Japanese Charts: Splatoon 3 Physical Sales Splatter All Over The Competition

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, this week’s Japanese charts from Famitsu will be pretty predictable. Splatoon 3 has inked all over the charts, and — in the week of 5th to 11th September — the third squid-based shooter has sold just under a staggering 2 million copies.

These are only physical copies, of course. We say ‘only’ with a mountain of salt and irony, of course, because in just three days, Splatoon 3 smashed Japanese launch sales records, selling nearly 3.5 million (digitally and physically). 1,934,680 boxed retail copies sold is unprecedented.

So, what’s the next best-selling game of the week? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That game might be five years old, but 12,605 copies next to 1.9 million looks pretty tiny. And Mario Kart 8’s (and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s) lifetime physical sales sit at nearly 5 million in Japan. Splatoon 3’s sales will dip after this week, but it’ll be interesting to see if it keeps consistent sales numbers for the rest of the year.

In brief, the Switch has once again dominated the charts, taking up nine of the top ten spots. Earth Defense Force 6 is the only PlayStation 4 game, and joining Splatoon 3 as this week’s other new entry is MAGES.’ action game Alice Gear Aigis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix.

Here are this week’s charts in full:

1. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 1,934,680 (New)
2. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 12,605 (4,827,754)
3. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 9,331 (2,786,049)
4. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo, 04/29/22) – 9,071 (724,712)
5. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, 10/18/19) – 7,900 (3,271,715)
6. [PS4] Earth Defense Force 6 (D3 Publisher, 08/26/22) – 7,806 (91,183)
7. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo, 03/25/22) – 7,115 (883,907)
8. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 5,866 (4,971,812)
9. [NSW] Alice Gear Aigis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix (MAGES., 09/08/22) – 5,538 (New)
10. [NSW] Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak Set (Capcom, 06/30/22) – 4,927 (265,714)

As you’d expect from Splatoon 3’s dominance, the Switch takes up the top three spots on the hardware sales charts, with the OLED more than doubling last week’s sales numbers, selling nearly 150,000 units. That Splatoon 3 OLED has probably been helping a bunch, and it will probably continue to do so, as it’s pretty darn nice. As a result, the PlayStation 5’s impressive last few weeks have ended, but both the disc and Digital units sit comfortably under the Switch.

1. Switch OLED Model – 148,377 (2,525,961)
2. Switch – 27,859 (18,666,760)
3. Switch Lite – 6,640 (4,886,242)
4. PlayStation 5 – 2,227 (1,649,691)
5. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 637 (264,810)
6. Xbox Series S – 284 (165,246)
7. Xbox Series X – 175 (158,925)
8. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 74 (1,188,680)
9. PlayStation 4 – 11 (7,819,860)

< Last week’s charts

As always, let us know what you think of the latest Japanese charts in the comments!

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