Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The PlayStation 5 console may be a hot item in much of the world, but recent data reveals that its launch in Japan has been rather unimpressive.
According to Shukan Famitsu sales data for the week of December 14-20, a total of 15,122 PS5 consoles sold in Japan. In terms of game hardware ranking, that put it far behind the 211,000 Nintendo Switch gaming system and not much higher than the PS4, which sold more than 10,000 consoles during the same week. As of December 20, fewer than 200,000 PS5 consoles had been sold in Japan.
Some analysts, notably Hideki Yasuda of the ACE Research Institute, suggested that Sony Interactive Entertainment may be increasingly disrespecting its home market in Japan and prioritizing international markets. He even goes so far as to assert that, in response to this perceived neglect, many Japanese users justifiably “feel a sense of hopelessness” about Sony’s new direction, and even that “early PS5 trends have shown that the PlayStation brand in Japan is in decisive decline.”
However, not everyone seems to agree with Yasuda’s dramatic view. Analyst Serkan Toto of Kantan Games, for example, tweeted skeptically, “The PS5 barely launched and a Japanese analyst says it is already in decline over here. Well, then.”
It is likely far too premature to declare the PS5 a failure in Japan, but it is fair to say that, unlike the response in much of the rest of the world, the initial reception in its homeland has so far been a little bit cooler.