Japan: Microsoft has sold just 2.3 million Xboxes in 20 years
It’s a story as old as time. The Japanese Microsoft console was launched in Japan with the very first Xbox. Like, at all. A report from the Weekly Famitsu magazine celebrating Xbox’s 20th Anniversary in Japan has helped to put this into perspective. There is not much to celebrate.
VGC reported that 2,345,975 Xboxes had been sold in Japan by 6 February 2022. This includes all versions, not just the original Xbox from 2001. It’s the Xbox 360, which was launched in 2005, that is responsible for the majority of these sales. That’s 1,616,128 more than any other console.
The Xbox One came in last with 114,831 units. Although Series X and S have sold 142,024 units so far, they are still doing well. However, they do excuse that they are not as popular and that stock issues are still a problem. The original Xbox sold 472,992 units. This is not bad compared to other Xboxes. It’s still not great.
Until you compare these numbers to Japan’s console sales, you won’t realize how low they are. Last year’s figures highlight the differences in popularity. The Nintendo Switch topped the list with 5.3 million units. The Xbox Series consoles sold 95K units. This makes them 10 times less popular than PS5. The Xbox Series consoles sold even less than the PS4, released in 2013. Yikes.
Famitsu also revealed that Dead or Alive was the top-selling Xbox game. This title sold 271,149 copies. Although it doesn’t sound like a lot, and I don’t mean that it isn’t, the exciting thing is that almost half of Japanese Xbox owners also own this game. It’s almost like the Wii Sports version of Xbox. Or something.
However, even though stock shortages don’t pose a significant problem, it is unlikely that sales will start to soar in Japan anytime soon. Despite Phil Spencer’s efforts to crack the market and do ” an even better job” there. Well, there’s more for us all.
