The PlayStation 5 has charted its largest month ever for sales in Japan, beating out the Nintendo Switch as the best-selling hardware in the country during that span for the first time, according to a new report by Famitsu.
Per Famitsu’s sales data, 366,982 PS5 units (two models combined) were sold domestically from Jan. 30 to Feb. 26, marking a 457 percent year-on-year increase from the 65,772 Japanese units recorded in February 2022.
Additionally, Famitsu claims that the new milestone mark is 1.6 times the number of Japanese PS5 sales in January 2023, and its largest in the country since the PS5’s initial launch in November 2020.
The Nintendo Switch reportedly sold 221,041 units (three models combined) in Japan last month.
According to prominent gaming insider Genki on Twitter, the PS5 sold more units in Japan this February alone than it did in the first four months of 2022 combined.
Much of the PS5’s recent growth in sales has commonly been attributed to Sony shedding its severe stock shortage issues from last year. In February, it was also reported that the PS5’s numbers were up 202 percent compared with the year before in European markets.
While Nintendo Switch-exclusive titles seemed to have still dominated February in Japan, with Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and Splatoon 3 all ranking in the first, third and fourth spots of the country’s video game software sales (physical only), Famitsu published that second place belonged to the PS5 version of Hogwarts Legacy with 126,086 units moved.
