Japanese software sales, August 21 - August 27: OMG edition
by Jason Wishnov 
{ Aug 31st 2006 at 3:40PM }
Commentary will follow after you regain control of your jaw.Software - This Week | Total Sales
1.) Final Fantasy III (NDS, Square Enix) - 503,051 | NEW
2.) New Super Mario Bros. (NDS, Nintendo) - 65,556 | 2,901,264
3.) Rune Factory (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) - 42,210 | NEW
4.) Brain Training 2 (NDS, Nintendo) - 41,784 | 3,073,195
5.) Cooking Navi (NDS, Nintendo) - 37,326 | 384,045
6.) Tamagotchi 2 (NDS, Bandai Namco) - 30,504 | 430,934
7.) Mario Basketball 3-on-3 (NDS, Square Enix) - 30,355 | 233,762
8.) Animal Crossing Wild World (NDS, Nintendo) - 30,023 | 3,149,130
9.) Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo) - 22,866 | 2,736,150
10.) English Training (NDS, Nintendo) - 17,465 | 1,401,669
That's right. Every single game in the top ten is on the Nintendo DS. I mean, we knew this thing rocked faces in Japan, but this is ridiculous. Leading the pack is the sold-more-units-than-pancakes-at-IHOP Final Fantasy III, selling over half a million in a few days. Rune Factory, another newcomer, is doing well at spot number 3, and the rest are familiar faces. We truly believe that if the political party of Nintendo were to run for office in Japan, they would win in a landslide victory.
[Thanks, DownloadingData!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Duscrom @ Aug 31st 2006 4:56PM
Message to developers, Make more 3D rpgs on the DS... It CAN handle them... and Spend more then GBA budgets on them... please... I love the DS, and so do Japanese gamers... so.. spend money on the games so I can have games worth playing.
Loban @ Aug 31st 2006 5:16PM
Hilarious. The PSP has 3 games in the top 30, and the NDS has 18 with 10 of them holding the top spots. The PSP who? :)
jeffx @ Aug 31st 2006 5:37PM
what is Rune Factory? Marvelous Interactive games are usually good. We want JAPANESE TRAINING here in the USA!! That would be a fair trade...
Jonathan @ Aug 31st 2006 5:45PM
Final Fatasy III #1 in japan... big suprise there(!)
but a top 10 filled with only NDS games. that's sweet.
indeed: psp who?
Figment @ Aug 31st 2006 6:13PM
As much as I love seeing the ds (and nintendo) dominate japan, it makes me sad for one very simple reason: we don't get nearly as many ds releases as they do!
I'm really hoping that with the amazing sales and support the ds is getting here, even for more off-the-wall games like Animal Crossing, that we will see more and more localization as time goes on.
Until then, I guess I'll just keep importing the Phoneix Wright's, Bleach's, and Mystical Ninja's as they come out!
Don Patch @ Aug 31st 2006 6:17PM
Ditto. PSP who? Anyway, this does not come as a surprise to me. Though the number for Final Fantasy III is staggering, it is completely understandable. In my opinion, and I am not the only one, Final Fantasy III was the best out of all them, so a remake in 3D is definitely top of my list of things to get.
Anyway, glad to see that the entire top ten spots belong to DS. It just warms my heart and crushes all Sony fanboys'.
buttpwner @ Aug 31st 2006 7:42PM
are you sure you dont mean final fantasy 6 being the best? i dont think the jap 3 got any notoriety at all. im not sure ill get the new 3, rpgs are ridden with repeated conventions (story & gameplay [anyone else notice that all the final fantasies have the same exact story formula?]). contact is the only rpg im looking forward to at all, a total stripping down of all rpg convention in order to make a genre spoof, im glad some games with artistic merit can still be funded.
Matters @ Aug 31st 2006 7:49PM
Sales of PS2 games have been slowing down otherwise this would be your standard top 10 list with mostly DS titles and a few PS2 titles.
All of the numbers are down from last week with the exception of FFIII at the #1 spot.
I do think it's impressive but it's not like the DS went above and beyond to accomplish this. It would have only taken 1 PS2 game to sell 18k to break into the list.
This looks like a slow week for game sales especially for Sony.
Now if all of the DS games were UP in sales and not down in sales I would have to say this was a huge win for the DS.
Either way it's still pretty cool :)
Don Patch @ Sep 1st 2006 10:20AM
buttpwner, I am sure I mean the Japanese Final Fantasy III. Where do you think the summon or the job system came from?
Anyway, glad to see those were the real numbers.
thomas_h @ Sep 4th 2006 6:30AM
Ok, does this game have real multiplayer or not ??
Josh @ Sep 3rd 2006 10:44PM
jeffx, Rune Factory is basically described as "Harvest Moon where you wield a sword". You should look it up. ;)