With the release of today’s Media Create charts, the PS4 family of consoles has achieved a couple of interesting milestones in Japan.
First of all, the PS4 Pro has finally passed 500,000 units sold in Japan. It’s currently sitting on 511,255 units that found a loving Japanese home as of December 17th. The half a million milestone was reached just over thirteen months since the console’s launch on November 10th, 2016. Demand for the souped-up version of the PlayStation 4 has not been exceptional in the country, with it accounting for 8.85% of the total PS4 units sold.
It certainly remains a niche product, even if the current Holiday season, combined with the coming of Monster Hunter World in January and the performance of the game’s own limited edition console seem to have persuaded more Japanese users to opt for the more powerful (and more expensive) solution.
Another interesting fact is that the PS4 has finally overtaken the lifetime sales of the PS Vita. The home console (counting its whole family including both PS4 and PS4 Pro) has sold a total of 5,775,515 units, narrowly passing the 5,765,869 units sold by its portable cousin. PS Vita sales have been fairly weak over the past few months, especially considering that it has been basically abandoned by Sony Interactive Entertainment itself, that has been focusing exclusively on PS4, announcing no new first-party games for the Vita.
While Japanese third-party developers are still releasing new games for Sony’s portable (we just got the announcement of Catherine: Full Body by Atlus) that hasn’t been enough to keep the console close to the top, after a relatively successful period following the launch of the lighter and thinner PCH-2000 model in 2013.