Minecraft Passes 4 Million Nintendo Switch Physical Sales in Japan

Despite being on the market for well over a decade, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling video games in Japan, routinely beating brand-new flagship titles on physical and digital charts. Recent retail figures show that Mojang's sandbox has now cleared 4 million boxed copies on the original Nintendo Switch alone in the country, whilst also securing top spots on the newer Nintendo Switch 2 charts.

Four Million Boxed Copies on Nintendo Switch

Both gameinfinitus.com and gamingamigos.com report that Famitsu sales tracking has confirmed a massive hardware and software landmark in Japan. The original Nintendo Switch family of systems—combining the standard model launched in March 2017, the Switch Lite, and the OLED model—has reached 36,005,504 lifetime units sold in its home region, alongside more than 150 million units globally.

Even with hardware momentum shifting toward the Nintendo Switch 2—which launched in June 2025 and has already passed 2 million sales in Japan and 6 million worldwide—the original hybrid console still moves over 16,000 units a week domestically, compared to more than 40,000 weekly units for its successor. Riding that massive install base, the Switch edition of Minecraft (originally released on June 21, 2018) has officially crossed 4 million physical retail copies sold in Japan.

When you add boxed copies from older Japanese platforms like the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, physical sales of Minecraft in Japan exceed 6 million units. Both gameinfinitus.com and gamingamigos.com note that once digital purchases are factored in, total Japanese sales are projected to sit comfortably above 10 million copies.

Beating Brand-New Releases on Switch and Switch 2

What makes Mojang's performance in Japan so unusual is how effortlessly the game keeps pace with freshly launched blockbusters. According to japanrankings.com, during May 2025, Minecraft was the #2 best-selling physical game in the entire country with 28,338 copies sold (bringing its cumulative tally at that time to 3.89 million+). Only Level-5's newly released Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time on Switch (82,968 copies) managed to beat it.

That single month saw Minecraft outsell major catalogue hits and brand-new May launches alike, including Super Mario Party Jamboree (27,681), Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Battle Destiny Remastered (26,130), Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You Emotional (25,791), the PlayStation 5 version of Fantasy Life i (10,730), Capcom Fighting Collection 2 on Switch (7,801) and PS4 (4,184), Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana / Celceta (5,596), and Nintendo Switch Sports (4,522, at 1.59 million+ total).

The pattern has carried straight over to the next generation of hardware. As reported by se7en.ws, the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Minecraft took #3 on the weekly Famitsu physical sales chart for October 26 through November 1, moving 11,754 boxed copies and trailing only Nintendo Switch Sports Resort and Final Fantasy Resonance.

Digital charts tell a similar story. Data shared by nintendoeverything.com for the Japanese September 2026 eShop rankings shows original Minecraft holding the #6 spot on the first-generation Switch digital chart—right behind Rhythm Heaven Groove, Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko's Mystery Dungeon Classic HD, Yo-kai Watch 1, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and Shiren the Wanderer—whilst beating Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (#8), Splatoon 3 (#10), and Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak Set (#13). Over on the Switch 2 eShop chart for the same month, led by Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave at #1, Minecraft Dungeons 2 Deluxe Edition charted at #9 and the standard Minecraft Dungeons 2 landed at #13, ahead of Mario Kart World (#14) and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (#17).

How Minecraft Outsold Sony's Biggest Hits Every Year

A viral breakdown compiled on Japanese social media aggregator togetter.com compared the top-selling annual games in Japan from the three major platform holders—Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE)—between 2020 and 2025. Even without counting older Sony-published editions of Minecraft, Microsoft beat Sony's highest-selling first-party release in Japan every single year solely on the back of Minecraft's annual Switch sales.

For context, Nintendo's top sellers in those same years were Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020 (6.37 million), Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury in 2021 (970,000, excluding Pokémon), Splatoon 3 in 2022 (3.68 million, excluding Pokémon), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023 (1.92 million), Super Mario Party Jamboree in 2024 (950,000), and Mario Kart World in 2025 (2.45 million).

What Japanese Players Are Saying

The community response in Japan, captured across discussions on togetter.com, mixes amusement with genuine awe at how an older game refuses to leave the charts. Several players joked that Microsoft's Japanese sales numbers look like a software glitch, before concluding that Minecraft itself is simply a sales monster that people treat like a household consumable rather than a one-time purchase.

Many commenters pointed to two practical reasons behind the endless demand. First, with roughly 700,000 children born in Japan each year, a fresh wave of young players ages into the hobby every twelve months, making Minecraft the default starter gift for kids—much like Mario Kart is for Nintendo, and filling a family-friendly gap that commenters criticised Sony's PlayStation 5 for abandoning after retiring classic mascots like Toro and Ape Escape. Second, parents frequently end up buying multiple copies for the same household, picking it up on PC and then buying it again on Switch or Switch 2 so their children can play portably with friends. Others noted the irony that Microsoft has likely sold more copies of Minecraft on Nintendo's hardware in Japan than all of its Xbox-exclusive games combined.

If you want to jump into the game yourself or update your current setup, you can get the latest builds from our Android, iOS, Windows, patched and Java Edition download pages, which cover Bedrock Edition (including Android APK, iOS, Windows GDK, and patched builds) as well as Java Edition via the 9Minecraft wiki. Always remember to back up your worlds before switching devices or installing a newer version.