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The story
A claim posted on X (formerly Twitter) — that “Nintendo’s download versions barely sell at all, with the ratio coming in at under 10%” — sparked discussion on 5ch’s hardware/industry board (commonly known as “Geha”). In the thread, users pointed out that Nintendo’s published digital ratio of roughly 50% excludes digital-exclusive titles, while Sony’s figure in the 80% range includes them — highlighting a difference in how the two companies count their numbers. Opinions were divided over the credibility of the original post, as well as over the point that physical sales volume and the digital ratio are two separate issues.
What people said
then again, that's just their 'manufactured shortage' marketing.
So where's the evidence that the share flips completely once you're talking about 'the digital version' instead of 'digital-exclusive'?
Maybe it's about time we started calling him a 'fool' instead (wordplay on 識者/"expert" vs 愚者/"fool").
Tough break for the sane PS fans — having users like this around makes even the normal ones get lumped in with the crazies.
(Wolverine: 220k, FE: 300k)
Even if FE's digital ratio were only 25%, FE would still barely come out ahead — so the percentage going up doesn't automatically mean anything.
As for the Japanese PlayStation diehards ('wa-goki,' a derogatory 5ch term for domestic PS fanboys), it's probably the lingering influence of those infamous blogs from over a decade ago.
They got hit by a double echo chamber — console-war blogs plus X.
The people living in the console-war scene now have morphed into something even more grotesque than the old-school crowd.
Nintendo's 50% digital ratio excludes digital-exclusive titles.
Sony's 80% includes digital-exclusive titles.
Sony is already counting things in a way designed to inflate the digital ratio, and even then, claiming a 90% digital ratio is a flat-out lie lol.
PlayStation was actually the first to put on a show of broadening its age-range appeal — so why did it end up narrowing instead?
Well, it's X — if a Community Note got attached it'd be different, but without one, I'm sure plenty of people just believe it.
Meanwhile, the publishers — who obviously know their own real sales figures — just keep doing whatever they're doing…
Even the adult doujin platforms (FANZA and DLsite) manage to publish real sales figures, so other platforms should be able to do it too.
Though honestly, even if they did, it'd only make number-nerds like us happy.
so these days I mostly go with the 'DLC' version.
✕ DLC
○ DL
In other words, almost nobody is actually playing Nintendo games.
People treat 'digital' like it's something special, so a high digital ratio = impressive — and that leads to bashing whoever has a lower one (regardless of whether it's actually low or not)…
It's not that deep a topic.
It started when PlayStation fans, getting crushed in the Famitsu weekly sales charts, began saying 'but it sells on digital!' — basically just denial and excuse-making.
There's no guarantee that shifting to digital is inevitable, and no proof it's even the 'right' direction.
It's not like a game is secretly selling millions while sitting outside the rankings.
That approach has its own problems though.
Switch has these landmark indie 'physical' releases that skew the overall digital ratio.
Suika Game (Watermelon Game), for instance, is almost entirely digital.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Nintendo publishes its own digital sales ratio in a way that excludes digital-exclusive titles, with the most recent figure coming in at roughly 50%. Sony’s cited “80% digital ratio,” on the other hand, includes digital-exclusive titles, so the two numbers can’t be directly compared due to their different scopes. The source of the “under 10%” claim raised in the thread was never specified, and many commenters questioned the credibility of the person it was attributed to, making the truthfulness of the post itself a central point of debate. The thread also noted that strong physical sales figures and a low digital ratio across the overall software lineup aren’t necessarily the same thing — and since neither company discloses its exact counting methodology, either number is hard to verify.
※This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “X: ‘Nintendo’s Download Versions Barely Sell At All — Not Even 10%’.”
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