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Japanese Weekly Charts for Nov. 19-25

by James Charlton - November 29, 2007, 11:59 pm EST
Total comments: 7 Source: Media Create

This week's software sales really show how poorly Super Mario Galaxy is doing.

Media Create’s software charts show another strong week for Nintendo platforms, but you may be surprised at with what games.

At No. 1, clocking almost 600,000 units in sales was Dragon Quest IV on the DS.

The only Wii game in the top tier was at No. 6, with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, reaching just over 62,000 units sold.

Most depressingly however, was that this week saw Super Mario Galaxy pushed out the top ten to No.11. Media Create only supply units sold for the top ten games, but we can assume it sold less than the PlayStation 2 pachinko game at position ten, which managed 35,000 units.

Hardware proved more promising for Nintendo. The Wii took back its lead over the PlayStation 3, which had been marginally outselling it for the past couple of weeks. The Wii sold 54,362 consoles last week, with the PS3 only slightly behind at 50,564 units. Even if you add those together, you won’t reach the colossal DS Lite sales of 116,694 for that week.

Keep a close eye on the charts after December 1 and the release of Wii Fit. It’s widely expected to be a massive seller this holiday.

Talkback

GoldenPhoenixNovember 29, 2007

The Japanese make me ANGRY. How can you ignore Super Mario Galaxy?!?!? But of course they eat up a rehash of an old RPG.

KaironCarmine Red, Associate EditorNovember 29, 2007

Well, at least we can take respite that the Wii's hardware sales are slowly recovering, climbing back up over the PS3 finally!

Michael8983November 30, 2007

The Japanese haven't turned their back on Mario. Look how successful NEW SUPER MARIO BROS was. MARIO PARTY 8 also sold really well.
It's just that 3D platformers have never been big in the region.

SheckyNovember 30, 2007

Well didn't Galaxy already sell over a million copies in the US alone?

Edit: Seems like the Japanese weren't a fan of Twilight Princess for the Wii either.

LouieturkeyNovember 30, 2007

Zelda has never been a big seller in general in Japan. I think only Ocarina of Time sold over a million there, maybe LttP as well. But most of them went over 500,000. With 3D Mario, the platformers have not sold like they do in other countries. They barely sold over 1 million copies in Japan for Super Mario 64 whereas it was a 5-6 million seller in NA and Europe.

I still think Galaxy will stay afloat for a long while and will eventually top out around 8-9 hundred thousand in Japan.

vuduNovember 30, 2007

Keep in mind that there were eight new games on the list last week. Most of those will drop off quickly and there's a good change Galaxy will be back in the top ten next week. Unfortunately, that still doesn't excuse the fact that it's selling less than 35K units/week.

Luigi DudeNovember 30, 2007

According to Famitsu's top 10 chart, Mario Galaxy was number 10 with around 37,000 sold for the week. This was down only a few thousand from the previous week. This means Mario Galaxy actually has some legs and considering all videogame sales increase in Japan during December now, Mario Galaxy is still looking good.

Plus I get the feeling a lot of Nintendo fans in Japan are waiting until Smash Bros comes out before buying a Wii. Melee was the best selling Gamecube game in Japan by far and so it seems like Smash Bros is the game that will move systems over there again. I wouldn't be surprised if after Smash Bros is released in Japan, Mario Galaxy sales increase for a few weeks, since more hardcore Nintendo fans in Japan would then own a Wii.

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