Xenoblade Chronicles X Sold Through 72% Of Its Shipment At Launch

On April 29th, Nintendo released Xenoblade Chronicles X in Japan, and the Wii U RPG sold 85,586 copies in its first week. Japanese sales tracker Media Create reports that the game sold through 72.01% of its shipment.

In comparison, 2010’s Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii sold 82,952 copies in its first week, with a sell-through of 76.29%. Over time, Xenoblade went on to sell 197,000 copies through word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, that word-of-mouth doesn’t seem to have helped Xenoblade Chronicles X, and we suspect this may be in part due to the low Wii U userbase, which is just above 2.3 million units in Japan.

The other major release on April 29th was Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition. This game sold 179,926 copies in its first week and Media Create says it sold through 45.77% of its shipment. That is a somewhat slow start.

In comparison, the previous Puzzle & Dragons title on 3DS, Puzzle & Dragons Z, sold 543,630 copies in its first week, with a sell-through of 97.02%. While it’s difficult to directly compare the two due to the difference in release timing, retailers have indicated that both titles primarily appeal to young 3DS users, so there is potential for Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition to sell more units to the same audience that bought Z.

Of course, the caveat here is that the overall Puzzle & Dragons audience consists of fairly casual players.

Considering the fact that Puzzle & Dragons Z and the regular free-to-play version of Puzzle & Dragons on smartphones already exist, it’s entirely possible that folks just aren’t up for a third Puzzle & Dragons title.