Ghost of Yotei Defies Boycotts to Become Japan’s Best-Selling PS5 Game Ever
Ghost of Yotei, the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, has stormed Japan, smashing PS5 sales records to become the console’s best-seller to date—just days after its October 2 launch and despite pre-release controversy and boycott calls.
Ghost of Yotei launched into a storm, and then blew the doors off anyway. Sucker Punch and Sony dropped the Ghost of Tsushima sequel on October 2, 2025, and it immediately started shredding records in Japan and putting up big global numbers. Controversy, boycotts, new lead character… none of it slowed the thing down.
The brief version
Ghost of Yotei is, by early tracking, Japan's best-selling PS5 title to date. It debuted at number one on Famitsu's charts with 120,196 physical copies in week one, which also makes it the fifth-biggest PS5 launch in Japan's history and the biggest first-party PlayStation launch there since Gran Turismo 7. Worldwide, as of October 10, it has sold through more than 1.6 million copies to players, with over two million shipped to retailers, making it PlayStation's strongest PS5 first-party debut since Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Oh, and it has reportedly already recouped its development costs in a day. More on that below.
The 'boycott' that fizzled
When Sucker Punch revealed that Jin Sakai would not return and that the sequel would star a new protagonist, Atsu (voiced by Erika Ishii), some corners of the internet got loud about it. There were outrage threads, calls for a boycott, the usual theater. In the real world, though, preorders told a different story: Yotei climbed to the top of the PlayStation Store charts in almost every region and even hit number one on Amazon in the UK before release. So, yeah, the noise did not translate to sales.
How it opened in Japan
Ghost of Yotei landed at number one on Famitsu's weekly chart with 120,196 physical copies sold. That puts it ahead of launches like Armored Core VI and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and slots it at number five among PS5 debuts in the country. For context, here is where it sits among Japan's biggest PS5 physical launch weeks:
- Monster Hunter Wilds - 601k
- Final Fantasy XVI - 336k
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - 262k
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake - 180k
- Ghost of Yotei - 120k
- Armored Core VI - 115k
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - 102k
One nerdy detail worth noting: Yotei's opening in Japan was about 43% lower than Ghost of Tsushima's, which sounds harsh until you remember how much PS5 physical software has cooled compared to PS4-era peaks.
Worldwide: big digital, big money
Per Alinea Analytics (October 9), Ghost of Yotei has already sold through 1.6 million+ copies to players, with over two million sold-in to retailers. Roughly 77% of those sales are digital, which tracks with Sony's digital-first strategy on PS5. Revenue-wise, the game is flirting with $100 million in its first week alone.
'Reported dev budget: about $60 million. Reported recoup time: one day.'
It is moving slower than Ghost of Tsushima's pandemic-era rocket ship (that one did 2.4 million in its first three days), but the market is not the same. Tsushima launched on a PS4 install base north of 110 million; PS5 sits around 80 million today. Different consoles, different realities.
Why players are sticking with it
This part is not complicated: people like the game. The sequel tightens up combat, looks fantastic on PS5, and loads almost instantly. Atsu's revenge-driven story has been getting called out as a standout, and the whole package has enough visual polish and momentum that you will hear it in a lot of Game of the Year 2025 conversations.
The takeaway
Between record-setting results in Japan and a 1.6M+ sold-through tally in a week, Ghost of Yotei is already a commercial win and another reminder that Sucker Punch's samurai series is one of PlayStation's most reliable heavy hitters. If you have put time into it already, how are you finding Atsu's story versus Jin's?