Japan's Splatoon 3 Launch Sales Turned out to be the Largest in Market History

In the first three days, Splatoon 3 sold 3, 45 million copies in Japan.

Nintendo dedicated a separate press release to this achievement and officially named the launch as the largest on the Nintendo Switch in the country — the multiplayer shooter officially bypassed the starting sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokemon Sword & Shield and Monster Hunter Rise.

Moreover, this launch is actually the largest in the history of the Japanese market among games of all manufacturers at all.

Prior to Splatoon 3, no one had ever announced Japanese sales of the game of 3 million copies in three days.

It is not known how close Animal Crossing came to this mark in 2020: New Horizons — then Nintendo chose not to comment on the launch due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and physical Japanese sales were recorded at a mark of 1.88 million copies.

Today, the company only confirmed that the result of Splatoon 3 was higher.

Prior to Splatoon, the 3 games with the largest recorded start-up sales in Japan were Pokemon Black & White (2010), Final Fantasy VIII (1999) and Dragon Quest IX (2009) — they sold 2, 64 million, 2, 50 million and 2, 34 million copies respectively.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (2010) from Capcom took two and a half weeks to take the three million bar.

The exact starting sales of most Nintendo Switch-era games in Japan are unknown, as trackers do not have access to eShop statistics and cartridges do not show the whole picture.

However, thanks to today's announcement by Nintendo, it is now known that Splatoon 3 bypasses them all.

In 2017, the second part of Splatoon started on the Nintendo Switch in Japan with sales of 650,000 copies.

Total Japanese sales of the game for the spring of 2022 were 5, 1 million copies, world — 13, 3 million copies.

Nintendo partners released a record number of merchandise and related products for the release of Splatoon 3 in Japan, ranging from clothing and plush toys to burgers, ice cream, and themed drinks.

Even Splatoon 3 instant noodles are found. A separate Twitter account tracks all receipts.