Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/31-1/6
by Candace Savino 
{ Jan 9th 2008 at 8:00PM }
The Wii got a huge boost in hardware sales thanks to the New Years holiday, which is known to be big for consumerism in Japan. All system sales increased, in fact, but the gap between the Wii and PSP widened as the Wii sold almost 80,000 more units than it did the previous week. The bump in hardware sales also affected software sales, helping Nintendo regain its domination in the charts. The top twelve games were for Nintendo systems, with a lot of those games either having the words "Wii" or "Mario" in their titles. Wii Sports and Wii Play continue to bully newer titles out of the top ten, while Wii Fit nears the million mark (and according to some trackers, already reached it as of today). Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles also shows some legs by barely making the top thirty, selling 21,000 copies last week for a total of 234,000.
It will be interesting to see whether Super Mario Galaxy can hang in the top ten, but regardless, it seems that the game will hit one million sales relatively soon. Also, expect a huge drop in sales all around next week, as holiday spending in Japan finally comes to an end.
The hardware and software numbers are listed after the break, for your viewing pleasure.
Hardware:
- DS: 312,000
- Wii: 243,000
- PSP: 189,000
- PS3: 70,000
- PS2: 35,000
- Xbox 360: 13,000
- Mario Party DS (DS) 208,000 (1,441,000)
- Wii Sports (Wii) 127,000 (2,592,000)
- Wii Play (Wii) 103,000 (2,093,000)
- Wii Fit (Wii) 94,000 (912,000)
- Final Fantasy IV (DS) 80,000 (527,000)
- Mario & Sonic at Beijing Olympics (Wii) 74,000 (438,000)
- Dragon Quest IV (DS) 70,000 (1,123,000)
- Mario Kart DS (DS) 68,000 (2,764,000)
- Mario Party 8 (Wii) 68,000 (1,122,000)
- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) 62,000 (810,000)
- Professor Layton 2 (DS) 59,000 (674,000)
- Rune Factory 2 (DS) 56,000
- Star Ocean First Departure (PSP) 46,000 (161,000)
- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (DS) 46,000 (1,302,000)
- Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations Gaiden (PS2) 43,000 (242,000)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DevilMan @ Jan 9th 2008 8:40PM
Man ya japanese love Sony huh. Why cant we Americans embrace the 360 like ya Japanese love ya crapstations haha. Thats pretty sad only 13,000 :( Well the time will soon come for Nintendo and Microsoft to ink a deal to smash Sony hehe.
Tyler @ Jan 9th 2008 10:49PM
Because calling the PS3 a crap station is a blatant and untrue personal bias, and Japan sees no need to buy something from Microsoft that they don't have to.
likedonduan @ Jan 9th 2008 11:46PM
Two words that describes the software chart: Mario and Wii. Pretty weird huh (in the goods way).
iMarc @ Jan 10th 2008 9:29AM
I thought I had at one time that Metroid Prime 3 was going to be released in Japan 12/31. Was that a just placeholder date? Was it pushed back?
I know the franchise has never been huge in Japan, but haven't all other versions been released there?