Forza Horizon 5 is the first Xbox game to make it to the top 30 on this week's Japanese retail chart in seven years. With its Xbox Series version, it ended a long period of drought for the company. The racing game is most likely to be bundled with the Xbox Series X in Japan.
Final Fantasy XV was the last Xbox game to finish in the top 30 on the Japanese retail chart before it was released in 2016. It was released almost seven years ago.
During the regulators' debate over Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Japan became the main evidence for Microsoft to demonstrate its position as an outsider in the gaming industry. And they are correct, as Japanese firms are far ahead of the Japanese tech giant.
Since the PlayStation 5 stock began to rise, this console has topped the country's retail console charts since 2022. However, none of the Xbox series has yet risen to the top of the charts.
Only 6.6 thousand units were sold for the Xbox series consoles in the last 24 hours. At the same time, the Nintendo Switch sold over 48,000 units, and the PS5 again topped the charts with almost 90,000 units sold.
The retail software charts also tell a similar story: in almost seven years, no Xbox version of a game has been included on the charts. But this cannot be attributed to Japan's popularity.
So it appears people are beginning to acquire the new Xbox console in Japan. However, these statistics still require a lot of work, as the console falls far behind the Switch and PS5. Even on the software charts, there are more PlayStation 4 games than Xbox Series games.
This week, two PS4 games topped the top 30 retail charts in Japan, while only one game from the Xbox series made it to the top 30, with the Switch dominating with 23 positions.
It's evident how far behind the company is in Japan, especially the Xbox version of Minecraft or the Hogwarts Legacy Xbox sales success.
