Media Create and Famitsu’s post-holiday Japanese game sales charts were published for the gaming community, but they feature some statistical discrepancies. According to the latest statistics shared on NeoGAF, Media Create and Famitsu are reporting significantly different sell through software and hardware data amidst the start of the new year.
Accordingly, Media Create notes that Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS ranked at first place for software sales with 100,308 units, up by 37 per cent from last week for a total of 890,838 lifetime units sold. Meanwhile, Famitsu reports Super Mario Maker moved 127,085 units for 984,331 lifetime sales. For the Japanese games journalism publication, that’s only a 12 per cent increase.
Hardware statistics fare similar concerns. For Media Create’s hardware report on the 3DS, 88,878 units were sold, up from 70,522 at the end of 2016, and a significant increase from the 60,479 units sold in the 3DS family during the opening week of 2016. Meanwhile, Famitsu notes that the 3DS sold 121,419 units, up from the previous week’s 119,848 units, and a significant increase from the 51,144 sales that Famitsu reported from 3DS sales for 2016’s corresponding week.
Other discrepancies abound: PlayStation 4 Pro sales are listed at 8,242 units at Media Create, whereas Famitsu states that only 4,484 hardware sales were made for the PlayStation 4 Pro. Media Create also reports that the 2DS sold 26,214 units, whereas Famitsu lists their sales at 42,212. While differences in sales can fall into a margin of error, major concerns arise when trying to draw an accurate image of hardware sales for such influential and contested platforms as the 3DS or PlayStation 4 Pro.
It’s hard to say which outlet is the most accurate between the two, especially since many of the discrepancies are close. Still, the differences are clear, with many fans left speculating which outlet to trust: and where the problem truly lies.
Hopefully, those vastly different game sales charts will begin to reflect one another as the year goes on. Until then, check back for more sales reports from Japan.