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[supernova8]

Basically took all the data I could find from the famitsu website weekly numbers, averaged out the numbers when data was reported as 2-week block (impossible to know the week by week break down).

To be specific, this data covers from the week ended 2022/5/15 to the week ended 2023/2/12 (the most recent week's worth).
I also chose not to cover Switch because it tops the charts anyway. The PS5 has actually started to beat the Switch in weekly hardware sales, which is cool, but I'm mostly interested in the battle between Xbox and Playstation in Japan.

Some highlights (during the period)

Total sales

1-week best

tidbit: PS5's best week during the period covered was last week, when Hogwarts came out. Japanese people love harry potter so no real surprise.

Averages and medians

Clickbait-y tidbits
There were only 35 (thirty five) units of Xbox Series X sold during the week ending 2022/12/18. In comparison, during the same week the PS5 (ex. DE) sold 64,420 units.
The Xbox Series S outsold the Series X by almost 2:1 in terms of total sales, and outsold it for 41 of 63 weeks covered, or 65.1% of the time.
Meanwhile, the PS5 outsold the PS5 DE by almost 8:1 in total sales, and outsold it for all 63 weeks, or 100% of the time.

Looking at the graph in overall terms
(1) We can see that PS5 (ex. DE) sales have been extremely volatile through 2022, spiking as high 64,420 in mid December while only hitting 16,615 in the week before, and dropping below 10,000 per week on many occasions.
(2) PS5 supply levels seem to have stabilized around a new high heading into 2023. The "low" in 2023 so far is still higher than most of the best-selling weeks in 2022. We can also see that PS5 (ex. DE) sales have been consistently above 10,000 units ever since mid October 2022.
(3) PS5 DE sales have been pretty weak in comparison to the disc version, but it's difficult to say whether that's because of a lack of demand or Sony not sending much stock of the SKU to Japan. If it's demand then perhaps Japanese consumers are not up for being stuck with a digital-only device, or perhaps the $100 (in dollar terms at least) price differential is not enough to sweeten the deal.

My anecdotal thoughts on Xbox Series S and X
I live in Japan so I regularly look at the various Japanese electronic retailers' websites. I haven't been regularly visiting physical stores because... pandemic etc. so if your experience is different then that's cool too.

From what I can remember, the Xbox Series S has been generally available (ie not out of stock) since around early/mid 2022 or even earlier. With that in mind, I think it's fair to say that the sales data for Series S from around mid 2022 reflects actual demand at the current retail price. In other words, everybody in Japan who wants a Series S has bee able to get one for the last 9-10 months or so.

I'm not so sure what to think about the Series X. Going by the sales data it has sold much worse than the Series S, but (anecdotally speaking) it has almost never been in stock in Japan.

Just as a snapshot (as of the evening on 20 Feb 2023), I just did a quick check on the major retailers and:
Joshin: Xbox Series X "sold out", Xbox Series S "in stock", PS5 and PS5 DE in stock
Yodobashi: Xbox Series X "sold out", Xbox Series X, "in stock", PS5 "in stock", PS5 DE sold out
Bic Camera: Xbox Series X (not even listed, presumably sold out), Xbox Series S "in stock", PS5 and PS5 DE in stock (various bundles also available).
Yamada Denki: Xbox Series X (not listed, presumably sold out), Xbox Series S "sold out", PS5 and PS5 DE available "on order"
Amazon Japan: Xbox Series X "available by invitation" (lottery), Xbox Series S in stock, PS5 and PS5 DE "available by invitation"

So what we're saying is that the Series X has sold hardly anything and yet it's out of stock? Looks to me like a stock issue rather than demand but I could be wrong. It could equally be that Japanese consumers are choosing to buy a Series S primarily for Game Pass, in which case they don't need a disc drive anyway. If the Series X is a stock issue then presumably Microsoft decided it wasn't worth sending inventory to Japan if it would get massively outsold by Playstation, but I do remember Phil Spencer saying he wanted to have proper go at Japan this time....... I suppose that could have been referring to a scenario where they have plenty of stock to serve all markets.

OK that's all folks. Not sure if this was insightful or just a waste of everyone's time

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Thanks for the thread! Always cool to see those kind of post! Nice to see that the Playstation and Xbox consoles seems to go up and down at the same time. There is no GOW effect for example where one exclusive come and made the other console less desirable. It seems that both have insuficient supply. Now that Playstation are coming in big numbers this will probably change soon. Strange for the Series X but it seems that there is less of it worldwide.

 

[ksdixon]

Jesus Christ! Japan don't like the digital edition do they?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

are those rumors true then:

1. Series X has bigger chip therefore lower yield.
2. series x had some internal issues and maybe affected its supply.

 

[Tripolygon]

1. Series X has bigger chip therefore lower yield.

That's not a rumor. Series X is bigger therefore will have lower yield

are those rumors true then:
2. series x had some internal issues and maybe affected its supply.

This however is a rumor that is not plausible.

 

[supernova8]

are those rumors true then:

1. Series X has bigger chip therefore lower yield.
2. series x had some internal issues and maybe affected its supply.

Hard to tell, isn't it.
At least with the Japan data we can see a clear breakdown between Series X and S, unlike the US and EU data (or at least what we can find without having to smash through a paywall).

My hunch (based on nothing really) is that Microsoft is pushing all of their (possibly still supply-constrained?) Series X stock to the US and EU markets where they still have some (small) chance of turning the tide. Plus, while demand for Series S doesn't seem to be bad, it could be that Microsoft overestimated said demand and therefore has enough stock to pump some into Japan while still serving its main target markets. That might explain why the Series S is selling better.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Hard to tell, isn't it.
At least with the Japan data we can see a clear breakdown between Series X and S, unlike the US and EU data (or at least what we can find without having to smash through a paywall).

My hunch (based on nothing really) is that Microsoft is pushing all of their (possibly still supply-constrained?) Series X stock to the US and EU markets where they still have some (small) chance of turning the tide. Plus, while demand for Series S doesn't seem to be bad, it could be that Microsoft overestimated said demand and therefore has enough stock to pump some into Japan while still serving its main target markets. That might explain why the Series S is selling better.

Series S isn't being pumped from anywhere it's been selling near consistent in Japan relatively for nearly two years.

The issue is that S can only appeal to so many people during specific times, that's why originally Phil believed the X would be leading and the S would end up ahead as the generation went on, now that the S would lead from day 1 and continue to at may be earlier than expected reduced prices.

Japan also showed when there's enough supply, the few times it's happened, that the X generally outsells the S.

It seems that whatevers going on with production has been keeping the X held back. They need to fix it before Redfall/Starfield/Forza as you can't expect the marketing of those games to lead to high XBS sales if there is still at the time only one part of the family with stock.

I would say MS got really lucky with 2022, that could have been a worse year any other time but they were able to pass by that with X production issues, and lacking a major release. Really lucky.