Nintendo still king of the castle in Japan

By Robert Purchese Published 16 January, 2009

But PS3 gains momentum.

Nintendo systems are winning Japan once more after a greedy Christmas period.

The DS is streets ahead of competition for the week ending 11th January, but down by over 100,000 sales from last week. Only three games for the handheld populate the top ten, but a further 20 are counted in the overall top 50.

The best-sellers this week are on PSP, which finishes second in the hardware chart. Action spin-off Dissidia: Final Fantasy leads the way, followed by the budget version of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Seven PSP titles in all are in the top 50.

At third, unsurprisingly, is the Wii, which counts platform stalwarts Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii among the top ten. Wii Music, incidentally, is down at 37. In total, 13 Wii games litter the top 50.

The PS3 continues to gain momentum and finishes at four, as JRPG White Knight Chronicles sits at six in the software stakes, followed by Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III at seven. A further three PS3 games place outside the top ten.

Xbox 360 finishes with under half the PS3 weekly sales, and has no games in the top 50.

Hobbling OAP PS2 finishes last, meanwhile, but manages a top ten entry with a Limited Edition of Gundam Musou 2, and some unpronounceable game at 49.

Various tables, courtesy of Media Create and NeoGAF (we'd marry you if we could) are below.

Position Title Platform This Week Lifetime
1 Dissidia: Final Fantasy PSP 49,000 818,000
2 Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) PSP 34,000 305,000
3 Rhythm Tengoku Gold DS 33,000 1,568,000
4 Wii Fit Wii 29,000 3,155,000
5 Wagamama Fashion: Girl's Mode DS 29,000 644,000
6 White Knight Chronicles PS3 26,000 304,000
7 Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III PS3 25,000 292,000
8 Gundam Musou 2 (Limited Edition) PS2 25,000 225,000
9 Kirby Super Star Ultra DS 23,000 1,021,000
10 Mario Kart Wii Wii 21,000 2,155,000
Platform This Week Last Week This Year Lifetime
Nintendo DS 101,630 230,678 332,308 25,451,951
PlayStation Portable 60,495 157,088 271,583 11,575,747
Nintendo Wii 41,243 119,965 161,208 7,640,109
PlayStation 3 28,144 60,654 88,798 2,711,226
Xbox 360 10,554 19,964 30,248 860,788
PlayStation 2 6,628 12,548 19,176 21,418,700
Platform This Week Last Week This Year Lifetime
Nintendo DSi 78,201 182,518 78,201 916,771
Nintendo DS Lite 23,429 48,160 23,429 17,374,394
Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • YobRenoops #1 3 years ago

    Yay

  • Razz #2 3 years ago

    Nintendo World Domination \o/

    Congratulations on successful products. I can't believe those DSi numbers though, almost a million already! Even though I've got one I never knoe it would be so popular.

  • bioreit #3 3 years ago

    Just to divert from the Nintendo-Sony shenanigans for a sec...

    Looks like the 360-PS3 separation distance is pretty steady, with PS3 having three times the numbers of 360 in basically all of those posted stats. I think MS can kiss goodbye to any kind of strong Japanese presence, to be honest.

  • YobRenoops #4 3 years ago

    I wish we could get World Wide LTD figures for all the consoles. I'm fed up with this Japan, US, EU split.

  • Vistrix #5 3 years ago

    Microsoft might aswell completely pull out of Japan and give up on these sub par RPG releases.

    Its obviously costing alot of money to stay there.

  • Dizzy #6 3 years ago

    "Microsoft might aswell completely pull out of Japan and give up on these sub par RPG releases. "

    Their aim was to get 1M 360 is Japan. They might succeed in 2009. That will enable them to have decent software numbers. They already have the support of the Japanese devs anyway.

  • Gyruss #7 3 years ago

    @Vistrix

    "Microsoft might aswell completely pull out of Japan and give up on these sub par RPG releases. Its obviously costing alot of money to stay there."

    On the other hand, they've already sold considerably more 360's than original Xboxes.

  • drumbaby #8 3 years ago

    But it gives them the horn the (very) odd week when they sell more than Sony.

  • Ceatlan #9 3 years ago

    I didn't think you could still get the original DS as opposed to the DS Lite, and who would have possibly thought that they would have sold 5x as many old DS's this week compared to DS Lites.

  • Eighthours #10 3 years ago

    I didn't think you could still get the original DS as opposed to the DS Lite, and who would have possibly thought that they would have sold 5x as many old DS's this week compared to DS Lites.

    I hope I'm not falling into a carefully laid trap here when I say that the Nintendo DS total is the Lites + the DSIs.

  • Doctor_What #11 3 years ago

    Nearly 3:1 for Sony:MS? Ouch. Still, that's considerably smaller figures than in the rest of the world for MS. I had wondered if the RPG fix that the 360 has been getting would improve their stakes, along with the price drop, but it looks like that was only a very short-lived perk.

    Anyway, not all 360 RPGs suck: I still enjoy Lost Odyssey. It's old fashioned, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

  • Widge #12 3 years ago

    Where does Australia fit into this? Someone mentioned that in another thread. Or is there a whole world of "other territories" we don't really get to hear about?

  • jaxon58 #13 3 years ago

    Wouldn't have thought the Japanese would need Wii Fit. Their ladies all seem so very slender and thin to me. Well, on the videos I've seen anyway.

  • Vice.Destroyer #14 3 years ago

    Ampland.com is not a true reflection of the size of japanese women.

  • miiiguel #15 3 years ago

    I still remember when Xbox (180) sold 200 units/week in Japan...

  • crwoody #16 3 years ago

    "Where does Australia fit into this? Someone mentioned that in another thread. Or is there a whole world of "other territories" we don't really get to hear about? "

    Do sheep play games?

  • bioreit #17 3 years ago

    Just had a look at the stats for Japan hardware-wise - oh wow. Did Microsoft really only sell 473,000 original Xboxes? I guess having a third of the install base of Sony's later-released PS3 doesn't matter to them when they've managed to double their market success!

  • IronCladChicken #18 3 years ago

    @Razz - Are the DSi's any good? I was thinking about grabbing one myself (mainly for the larger screens) but I wasn't sure if it was worth spending the extra cash?

  • bioreit #19 3 years ago

    @ retibra

    True, but at least they can show to investors that they've managed to double their presence in Japan and still haven't finsihed yet!

    As long as no investors ask "Yeah, but double of what....?"

  • ronuds #20 3 years ago

    @ retriba

    So going by your proposed strategy for MS, Sony should pretty much pull the PS3 from the store shelves because they've gone from 1st to dead last in every country but 1?

    Sometimes things happen overnight and sometimes they don't. To just give up though when you're at least making SOME headway? Nonsense.

  • Supercham #21 3 years ago

    I'm suprised that the 360 hasnt sold 1m yet in japan. Have you seen the japanese marketplace? There is loads of stuff on there more than the uk marketplace.

  • Les #22 3 years ago

    "I guess having a third of the install base of Sony's later-released PS3 doesn't matter to them when they've managed to double their market success!"

    I bet you were being sarcastic. Not always easy to spot in written language. ;)

  • thepiedpiper #23 3 years ago

    silly japs

  • GamesConnoisseur #24 3 years ago

    What was the install base of PS2 vs Xbox? Mere 3 to 1?

    This answered the question if MS made progress and/or Sony losing their once unquestionable dominance.

    Never expected X360 to take the crown or better PS3/Wii but MS looked for an improvement from the last gen.

  • clockworkzombie #25 3 years ago

    @crwoody

    "Do sheep play games?"

    You are thinking of New Zealand.

  • canIdoyabombsforya #26 3 years ago

    Sony are losing $billions

  • crwoody #27 3 years ago

    @ clockworkzombie, I should really stop drinking in the midddle of the day :p

  • agentk1986 #28 3 years ago

    The Xbox 360 still has a majority of their games that cater to a western audience, even though a better market stragety was planned for Japan at launch to improve over the Xbox debacle. How many of those Japanese specific games are exclusive to the 360?

    What happened to the simple reasoning that Japanese consumers will always go for a Japanese product first. That was all I heard last gen from fanboys.

  • EvilBob_leeds #29 3 years ago

    MS have gained a bit of market traction in Japan with the 360, but they paid a lot of money for it. The big question is how much they paid out for the exclusive JRPG titles, and how many consoles they'd have shifted otherwise. If you've cashed out (for example, I don't have the figures, but I would be interested to see them) $20 million a pop for Blue dragon and Lost planet, and they've help you shift 400,000 consoles, then you're paying $100 per console shifted. Will those customers be back next generation? Do those customers play on their 360s on a regular basis? The fact that the 360 has shifted 800,000 units and can't get a single game in the top 50 suggests that they've been bought for the exclusives and then left to rot.