This Week In Sales: Senran Kagura 2 Makes Its Debut

Period: The week of August 4th – August 10th (2014)

Top-seller: Yo-kai Watch 2 (3DS) – 143,777

Nintendo 3DS sales: 7,873 | Total sales: 9,566,606

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 31,740 | Total sales: 6,405,073

PlayStation Vita sales: 17,084 | Total sales: 3,021,614

Vita TV sales: 1,344 | 131,961

Wii U sales: 13,598 | Total sales: 1,871,750

PlayStation 4 sales: 5,470 | 658,847

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week, Marvelous Senran Kagura 2 in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, and the game sold 46,494 copies in its first week. The game saw the lowest opening of any Senran Kagura title to date, and this could be for a variety of reasons.

First, though, let’s take a look at how the rest of the series has performed. Below are the first-week sales figures for the three previous Senran Kagura games:

Senran Kagura (3DS) – 52,206

Senran Kagura Burst (3DS) – 69,084

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (PSV) – 94,324

Not exactly a performance to write home about for Senran Kagura 2, although the circumstances surrounding this game’s release are quite different from those of Senran Kagura Burst and Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus. Both of those games were released during weeks that the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita saw their respective price cuts, which no doubt enticed quite a few new owners to pick both up.

In addition, Shinovi Versus also launched shortly after the Senran Kagura anime had begun to air in Japan and increased the series’ exposure in that territory greatly, making for the perfect time to release the game. Since the anime aired over a year ago, naturally excitement around the franchise isn’t as high as it was in early 2013.

Finally, Senran Kagura 2 is also priced higher than both previous Senran Kagura games on the 3DS. While the original Senran Kagura and Senran Kagura Burst cost 5,980 yen each, Senran Kagura 2 costs 6,480 yen, putting it in the price range of Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (6,980 yen). Coupled with the fact that the game is much more simplistic than Shinovi Versus—which is a 4-player Dynasty Warriors-esque affair with twice as many characters—this could have affected sales as well.

What Senran Kagura’s future holds remains to be seen. The next game in the series, Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, is slated for release at some point in the future. Given the “Versus” in the title, it sounds as though that game will be more along the lines of Shinovi Versus’ 4-player action, which could play a role in how much it sells. Of course, the development budget for those games is likely higher than the numbered Senran Kagura titles as well.

In other news, Yo-kai Watch 2 has crossed the 2 million mark at retail. Meanwhile, Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2 launched at 81,584 copies sold while Ultra Street Fighter IV debuted at 42,327 copies sold.

Further down the list was Nippon Ichi’s Shin Hayarigami, which sold 12,585 copies on Vita and 5,745 copies on PlayStation 3.

The top-20 software sales chart for last week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.