Japan's top-selling PS3 title of 2010 named

By Fred Dutton Published 18 April, 2011

Place your bets.

Yakuza 4 sold more copies than any other PlayStation 3 game in Japan last year, according to new data.

Sales numbers totted up by Geimin and reported by Siliconera show that SEGA's crime epic sold 577,199 units.

However, that only puts it at 16th in the chart. The top 10 is dominated by DS, PSP and Wii titles, with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd taking the top spot with 3,849,907 sales, closely followed by Pokémon Black and White.

The top-selling first party Sony game on the list was Gran Turismo 5 at 17th with 563,378 copies sold.

The highest-placed Xbox 360 title was Monster Hunter Frontier at 86th (138,596 sales), followed by Halo Reach way down at 186th (56,104 sales).

Yakuza 4 launched in Europe last month and debuted at number 25 on the weekly UK all-format chart.

"A significant step up from Yakuza 3 in terms of visuals and story, Yakuza 4 still lags behind the genre's leaders, lacking the polish in interactions to make it a classic," wrote Eurogamer's Simon Parkin in his 8/10 review. "But this is still a strong, mesmerising video game, an offer that none should refuse."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Mister-Wario #1 1 year ago

    That's very interesting. I wouldn't expect Yakuza to be the top-selling, somehow.

  • Triggerhappytel #2 1 year ago

    I thought it would be GT5. Good on Yakuza though; it's really the only decent home console franchise Sega have got these days...

  • coomber #3 1 year ago

    Glad to see Yakuza 4 did well. Hopefully they will still be able to get Yakuza: The End released before too long, despite the country's recent troubles. I'll get round to buying Yakuza 4 eventually - has to be one of my favourite series, if not my No1.

  • Desheep #4 1 year ago

    What are the genre leaders that Yakuza 4 is lagging behind?

  • sybixsus #5 1 year ago

    @Desheep : If you read Simon Parkin's review, it's clear that he's comparing the game to the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Personally, I'm of the opinion that it's more of a contemporary JRPG which just happens to have an organized crime theme to it, which would mean that the genre contains pretty much nothing but this and Shenmue.

  • uiruki #6 1 year ago

    @coomber
    It's already been rescheduled - it's coming out on June 9.

  • Dizzy #7 1 year ago

    Incredibly low numbers for the HD consoles.

    Oh and Yakuza 4 was total shit except for the fighting... amazing the Japanese like it so much.

  • Xboxfanuk #8 1 year ago

    I kinda thought Sony would be hiring the real Yakuza to take care of Annonymous and Geholt.

  • vizzini #9 1 year ago

    TriggerHappyTel: I thought it would be GT5. Good on Yakuza though; it's really the only decent home console franchise Sega have got these days...

    Checkout Virtua Fighter 5 on either 360/PS3 or Valkyria Chronicles on PS3/PSP, they are both superior franchise imo, and equally by real Sega developers.

    Granted we all still scratch our heads at their misuse of the Monkeyball franchise, after Monkyeball 1 & 2 on cube being so good. But atleast they still have it in their locker if they ever employee a CEO in Japan with a bit of games industry understanding.

  • JoeGBallad #10 1 year ago

    Good on Yakuza. Not the real yakuza, they're a bit scary. The yakuza games have been consistently one of the best series, especially yakuza 3, which was the best game that year. Baffling that so many people regard it as some sort of budget game and flock to shite like call of duty over here.

  • oldtrusty #11 1 year ago

    I love the Yakuza series so much I called my son "Yakuza". He's in the jail now. :-(

  • ToAks #12 1 year ago

    a really good game , i love the Yakuza series, well deserved no1.

    i guess it will be metal gear on top this year..or maybe an RPG?

  • funkateer #13 1 year ago

    "Oh and Yakuza 4 was total shit except for the fighting... amazing the Japanese like it so much. "

    Well done, nice troll :)
    Yakuza 4 is absolutely fantastic and for me already one of the highlights of 2011.

  • TruSmiles #14 1 year ago

    It interests me how people still go on about how SEGA can't do anything right, yet clearly they create games which are good. Weird huh?

  • sonicyoda #15 1 year ago

    @TruSmiles

    If you think about it, the only really crap games they've published have been the Monkey Ball series (which isn't all bad, just getting a bit stale now) and the Sonic series (which started out great, got shit and has started to pick up again recently). Sure, they milk the Mega Drive back-catalogue quite a bit but they've delivered some cracking games of late. Vanquish, Bayonetta, Sonic Colours, Yakuza 3 & 4, Resonance of Fate, Let's Tap, Crush, Virtua Fighter 5...
    Edited by sonicyoda at 19/04/11 @ 10:01

  • knightmt #16 1 year ago

    I hope Sega release another Vanquish. I know they did not develop it, but once I got past the control method it is definitely my favourite Sega release of last year.

  • Architect_z #17 1 year ago

    Never be as good as Gitaroo Man

  • Bigmac1910 #18 1 year ago

    Im around 50 hours in, and still loving every second of it, so much to do, even after the main campaign.

  • carlosdfn #19 1 year ago

    Well deserved, it's my GOTY so far. I had never played a Yakuza game before and this blew my mind.

  • raloB #20 1 year ago

    Those numbers put into perspective how irrelevant it is that 360 doesn't do well in the region. The best selling HD game only sold half a million. It also puts into perspective why most Japanese dev/publishers are turning focus outside of their region.

  • coolbritannia #21 1 year ago

    Wonder if we'll see the Japanese market come back next gen?