JAPAN: Mario leads 2010s best sellers

Famitsu’s mid-year sales report for the video games industry in Japan has revealed success for Nintendo in both the software and hardware market.

For the period covering December 28th 2009 to June 27th 2010 New Super Mario Bros emerged as the best selling game, with 1.4m units shifted, bringing its lifetime sales in the territory to nearly 3.9m units.

Other strong performers included Square Enix pair Dragon Quest VI and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and Namco Bandai’s God Eater.

In keeping with the increased popularity of Western games in Japan, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 all made the Top 100.

In the hardware charts DS emerged as the best selling platform, with sales of its various guises reaching a total of just under 1.4m. Very close behind it was the PSP, which continues to flourish in Japan despite its struggles in the West. Its sales to date in 2010 stand at over 1.2m units. Both the Wii and PS3 have failed to hit the 1m unit mark yet in 2010.

Lifetime sales of the Wii are almost exactly double those of PS3, standing at 10.4m. Coincidentally, DS’s lifetime sales of 30.5m are almost exactly double those enjoyed by the PSP.

Here are Famitsu’s numbers in full, as published on NeoGAF:

Hardware Sales:

1. Nintendo DS [DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL] – 1,390,176 / 30,550,765
2. PlayStation Portable [PSP, PSP Go] – 1,243,802 / 14,630,257
3. Nintendo Wii – 934,010 / 10,436,009
4. PlayStation 3 – 827,906 / 5,219,313
5. Xbox 360 – 103,481 / 1,301,354
6. PlayStation 2 – 53,216 / 21,856,978

Software Sales – Top 20:

1. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) – 1,401,895 / 3,887,045
2. [NDS] Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie (Square Enix) – 1,293,916
3. [NDS] Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 (Square Enix) – 1,194,584
4. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) – 1,012,437 / 3,324,385
5. [PSP] Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Square Enix) – 728,286
6. [PSP] Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Capcom) – 727,823
7. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) – 695,295 / 1,993,828
8. [WII] Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) – 613,290
9. [PSP] God Eater (Bandai Namco) – 605,316
10. [PS3] Yakuza 4 (Sega) – 552,531
11. [PS3] Hokuto Musou (Tecmo Koei) – 544,807
12. [NDS] Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs (Pokemon) – 475,275
13. [NDS] Pokemon HeartGold/SuperiorSilver (Pokemon) – 393,862 / 3,776,459
14. [NDS] The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo) – 376,054 / 696,994
15. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) – 366,833 / 1,909,639
16. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) – 329,570 / 2,779,332
17. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [PSP The Best Reprint] (Konami) – 294,446 / 330,591
18. [PS3] Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition (Konami) – 258,961
19. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) – 193,179 / 1,891,435
20. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2 (Level 5) – 186,066 / 1,129,681


Other notable entries:

26. [PS3] Lost Planet 2 (Capcom) – 162,701
29. [PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2 (Sega) – 153,388
30. [PS3] Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope International (Square Enix) – 152,297
31. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Blue Samurai Challenge (Konami) – 141,800
36. [PS3] Super Street Fighter IV (Konami) – 132,664
37. [PS3] NieR Replicant (Square Enix) – 127,649
46. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (Konami) – 97,382 / 211,704
50. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto IV Episodes from Liberty City (Take 2) – 94,399
55. [PS3] God of War III (SCE) – 88,956
58. [360] Monster Hunter Frontier Online (Konami) – 82,490
60. [WII] Pokepark Wii (Nintendo) – 80,204 / 323,279
61. [PS3] Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix) – 79,959 / 244,578
62. [NDS] Quiz Magic Academy DS (Konami) – 74,670
63. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Blue Samurai Challenge (Konami) 74,123
76. [PS3] Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) – 63,469
81. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) – 60,290 / 3,653,124
84. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (Konami) – 59,399 / 436,739
90. [PS3] Call of Duty Modern Warfare (Square Enix) – 52,115 / 149,028

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