Fire Emblem Engage dethrones Pokémon and takes the crown, topping Japan’s charts

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There are new video game kings in town.

Estimated Japanese software and hardware sales for the week of January 16-22 have been announced, with Pokémon Scarlet & Violet being ousted from the top spot by none other than Fire Emblem Engage.

Famitsu released those details on January 27th and crunched the numbers for all to see, revealing that Fire Emblem Engage has come out of the gate with a throne-worthy 144,558 units sold. This allowed the game to surpass the latest mainline Pokémon titles, which include 43,983 units sold. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has consistently held its position at the top of the charts since its release in November, with Fire Emblem Engage being one of the few games to steal the slot during this period.

Fire Emblem Engage was released worldwide on January 20th with the game’s first DLC wave and will have three more waves of DLC in the future. As it turns out, Ninendo games dominate much of the top 10 on Japan’s charts, with games like Splatoon 3 also posting a solid 16,091 units sold.

Fire Emblem Engage has also impressively surpassed launch sales of the franchise’s previous top-grossing game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, with Three Houses selling 143,130 copies in July 2019. This surpasses Three Houses by 1,428 units sold, making it the best-selling title in the series to be released on the Nintendo Switch in terms of opening week sales.

It also ranks 8th overall in first week sales for the entire series, with Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest still taking the top spot thanks to its opening week sales more than 300,000.

It looks like Nintendo has made its mark with a very strong start to 2023, and it will certainly be interesting to see what’s in store as we progress.

[Source: Famitsu via Crunchyroll]