Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers Not Flying Off Store Shelves

We reported that Final Fantasy Gaiden: 4 Warriors of Light had seemingly exceeded sales expectations in Japan, having racked up around 150,000 units so far. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, which sold about 26,000 units in its first day on shelves, according to Japanese retail blog Sinobi.

26,000 is 34% of the game’s first shipment, which comes to below 75,000 units. It seems Square Enix and/or retailers aren’t expecting much from the game, which, in all fairness, is a western-focused installment in a typically Japanese-centric franchise. Here are first-day numbers for other recent Crystal Chronicles games:

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates (DS): 123,000
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time (DS): 62,000
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time (Wii): 14,000

Comparing Crystal Bearers to the DS games isn’t quite fair though. Those probably sold more units by virtue of having a multiplayer focus and requiring multiple copies, whereas Crystal Bearers is a singleplayer experience in a sub-franchise known for multiplayer games. With the odds against it, it isn’t surprising the game received a fairly low shipment. As one would suspect, Square probably expect the majority of the game’s sales to come from the West.