By and large,Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityhas been doing incredibly well in its opening week. It’salready the best-sellingWarriorsgame to dateand has charted among the best-selling games in multiple countries. So far, however, it hasn’t been able to claim the top spot on any of these sales charts, thanks to stiff competition from new AAA and next-gen games, but in Japan it came close to taking it, only to be beaten out by a surprising title.
A few days after reports ofAge of Calamity’s impressive sales in the UKcame out, Famitsu followed suit with the Japanese sales figures for the week of November 16-22. According to the numbers, the game has also performed well there, having sold an estimated 173,215 physical copies and beating out other popular Nintendo titles likeAnimal Crossing: New HorizonsandRing Fit Adventureto debut in second place.
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173,000+ copies would normally be enough to easily secure the #1 spot, but this timeHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityended up being completely outsold by another Switch newcomer:Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!. This is the latest entry in Konami’s longrunning board game-style series, where players try to become president of a railroad company by acquiring properties across Japan, and it crushed the sales competition this week with 345,697 copies sold.
While this might be surprising news for gamers outside Japan, fans ofMomotaro Dentetsuhave really been looking forward to the series’ debut on the Switch. In fact, the game hasranked among the most anticipated Switch titles in Japanfor months, meaning the hype forShowa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!was building up well beforeAge of Calamity’s surprise reveal in September.
If it makes anyZeldafans feel better, though, according to the aforementioned rankings, theupcoming sequel toThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis still the most anticipated Switch title of all by a sizable margin. So in the unlikely event that a newMomotaro Dentetsugame ends up going up against the series’ next mainline entry, chances are the sales numbers will be more in Nintendo’s favor.
Aside fromHyrule WarriorsandMomotaro Dentetsu, this week saw the Japanese sales charts almost completely taken over by Switch games, with the PS4 version ofCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warbeing the only non-Switch title in the top ten. It goes to show howNintendo’s popularity has grown in Asian marketslately, and odds are continuing sales ofAge of Calamityand, eventually,Breath of the Wild 2will serve to push that growth even further.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityis available for the Switch.
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