Retro Sales Statistics

[therealRonneberg]

I am currently going trough some old Japanese Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast Magazines and found some interesting sales statistics.
Just wanne mention for example Pokemon sold 6.22 million copies, not 622 million copies.

This one is from Sega Saturn Magazine, published by Softbank, Issue 39 from 14.11.1997, Page 62.
(You can download it here https://www.segaretro.org/File:SSM_JP_19971114_1997-39.pdf)

Here's the original, I translated it via DeepL and sorted it after release date as well as copies sold.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

VERY interesting.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[freebie#47]

It's funny they didn't even list Super Metroid, and even my personal favorite game Link's Awakening. Also the fact Zelda 2 beat the original Zelda? Heck even says Super Mario Land beat Super Mario Land 2. This is actually false as 2 sold way more. BUT i love original more. The Music is just so good....

 

[therealRonneberg]

It's funny they didn't even list Super Metroid, and even my personal favorite game Link's Awakening. Also the fact Zelda 2 beat the original Zelda? Heck even says Super Mario Land beat Super Mario Land 2. This is actually false as 2 sold way more. BUT i love original more. The Music is just so good....

These sales figures are Japan ONLY. And in Japan neither Super Metroid nor Link's Awakening sold more than a million.

Now here's Dragon Quest, excluding those Mystery Dungeons Spinoffs.
Those Dragon Quest 6 sales figures in combination with the higher price are insane, that's something like 200 million dollars back then if I calculated correctly.

Source is Dorimaga, published by Softbank, from 21.09.2001, Page 10.
(You can download it here https://www.segaretro.org/File:Dorimaga_JP_20010921_2001-08ex.pdf)

Here's the original, I translated it via DeepL.

 

[Laura Zonih]

Thanks for showing something so interesting ?

 

[freebie#47]

These sales figures are Japan ONLY. And in Japan neither Super Metroid nor Link's Awakening sold more than a million.

Super Metroid!? The Super Metroid, the game that DEFINED the metroidvania genre did NOT pass a million? I do not believe that one bit, but ok????? I wonder how Symphonia of the Night performed?

Thanks for these btw.

 

[fake-kun]

Super Metroid!? The Super Metroid, the game that DEFINED the metroidvania genre did NOT pass a million? I do not believe that one bit, but ok????? I wonder how Symphonia of the Night performed?

Thanks for these btw.

Yeah, it's almost like metroidvanias aren't popular in Japan or something. /s

 

[DunkeyKong]

I love seeing differences like this, it tends to show how different some countries when it comes to sales.

Like the Sega Master System for example, I always thought that it sold more in the UK or Brazil since they are much well known there. But it was actually much more popular in France

You can see the discussion here. It's also, if not the longest then one of the longest running consoles of all time

 

[therealRonneberg]

This one is from Sega Saturn Magazine, published by Softbank, Issue 39 from 14.11.1997, Pages 62 to 67.
(You can download it here https://www.segaretro.org/File:SSM_JP_19971114_1997-39.pdf)

This issue also included statistics for all the other million sellers by publishers that aren't Nintendo.
So I went back and included them as well.
1997 and 1998 were the years were Japan started to become Sony country up until early 2005 when the Japanese console marketed collapsed and Nintendo retook Japan with the DS.
Also Shmup sales peaked hard in the mid 1980s. You got Xevious selling 1,26 million copies in 1984 and Twin Bee and Gradius both selling 1,20 million copies in 1986.

 

[therealRonneberg]

Here are the best selling Sega Saturn Games in Japan as of November 1997.

Here's the original.

This one is from Sega Saturn Magazine, published by Softbank, Issue 39 from 14.11.1997, Page 67.
(You can download it here https://www.segaretro.org/File:SSM_JP_19971114_1997-39.pdf)

 

[therealRonneberg]

Edit: Just found of that in Dorimaga Issue 11/2002 there is another sales list for 2001 to 2002 games. Will add this later.

Here is a list of most Dreamcast Games released in Japan with Sales. Most of the list is from Issue 8/2001 of the Sega Dreamcast Magzine published by Softbank. They have a full list of all Dreamcast games relased in japan up until that point with sales starting on page 61 until page 98. Afterwards I just used the Top 10 weekly ranking the same magazine did every week to add the other games realsed afterwards in 2001 to complete the list. In Issue 2/2003 from 31.01.2003 of Dorimaga (the sucessor Magazine to Sega Dreamcast Magzine) on page 94 there is also a ranking for the top 10 best selling Dreamcast games in Japan in 2002. I added those games as well. For games release in both Japan and the USA I used the US name.
The list doesnt inclued all games since I dont have data for the years 2003 to 2007 and only the top 10 for the whole year of 2002 but oustide of Sakrua Wars 4 the games released for the Dreamcast past 2001 were mostly Naomi Shmup ports or VN, none of which sold more than 10k at the max.

Anyway here is the list:

Also as of 22.11.2002 the Dreamcast had sold 2.8 million consoles in Japan so with total sales that is about a 6,3 games per console attachment rate.