Japan has never been Microsoft’s territory: the Xbox has struggled over there ever since Bill Gates introduced it, and the console business in Japan has largely belonged to hometown hero Sony. Even against those historically conservative numbers, however, the Xbox One launch looked particularly bad,managing to shift just 24,562 units in its first week on sale. In retrospect, however, those numbers are just fine.
If you thought the Xbox One had a terrible Japanese launch, then, well, you’re right. But as bad as those launch numbers are, they’re freaking amazing when compared to how the Xbox One is doing now. In its first four days on sale, Microsoft sold 25,674 Xbox Ones in Japan. In comparison, Microsoft sold over 60,000 Xbox 360s in its first two days on sale when it launched in 2005. But, Microsoft then sold a mere 3,015 Xbox One consoles in its second week on sale in Japan. To put things in context, there were twice the number of PS3s sold and nearly eight times the number of PS4 consoles sold.
