Japanese Game Industry Grows 12.5 Percent in 2021, Switch Controls 87 Percent of Console Sales Market

GAMEFINITY.ID, Jakarta – Video game news site Famitsu released its data on video game consoles and hardware sales for 2021 in Japan on Tuesday. According to the website, the video game industry in Japan made 367.38 billion yen (approximately 3.54 billion USD) in 2021, up 12.5 percent compared to 2021.

The hardware market sold 185.66 billion yen (about 1.79 billion USD), up 16.4 percent, and the software market sold 181.72 billion yen (about 1.75 billion USD), up 8.9 percent. This is the first time since 2021 that both sides of the market have increased.

Quoted from GwiGwi, here are the top 10 best-selling games in Japan in 2021:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (6,378,103 copies)
Ring Fit Adventure (1,591,366 copies)
Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! (1,233,023 copies)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (949,379 copies)
Pokémon Sword/Shield (892,456 copies)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (798,174 copies)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (560,122 copies)
Minecraft (556,982 copies)
Sekai no Asobi Taizen 51 (519,649 copies)
Super Mario 3D All-Stars (492,620 copies)

For your information, the sales figures above only include sales of the physical edition. Famitsu also detailed the number of consoles sold in Japan in 2021, namely:

Nintendo Switch (including Switch Lite): 5,956,943 units (for a total of 17,340,374 units)
PlayStation 4: 542,647 units (for a total of 9,290,890 units)
PlayStation 5 (including both versions): 255,150 units
Nintendo 3DS (console family): 62,761 units (total 24,558,908 units)
Xbox Series X/S: 31,424 units
Xbox One: 3,585 units (114,831 units in total)

The Nintendo Switch sold 86.9 percent of all consoles sold in Japan in 2021. The console has now topped console sales in Japan for the fourth year in a row. The Switch console also saw its best-selling year in 2021, selling 1.32 times more consoles in 2021 than in 2021.