Period: The week of May 26th – June 1st (2014)
Top-seller: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) – 325,892
Nintendo 3DS sales: 4,957 | Total sales: 9,501,187
Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 18,776 | Total sales: 6,103,282
PlayStation Vita sales: 12,859 | Total sales: 2,821,901
Vita TV sales: 1,098 | 1142,75
Wii U sales: 19,312 | Total sales: 1,764,866
PlayStation 4 sales: 6,508 | 587,690
<< Last week’s software sales chart
<< How to read and understand sales
Mario Kart 8 was released in Japan on May 29th for the Wii U, and the game sold 325,892 copies. That’s a fairly decent amount, but unfortunately it’s also significantly lower than its predecessors.
Here’s how Mario Kart 8’s first week compares to the opening week sales of Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7:
Mario Kart Wii (2008) – 593,576
Mario Kart 7 (2011) – 423,619
The argument could be made that Mario Kart Wii on the Wii and Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS debuted on platforms that had sold far more many units than the Wii U has, which is why the new game’s opening sales were lower. Unfortunately, another fact that must be taken into consideration is that Mario Kart 8’s release barely helped Wii U hardware sales.
The Wii U sold just 19,312 units for the week—lower than the Nintendo 3DS during a week where the 3DS had no new games released for it. That isn’t a good sign, and it brings back some rather unfortunate memories of Super Mario 3D World, another major Wii U game that started out slow and failed to turn the system’s fortunes around.
In the coming months, Nintendo will release Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors and Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. I doubt Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors will do much to help sales in Japan, so at this point, it looks as though all hopes are riding on Smash to help pull the platform out of dire straits.
The top-20 software sales chart for last week is as follows:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Weekly Sales | Total Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| New | 01. | Mario Kart 8 | 325,892 | New | WiiU | Nintendo |
| New | 02. | Mobile Suit Gundam: Side Stories | 82,048 | New | PS3 | Bandai Namco |
| 03. | 03. | Yo-kai Watch | 36,868 | 1,020,877 | 3DS | Level 5 |
| New | 04. | Planet Destroyer Black Heart | 28,397 | New | PSV | Compile Heart |
| 01. | 05. | Pro Evolution Soccer 2014: Challenge of the Blue Samurai | 27,406 | 63,062 | PS3 | Konami |
| 05. | 06. | Pro Evolution Soccer 2014: Challenge of the Blue Samurai | 12,265 | 29,028 | 3DS | Konami |
| 02. | 07. | Infamous: Second Son | 8,622 | 43,423 | PS4 | Sony |
| 06. | 08. | Idolm@ster: One For All | 6,910 | 102,793 | PS3 | Bandai Namco |
| New | 09. | Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!!! | 6,273 | New | PS3 | Arc System Works |
| 11. | 10. | Mario Party: Island Tour | 6,064 | 383,989 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 11. | Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Twin World | 5,920 | New | PSP | Quinrose |
| New | 12. | Nobunaga’s Ambition: Creation | 5,648 | New | PSV | Tecmo Koei |
| 10. | 13. | Mario Golf: World Tour | 5,388 | 98,666 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| 07. | 14. | Moero Chronicle | 5,160 | 47,609 | PSV | Compile Heart |
| 12. | 15. | Pokémon X and Y | 4,960 | 4,073,915 | 3DS | Pokémon Co. |
| 09. | 16. | Pro Evolution Soccer 2014: Challenge of the Blue Samurai | 4,552 | 11,798 | PSP | Konami |
| 16. | 17. | Mario Kart 7 | 4,406 | 2,326,944 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| 04. | 18. | To Love-Ru Darkness: Battle Ecstasy | 3,963 | 26,289 | PSV | FuRyu |
| 08. | 19. | Amnesia World | 3,898 | 12,548 | PSP | Idea Factory |
| 15. | 20. | Kirby Triple Deluxe | 3,858 | 592,422 | 3DS | Nintendo |
Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.
Published: Jun 4, 2014 02:16 pm