This Week In Sales: Fire Emblem Echoes Retells The Gaiden

Period: The week of April 17th – April 23rd (2017)

Top-seller: Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia – 131,668 (3DS)

Nintendo Switch: 48,694 (Last week – 45,673)

Nintendo 2DS: 3,945 (4,475)

New Nintendo 3DS sales: 1,114 (1,234)

New Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 17,570 (18,115)

Wii U sales: 262 (271)

PlayStation 4 sales: 15,222 (17,067)

PlayStation 4 Pro: 4,112 (4,855)

PlayStation 3 sales: 367 (432)

PlayStation Vita sales: 5,164 (5,592)

Xbox One sales: 68 (142)

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week, Japan had a pretty eventful week of video game sales after going by a few quiet weeks. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia headlines with several other new releases. Here’s the latest from Japanese sales tracker Media Create with a look at software and hardware sales data from the week of April 17 through April 23, 2017.

Top of the chart is Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia with 131,668 units sold in its debut for Nintendo 3DS. Here’s a look at how its debut compares to other entries in the Fire Emblem series in Japan:

[Data and chart courtesy our good friend Ishaan. Tweet him here to talk all about your favorite waifus.]

As you can see from the chart, Fire Emblem Echoes’ debut falls short of the previous two titles in Fire Emblem Fates (303,665 units) and Fire Emblem Awakening (242,600). However, seeing that the two previous titles were completely new entries and had the waifu factor going on, it doesn’t seem like a fair comparison.

It probably makes more sense to go back a generation with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and  Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem back on the Nintendo DS. Shadow Dragon, the remake of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, debuted with 144,905 units sold back in 2008. In 2010, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem’s remake called New Mystery of the Emblem debuted with 136,367.

As a remake title, we can say that the debut of  131,668 for the Fire Emblem Gaiden remake fits right in with the two previous remake titles; however, the problem here is that the series has seen a significant boost in popularity with Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, so perhaps it could’ve sold a little more for it to count as a solid success. It should be interesting to see how it continues to sell in the coming weeks.

Moving along, we have Pro Yakyuu Famista Climax on 3DS from Bandai Namco to take #2 of the week with 48,142 units sold. Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition placed #3 with 33,088 units sold on PS4 for its opening week, and Dungeon Travelers 2-2 sold 27,381 units on PS Vita to chart at #4 in its debut.

PaRappa the Rapper’s PS4 remaster released with 7,649 units sold to take #8, and Minna de WaiWai! Spelunker at #9 with 7,447 units sold on Nintendo Switch.

Hardware sales didn’t see any major changes, but the Nintendo Switch continues its stretch with 48,694 units sold in the week. Going by Media Create’s numbers, the Nintendo Switch has sold 699,572 units in Japan since its March launch.

The top-20 chart for the week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.