Switch sales surge in Japan, but PS4’s Trails of Cold Steel III takes No.1

Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III has gone straight in at No1. in the Japanese weekly chart, according to the latest numbers from Famitsu, out-performing both FIFA 18 and Fire Emblem Warriors.

Trails of Cold Steel III sold over 104,000 copies in just four days last week, putting Nihon Falcom’s latest RPG to the top of the charts. That’s down on its predecessor, which sold 169,000 units across PS3 and Vita in 2014, but it was still enough to beat the combined totals of both FIFA 18 and Fire Emblem Warriors.

EA’s latest football entry sold just under 57,000 on PS4, debuting at No.2, while the Switch version sold just under 13,000, entering the chart at No.9. The PS3 version, meanwhile, only made it to No.30 with 2,601 copies sold. That puts Switch’s numbers at around 22 per cent of the game’s total sales in Japan – a much more impressive proportion than the one per cent of total sales in the UK. It’s also off to a better start than FIFA 17, which Famitsu notes sold 65,000 copies combined when it launched on PS4, Xbox One and PS3 last September.

Fire Emblem Warriors, meanwhile, the latest big title to come to Switch, entered the charts at No.3, while the 3DS version came in at No. 6, selling a combined total of over 61,000 units.

Elsewhere in the chart, Splatoon 2 sales actually grew 41 per cent week-on-week, as did Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which saw a rise of 32 per cent week-on-week. That’s likely due to the increase of Switch hardware sales last week, which jumped 48 per cent week-on-week to 74,500 units.

Here’s the Top Ten software chart in full for the week ending October 1st:

1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4), Nihon Falcom, 104,401 (New)
2. FIFA 18 (PS4), EA, 56,924 (New)
3. Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch), Koei Tecmo, 40,606 (New)
4. Splatoon 2 (Switch), Nintendo, 29,244
5. Pokken Tournament DX (Switch), Nintendo, 25,260
6. Fire Emblem Warriors (3DS), Koei Tecmo, 21,548 (New)
7. Pocket Monster Gold/Silver (Download Card Version) (3DS), Nintendo, 18,752
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch), Nintendo, 15,364
9. FIFA 18 (Switch), EA, 12,896 (New)
10. Genkai Tokki: Castle Panzers (PS4), Compile Heart, 10,411 (New)

And here are the hardware figures for the same period:

Nintendo Switch, 74,500
PS4, 27,643
New Nintendo 2DS XL, 10,081
New Nintendo 3DS XL, 9,080
PS4 Pro, 6,921
PS Vita, 4,256
Nintendo 2DS, 1,329
New Nintendo 3DS, 190
Xbox One S, 53
Wii U, 32
PS3, 24