It should come as no surprise that the Japanese love the Wii...but damn.
Everyone expected the Wii to take Japan by storm as much as the Nintendo DS has, and if the first sales figures are any indication, Nintendo is well on their way to installing their white boxes of fun in every Japanese household.
Japanese magazine Famitsu calculates that in the first two days the Wii was on sale, 371,936 units were sold. All reports pointed to Nintendo having 400,000 consoles available at launch, so that means at least 93% of the first wave of hardware was sucked up by consumers. There's no doubt stores are sold out across the country, and the few systems that are left will probably disappear before Nintendo can get retailers a fresh shipment.
Famitsu also revealed the ten best-selling games during the Wii's opening two days. Nintendo's four launch games top the list, but you may be surprised to hear that Zelda: Twilight Princess wasn't the region's number one. With 145,068 buyers, was actually third in line behind Hajimete no Wii (Wii Play) and the non-packed-in Wii Sports. Both sold more than 170,000 units. Odoru! Made in Wario (WarioWare: Smooth Moves) was a distant fourth with about 63,000 copies sold.
The list of third party games resembles the also-ran contingent on a presidential ballot. The next six games on the list combined didn't come close to matching WarioWare's total. The whole top ten list is below. Remember that these are only the first two days' worth of sales in Japan.
Wii Hardware: 371,936
Wii Software:
1. Wii Sports - Nintendo: 176,880
2. Hajimete no Wii (Wii Play) - Nintendo: 171,888
3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo: 145,068
4. Odoru! Made in Wario (WarioWare: Smooth Moves) - Nintendo: 63,086
5. Swing Golf Pangya - Tecmo: 12,673
6. Ennichi no Tatsujin - Bandai Namco: 10,192
7. SD Gundam SCAD Hammers - Bandai Namco: 9,801
8. Red Steel - Ubisoft: 8,823
9. Tamagotchi no Pikapika Daitouryou! - Bandai Namco: 6,994
10. Elebits - Konami: 6,505