Did Inazuma Eleven Go Miss A Goal?

Inazuma Eleven has consistently been one of Level 5’s strongest-selling brands in Japan. What started out as a cult hit with the original Inazuma Eleven skyrocketed into a healthy and popular videogame series by the time Level 5 got around to creating Inazuma Eleven 3.

From Inazuma Eleven 2 onward, Level 5 began releasing the numbered games in pairs, similar to the Pokémon RPGs. Inazuma Eleven 2 came in Fire and Blizzard versions, while Inazuma 3 came in Spark and Bomber variants. Later, Level 5 put out a single movie-based follow-up to Inazuma 3, titled Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge the World.

Last week, the company released Inazuma Eleven Go in Japan, which was made available in Shine and Dark variants. Surprisingly, first-week sales of this game were rather low, failing to beat all but the original Inazuma Eleven game. Here’s a comparison chart for reference, showing first-week sales of all mainline Inazuma titles to date:

While one could argue that Inazuma Eleven Go is being held back by the Nintendo 3DS’ relatively low userbase, or that it was released too close to Monster Hunter 3G (Why Level 5, why?!), the fact still remains that an anime version of Go has been airing for over half a year now, and that sales were fairly low, regardless.

That having been said, we don’t know what Level 5’s expectations for the game were. Perhaps they set their expectations low, in line with the current 3DS installed base. It should be interesting to watch Inazuma Eleven Go perform from here on out. Perhaps sales will pick up either during the Christmas holiday week, or when kids in Japan receive presents or money for New Year’s. It could very well be a game that grows alongside the 3DS.

Inazuma Eleven Go artwork sourced from Pixiv.net. Find more fantastic art here!