With 2019 well and truly out of the way, it’s time to look back at the best-selling games of the year in Nintendo’s home country of Japan.
The following list comes from Famitsu’s estimated sales tracking data. As you can see, Pokémon Sword and Shield romped home to victory with a whopping 2,988,134 estimated sales. The games achieved this tremendous feat despite only launching in mid-November, selling nearly three million copies in Japan in that time.
Nine of the top ten positions are actually held by Nintendo Switch titles, with Kingdom Hearts III being the sole PS4 game to make the list. The closest challenger to Pokémon was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which remains the best-selling Switch game of all time in Japan so far – if Pokémon’s recent success in Japan continues, however, we imagine that title might be lost fairly soon.
Here’s the top ten (thanks, MCV):
| Ranking | Platform | Title | Publisher | Release Date | Copies Sold/Year (Estimated) |
Cumulative Copies Sold (Estimated) |
| 1 | Switch | Pokémon Sword and Shield | The Pokémon Company | 11/15/19 | 2,988,134 | 2,988,134 |
| 2 | Switch | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Nintendo | 12/7/18 | 1,092,397 | 3,453,052 |
| 3 | PS4 | Kingdom Hearts III | Square Enix | 1/25/19 | 861,226 | 861,226 |
| 4 | Switch | Super Mario Maker 2 | Nintendo | 6/28/19 | 800,504 | 800,504 |
| 5 | Switch | New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe | Nintendo | 1/11/19 | 747,589 | 747,589 |
| 6 | Switch | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo | 4/28/17 | 628,712 | 2,659,009 |
| 7 | Switch | Minecraft | Microsoft Japan | 6/21/18 | 620,894 | 1,145,939 |
| 8 | Switch | Luigi’s Mansion 3 | Nintendo | 10/31/19 | 505,998 | 505,998 |
| 9 | Switch | Super Mario Party | Nintendo | 10/5/18 | 498,857 | 1,263,710 |
| 10 | Switch | Ring Fit Adventure | Nintendo | 10/18/19 | 495,639 | 495,639 |
The Nintendo Switch family of systems had an impressive year on the hardware side of things, too. Combined, the Switch and Switch Lite’s 2019 performances saw the system’s sales rise by 29% – a direct contrast to the PS4 family of systems’ 29% fall.
A very good year indeed, then!