5% of total PS4 sales in the country. While Sony never intended it to be a volume mover, I am sure they wanted it to do better than it is doing right now.
Ah well- even while the Pro flounders, the standard PS4 and Nintendo Switch continue to do well. It’s good times all around for the Japanese gaming industry.