PlayStation Japan has celebrated a milestone reached by Ghost of Tsushima, with a Tweet marking the achievement. With a gif showing the protagonist Jin Sakai, PlayStation Japan announced that Ghost of Tsushima has achieved one million copies sold in Japan, a milestone reached by not as many games as you might think, and certainly not many among Western developed titles.
It's been nearly three years since the launch of Ghost of Tsushima and the game has been widely praised and especially for its beautiful game world and visuals. But perhaps among its most significant compliments came from Japanese developers. That's because Ghost of Tsushima was developed by the American studio Sucker Punch productions, which is based in Bellevue, Washington.
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While selling one million copies may not seem all that impressive, it's notable because it's reached that figure just in Japan as a PlayStation exclusive when PlayStation titles, besides huge series like Monster Hunter, don't tend to sell all that well in the country anymore (in contrast to Nintendo Switch games, for example). Meanwhile, the sales total for the game takes into account the original PS4 title as well as the PS5 enhanced version of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut.
It's also notable that Ghost of Tsushima is the biggest selling Western game in Japan since Minecraft. Japan is notoriously a hard nut to crack as many big Western games not finding nearly as much success as they do elsewhere. In fact, as one industry blog observed, not a single foreign-made title made it onto Famitsu's top 100 best-selling games in Japan between January 2001 and September 2013. However, there are always exceptions.
One of the great exceptions is Minecraft, which has done blockbuster numbers in Japan, selling well on multiple platforms including mobile, PS Vita, Wii U, PS4, and especially Nintendo Switch. Minecraft is the best-selling Western game in Japan with more than seven million sales. Astonishingly, the second best selling, at 3.25 million sales, remains the SNES classic Donkey Kong Country, which was developed by Britain's Rare.
Donkey Kong Country games stand out among the list, while mega blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 5 has only sold 1.8 million in Japan just to underline the difference. Ghost of Tsushima is also among the few Sony first-party games to have sold one million in the country (joining the likes of Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Dragon Quest 11, and Monster Hunter World).
Japanese developers to have complimented Sucker Punch's samurai epic include Yakuza producer Toshihiro Nagoshi, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida, and ex-Capcom dev Shinji Mikami. Nagoshi was especially blown away by Ghost of Tsushima, calling it "amazing" and heaping praise on its developer. While a sequel to the game is known to be in development unfortunately word is that Ghost of Tsushima 2 won't be at the upcoming PlayStation Showcase.
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