PlayStation 5 stock issues leave Nintendo enjoying massive Switch sales in Japan while the Xbox Series X/S starts floundering

Famitsu has published estimated console sales in Japan for Nov 30-Dec 6 and at a first glance it almost looks like Japanese gamers have turned their backs on the latest gaming hardware from Sony and Microsoft and stuck with the tried and tested Nintendo Switch series. However, the reality is the well-documented PlayStation 5 stock shortages have obviously limited retail sales, with the Xbox Series X and S consoles also struggling with the same problem. This has led to Nintendo managing to shift an impressive 167,088 Switch units and 37,534 Switch Lite devices during this particular time period.

While Nintendo celebrates selling over 200,000 Switch consoles in just a week, things are looking gloomy for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. It’s well known that Sony and Nintendo always do better than Microsoft/Xbox in the Japanese market, and the new Xbox consoles made a surprisingly strong start in Japan, with over 20,000 sales compared to over 118,000 for the two PS5 consoles. While the Xbox Series X still racked up 1,388 sales for this latest period, the figure actually put it behind sales for the PlayStation 4 on 2,986 sales.

The Xbox Series S is seriously floundering on an estimated 234 sales, so stock shortages or not, things are not looking bright for this particular console on the Japanese market. Cumulative sales for the PS5 have now reached 213,328 units in Japan with the Xbox Series consoles amassing 29,433 sales – so the PS5 is outselling the Xbox Series hardware at a rate of more than 7 to 1. But the week goes to Nintendo, with the Switch family now reaching over 16.5 million units sold in Japan alone since its launch in 2017.

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