Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Japan on January 31 and, over the course of the next four days, gamers there snapped up over 800,000 copies of the Wii fighter. Long-running sales chart topper Wii Fit was finally dethroned this week, amid a stable of new releases that also included Disgaea 3, Assassin’s Creed and Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi. Also debuting, but not performing quite as well as the Nintendo mascot fighter was Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4 which moved nearly a quarter million units combined on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, making it one of three PS3 titles to chart in the top ten.
Now that those pesky Americans have had their say with their video game buying habits, it’s time to check in with the Japanese. Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo DS continues to top the charts overseas, as well, with the new Wii Fit player coming in second. Both units gave Nintendo a bigger slice of the pie this time. It was an up week for just about everyone, as strong sales of Hot Shots Golf Portable 2, Wii Fit and Tales of Innocence kept hardware moving. For the week of December 3rd through the 9th, Media Create sales charts stacked up like so.
After some recent wacky Japanese hardware sales misadventures, propelling the PSP to stardom and the Xbox 360 to a high point on sales of Halo 3, things seem to be settling down. The Nintendo DS still rules the roost, with the PSP still going strong, even as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII works its way down the charts.
This week’s biggest surprise? Another sales surge for the 360, which sold more during the week of October 8 to the 14 than it did during Halo 3‘s debut. Wii sales, meanwhile, remain at a low point. This Simple 2000 had me seriously wondering if Media Create has some math errors.
Nintendo DS Lite – 78,746PSP – 59,584Wii – 20,575PlayStation 3 – 12,365PlayStation 2 – 10,181Xbox 360 – 6,161Game Boy Advance SP – 127Please, stop e-mailing us about the Japanese sales chart position of DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto Atami Zekkai no Kotou – Satsui no Wana. We’re well aware that you’re all fans of Tecmo’s Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Shin Tantei Series, but numbers don’t come in until late Wednesday night from Media Create, so we simply can’t answer your questions until then. Yes, it placed well in this week’s sales charts, beating out last week’s retail champ Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor by a wide margin. Exciting, isn’t it? Yes, it is.
Hey, look! Lair showed up on this week’s chart, too! Wave to it as it passes by. More ordered lists after the jump.
01. DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto Atami Zekkai no Kotou РSatsui no Wana (DS) Р61,000 / NEW 02. Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor (PS2) Р47,000 / 251,000 03. Gundam Battle Chronicle (PSP) Р28,000 / 114,000 04. Pok̩mon Mysterious Dungeon: Time Expedition Party (DS) Р26,000 / 502,000 05. Arcana Heart (PS2) Р23,000 / NEW 06. Pok̩mon Mysterious Dungeon: Shadow Expedition Party (DS) Р22,000 / 440,000 07. Lair (PS3) Р22,000 / NEW 08. ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (DS) Р17,000 / 67,000 09. KanKen DS 2 + Jouyou Kanji Jiten (DS) Р16,000 / 67,000 10. Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS) Р16,000 / 631,000
