Short answers, pulled from the story.
Media Create is a Japanese video game sales analysis and publishing company that tracks the flow of digital entertainment. The company became the definitive source for console sales figures in Japan, counting every cartridge, disc, and download to create a granular map of consumer behavior.
Media Create updates its official Japanese website every Friday as the sun sets over Tokyo. The site releases the top fifty selling video games of the previous week along with hardware sales figures for systems ranging from the Nintendo Switch to the original Game Boy Micro.
The three major tracking firms are Media Create, Enterbrain's Famitsu, and MediaWorks' Dengeki PlayStation. These companies tracked the same titles differently, resulting in three different sales numbers for any given software or hardware release.
The free public version displays the top twenty games with placement rankings and percentage data, while the sales figures for the remaining games are locked behind a paywall. Paid subscriptions grant access to the full depth of the data, offering insights into the long tail of the market where niche titles find their audiences.
The Annual Game Industry Report is a comprehensive document that serves as a historical record of the Japanese video game market. This publication offers a deep dive into trends, consumer behavior, and the evolution of the industry over the preceding twelve months.