Dragon Quest XI was Japan’s best-selling game in July

Despite being on sale for just two days last month, Square Enix’s Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was the best-selling game in Japan this July, according to the latest figures from Famitsu.

As we reported last week, the 3DS version ofDragon Quest XI sold an incredible 1.1m copiesin its first week (or rather first two days) on sale, with the PS4 version following closely behind with just over 950,000 copies, taking its combined total to just over 2m units.

Naturally, this propelled Square Enix to the No.1 spot on the publisher charts in terms of revenue, generating an impressive 15.7bn (1.09bn) in a single month and an incredible 57.2 per cent market share. According to Famitsu, this is the first time in six years and seven months that any publisher has recorded over 15bn (1bn) in a single month, too. The last publisher to do this was Capcom in December 2010.

Dragon Quest XI wasn’t the only big seller of the month, however, as Nintendo’s Splatoon 2 took the No.3 spot with 800,000 copies, making it thefastest-selling Switch game to date. Nintendo also took second place in the publisher charts, generating 6.4bn (44m) and a 23.4 per cent market share.

There was quite a gulf between this and the rest of the chart, however, as Bandai Namco’s Gundam Versus, which took No.4 after releasing on July 6th, sold just 145,000 units by comparison.

Dragon Quest wasn’t Square Enix’s only success story last month, as its Final Fantasy XII remaster also entered the monthly charts at No.5, selling a total of 124,000 units. Nintendo’s Hey! Pikmin for 3DS also surpassed 100,000 units in Japan last month, claiming No.6.

Level-5’s Layton’s Mystery Journey for 3DS and Atlus’s Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology remaster for 3DS were also new entries in last month’s charts, making Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and ARMS the only two titles from June to hang onto their place in the Top Ten.

On the hardware side, the Switch was once again the best-selling console, selling over 294,000 units – an increase of126 per cent over June’s 130,000 units. The 3DS, meanwhile, claimed No.2, with 227,000 units across the entire family. Of that figure, 153,000 units came from Nintendo’s newly-released New 2DS XL, which had a 20.3 per cent market share.

The PS4, meanwhile, came in at No.3, selling another 207,000 units. This takes its cumulative total in Japan to 5m since launch. In terms of market share, the regular PS4 claimed 22.6 per cent of the market last month, with the PS4 Pro standing at 4.9 per cent.

Overall, Japan’s physical video game market experienced a dramatic uplift last month, with its value now standing at 47.77bn (3.34bn). That’s up 124 per cent year-on-year, thanks to a 155 per cent spike in hardware sales and a 105 per cent jump in software sales.