PS Vita Narrowly Misses Out On #2 Spot In Japan For Sixth Week Running

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While the PlayStation 4 has continued to maintain its stranglehold on the Japanese console market retaining its number one spot in the sales charts for the sixth consecutive week, the PS Vita has dropped to third place for the week ending 12th April 2015. While this may seem to be disappointing news at first, it’s not all doom and gloom as we’ll explain in more detail…

Looking specifically at the sales figures for both the hardware and software charts, it’s clear that it’s been a quiet week at retail in Japan. Overall hardware and software sales are down on previous weeks and even the number one selling game, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin for the PS4, only managed to sell a paltry 16,047 copies despite being a new release. Compare that to previous weeks when it hasn’t been unheard of for new PS3, PS4 and PS Vita titles to sell in the region of 100,000 copies or more and you can clearly see signs that hardware sales are going to be generally disappointing. In fact, the consistently performing PS Vita version of Minecraft managed to strengthen its chart position rising to third with sales of just 13,364 copies.

On the hardware front things have been no different. With no new releases beyond Dark Souls II in the top ten, it was inevitable that no single console was to get any real sales boost from software sales and with the retail lull every system – surprisingly with the exception of the XBox One – experienced lower sales than normal. The hardware charts for the week ending 12th April are:-

  1. PS4 – 16,831
  2. New Nintendo 3DS XL – 15,748
  3. PS Vita – 15,638
  4. Wii U – 5,208
  5. New Nintendo 3DS – 4,835
  6. PS3 – 4,466
  7. Nintendo 3DS XL – 1,925
  8. Nintendo 3DS – 1,029
  9. Xbox One – 625
  10. PS Vita TV – 418

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About Simon Plumbe 1052 Articles
Husband, father and lifelong geek. Originally from the West Midlands, now spending my days in South Wales with my family and a house full of animals. Passionate about video games, especially retro gaming, the Commodore 64 and PlayStation Vita. Love pro wrestling, sci-fi and I'm an animal lover and vegetarian. Enjoyed this and my other articles? Why not buy me a coffee: http://ko-fi.com/simonplumbe

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