Microsoft has sold just over two million consoles during its lifetime in Japan, according to a new report in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, and spotted by VGC. The original Xbox launched on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and in the twenty years since, a total of 2,345,975 units have been sold, the vast majority of which were Xbox 360s. The console breakdown is as follows:

• Xbox – 472,992
• Xbox 360 – 1,616,128
• Xbox One – 114,831
• Xbox Series X/S – 142,024

The Xbox Series X|S is off to a good start, already beating out its predecessor in just 15 months. The Series X|S is also the first Xbox console to launch in Japan at the same time as the rest of the world, and Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that he plans to improve Xbox's place in Japan this generation. Speaking to GamerTag Radio in February 2020, Spencer said "I don’t know if we’re winning in Japan any time soon, but the position that we have in Japan today from a platform isn’t acceptable to me," before getting into more specific plans for this generation. “We’re going to do a much better job with this next, upcoming launch of not waiting ten months to launch in Japan like we did last time. We’re going to make sure our services like Game Pass, xCloud and stuff are there so people will have access to it.” Game Pass was launched in Japan in April 2020, and Xbox Cloud Gaming with Game Pass Ultimate made it to Japan last September.

The report also revealed the top five best-selling games in Japan, with Dead or Alive 3 on the original Xbox topping the list with 271,149 units sold, meaning 46% of original Xbox owners in Japan bought the game.

• Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox) – 271,149
• Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) – 208,521
• Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) – 204,305
• Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) – 203,740
• The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) – 154,493

Source

 

[LoggerMan]

That is one xbox in 75% of households, if Japan's population were 3.45 million and everyone in Japan lived alone and only ever bought one xbox each.

 

[urbanman2004]

Oh my, M$... Such a sad state of affairs

 

[CeeDee]

Surprised that the X/S has already sold more there than the Xbox One had.

Switch is on the path to becoming the best most sold nintendo console ever, not sure if it will pass the DS probably not but it will beat the gb for sure making it the 3rd best selling console in the world, probably at the end of this year it will beat both gb and ps4 sales.

The Switch still has a lot of momentum, and I can't imagine a replacement is coming any time soon - maybe a 'pro' upgrade at most. At this rate, I could honestly see the Switch becoming the best-selling console, period.

 

[pedro702]

that's some immense success for sure
Do remember that the next console could just as easily become an insane flop though

nintendo wouldnt be nintendo if that wasnt a possibility xD the only company that a home console never flopped was playstation, so far every home console they made was either the most sold of the generation or in second place.

 

[64bitmodels]

Surprised that the X/S has already sold more there than the Xbox One had.

Microsoft has been more aggressive with their marketing in japan
still nothing compared to PS5 sales there but sony has the advantage of being japanese owned so it makes sense in that aspect

 

[64bitmodels]

nintendo wouldnt be nintendo if that wasnt a possibility xD the only company that a home console never flopped was playstation, so far every home console they made was either the most sold of the generation or in second place.

to be fair, nintendo is also the only company where none of their handhelds has ever been considered a flop so it goes both ways lol

 

[CoolMe]

That was shocking actually.. The thing is, Japan doesn't give a shit about Xbox, not then & certainly not now. MS tried to push some RPG's & Arcade shooters in the original Xbox era but not much, though they tried really hard in the 360 era, a buttload of Shmups, RPG's like the (best-selling) ones above, which means Japanese folks love their RPGs and specially when their home made, and since most of them were exclusive they had no choice but to get an Xbox and even then the result is not that great.
Now from this MS learned not to bother to win over Japan, and i certainly don't blame them. Maybe if somehow MS buys a Japanese company like Sega (as some have stated) or Atlus or something and start making exclusive (games) RPG's to the system might entice some of them to join, and even then i still don't think it'll be a game changer.
I also think the Japanese folk don't care about Game Pass etc. or whatever Xbox has to offer currently, apart from a small minority, so yeah.

 

[64bitmodels]

That was shocking actually.. The thing is, Japan doesn't give a shit about Xbox, not then & certainly not now. MS tried to push some RPG's & Arcade shooters in the original Xbox era but not much, though they tried really hard in the 360 era, a buttload of Shmups, RPG's like the (best-selling) ones above, which means Japanese folks love their RPGs and specially when their home made, and since most of them were exclusive they had no choice but to get an Xbox and even then the result is not that great.
Now from this MS learned not to bother to win over Japan, and i certainly don't blame them. Maybe if somehow MS buys a Japanese company like Sega (as some have stated) or Atlus or something and start making exclusive (games) RPG's to the system might entice some of them to join, and even then i still don't think it'll be a game changer.
I also think the Japanese folk don't care about Game Pass etc. or whatever Xbox has to offer currently, apart from a small minority, so yeah.

At this point i don't see why MS should care that much anyways....
most people in japan use Windows so they've already got their cash there

 

[CoolMe]

I used to work in an Independent games store back in the late 90's at the height of the PS1's popularity and part of my job was replacing lasers in those made as cheaply as possible consoles. I literally did 100's of them as we were the only local store that would repair a console for you rather than just trying to sell a new console.
I also have a box of 3 or 4 PS2's with dead lasers in my loft that just are not worth repairing, not saying I've never had any issues with any other brand console because i have, just not as many as I've had with Sony consoles.

PS1 lasers were the worst, and even more if you had a modchip and used burned discs, i think the PSOne had a better laser though i personally have never owned one.
Tbf, PS2 Slims have good lasers, mine lasted like 5 years of constant heavy gaming until it stopped reading some discs (not all) and i was playing burned discs as well, i think they would last you if you take care of them properly. Though i should mention for Slims that they can start doing a grinding noise if you haven't used the system for a while, the reason is it could be either the laser motor needs oiling or it is loose, or it's failing and needs replacement in certain cases (unlikely).
I heard about the 39K models having good lasers, better than either the 30k and 50k, though that rev also has a louder fan so...

 

[Jayro]

So what is the main reason Xbox fails in Japan?

 

[godreborn]

So what is the main reason Xbox fails in Japan?

I was in a bookstore in Japan, and there was a book called "Japan's worst inventions." I don't remember all of the inventions, but two of them were a suit you wore to take a bath and not get wet, and another were these protruding things you put on your ankles to prevent people from walking in front of you when taking a picture. point being, Japan has had some massive flops that are actually laughable by comparison. I mean who would buy either of those things!?

 

[eyeliner]

So what is the main reason Xbox fails in Japan?

Microsoft isn't japanese.

 

[HarveyHouston]

So what is the main reason Xbox fails in Japan?

What @eyeliner said.

 

[krakenx]

Surprised that the X/S has already sold more there than the Xbox One had.

Not being able to get a PS5 might have something to do with that...

The Series S is frequently available for MSRP, and I have yet to lay eyes on a real PS5.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Xbox do a lot of noise here and in specialized media, but Sony and even more Nintendo are way better to reach homes and hearts of people that do not breath video games 24/7. I believe those people are the real sales driver for console manufacturers.

Also Microsoft opted for a strategy of offering membership first, than the games. It is the future they say, but this future still is not here some reason. The Japanese companies value game sales as always, I believe today it still is the right call from a business standpoint for this very market. (on mobile territory it is another story, Apple arcade success is a proof of that)

Lastly, the Japanese market have a strong patriotic behavior, when the option is there, they go with the Japanese product/service most of times. It is that way from rice bags to cell phones.

 

[ZeroFX]

Hahaha yeah the only time Japanese people bought xboxes was on the 360 era to play some jp exclusives. Xbox is just too ocidental, along with its exclusives. For instance i never had one.

 

[digipimp75]

seriously, why don't Japs like Xbox?

 

[Noctosphere]

Still waiting for a canadian console for it selling over 30Millions units in canada only

 

[shano]

I remember when most of the Japanese fighting game players/pros were all on the 360 instead of PS3 because of the better input lag and online it provided.

I thought the Series S/X woulda sold better than it already has in Japan as I heard a few times it's doing really well.

I had a 360 that RROD and another one where the DVD Drive stopped reading discs, but the OG XB, 360S, XB1, XB1S, XB1X, SS, SX were all really well built consoles.

And yeah the OG Xbox is pretty much the Dreamcast 2.

 

[pedro702]

people talk about why japanese dont like xbox in europe it doesnt sell much too, it usualy sells half of the usa number

USA EUROPE
xbox 15.77 / 7.17
xbox360 49.11 / 25.87
xbox one 32.45 / 12.47
xbox series 6.80 / 3.90 (so far)

SO yeah without usa sales xbox would be a preety poor sold console

Sony sales and nintendo ones are much more even between usa and europe numbers, they dont have the desparity of being almost half everytime.
PS2 53.65 / 55.28
ps4 38.59 / 48.74
ps3 29.42 / 34.99
ps1 40.78 / 31.09
ps5 7.38 / 7.31