The lagging console market in Japan still showed up for the newest Nintendo system.
Nintendo’s Switch surpassed 313,700 consoles sold in Japan in its first week, according to weekly Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (via Yuji Nakamura). That only includes the first couple days of sales since the Switch launched on Friday. The hybrid home/handheld system didn’t set a new record for Nintendo in Japan like it did in The Americas, but it was a solid launch for a traditional gaming device in a market that is spending more and more of its time and money on mobile gaming. Japanese players spend more money on average than any other region in that $36.6 billion smartphone gaming sector, and that has led to slow (if not steady) sales for systems like the PlayStation 4 that are popular in other regions.
When compared to other Nintendo systems, the Switch outsold the Wii U, but it was more nearly 70,000 units behind the Wii. But it is right in line with the PS4, which sold 322,100 compared to Switch’s 313,700, which suggests that the core audience of traditional gaming fans bought both devices.
Here’s a look at more first-week sales figures from Japan:
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