Japan's Gaming Market Sees $2.9 Billion Spend on Consoles and Boxed Games in 2022

Japanese gamers spent nearly $3 billion on physical gaming products in 2022, according to Famitsu's annual report. The total sales of boxed games and hardware reached ¥374.8 billion ($2.9 billion) from December 27, 2021, to December 25, 2022, marking a 4% increase from the previous year. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet emerged as the best-selling games, with combined sales of four million copies from their launch on November 18 to December 25. Splatoon 3 followed closely, with 3.7 million copies sold since its release in September. The Nintendo Switch was the top-selling hardware, with 4.8 million units sold, bringing its total sales in Japan to 27.7 million units since its launch in March 2017. The top ten games of the year were dominated by Switch titles, with nine out of the top ten games released for the console, including seven published by Nintendo. The PlayStation 5 was the second-best-selling console, with 1.2 million units sold, while the Xbox Series X|S had a solid year, with 269,737 units sold, more than doubling its sales from the previous year.