The games market in the Land of the Rising Sun dropped 6.9% from 2008
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20719
While Nintendo continues to top the sales charts in its home market, overall sales for game software and hardware were down 6.9% in Japan during 2009 to ¥542,640 million ($5.9 billion). In fact, the new sales data from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, covering December 29, 2008 to December 27, 2009, shows that the Japanese video game market shrunk for the second year in a row.
The Japanese game market has not seen positive growth since 2007, when overall sales jumped 9.9% to ¥687,660 million thanks to the strong hardware sales of Nintendo's DS and Wii, as well as Sony's PSP.
Software sales for 2009 exhibited a mild decline, dropping 1.8% to ¥326,160 million ($3.5 billion). Games on Nintendo platforms dominated the software sales chart, taking all but a single slot in the top 5.
Here are the best-selling games in Japan for 2009:
- 1. Dragon Quest IX (Square Enix, DS): 4,100,968
- 2. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (Pokemon, DS): 3,382,597
- 3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 2,485,150
- 4. Friend Collection (Nintendo, DS): 2,311,948
- 5. Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, PS3): 1,698,256
While the four DS varieties (DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi LL) sold 4,025,313 units in 2009, just a teeny bit below last year's 4,029,804 units, hardware sales still fell 13.6% to ¥216,490 million ($2.3 billion). Wii sales faced a steeper decline, dropping from 2,908,342 units sold in 2008 to 1,975,178 in 2009.
Here are the best-selling systems in Japan for 2009:
- Nintendo DS: 4,025,313 (Lifetime Sales: 29,160,589)
- PSP: 2,307,971 (Lifetime Sales: 13,386,455)
- Wii: 1,975,178 (Lifetime Sales: 9,501,999)
- PlayStation 3: 1,727,041 (Lifetime Sales: 4,391,407)
- Xbox 360: 331,706 (Lifetime Sales: 1,197,873)
