« Atelier Judie scores on the low end of its series’ usual | Main | Final Fantasy IX coming to Japanese PSN »
Japan’s fiscal year 2009 hardware/software sales + analysis
By Heath | March 31, 2010 at 7:14 am
The numbers are in, and Japan’s best-selling hardware and software (at least the top five) have been announced. The industry hauled in 549 billion yen from Japanese gamers from the end of March last year till just a few days ago. Here’s what brought in the biggest chunks of that cash.
Hardware Sales from 3/30/2009 to 3/28/2010:
Nintendo DS – 3,922,762 (bringing it to 30,075,728 all time. This is counting all versions of it)
PSP – 2,422,765 (14,227,354 all time. Again, this counts all models.)
Nintendo Wii – 2,183,938 (10,137,092 all time)
Playstation 3 – 1,925,429 (4,934,824 all time)
Xbox 360 – 251,911 (1,253,102 all time)
Top 5 selling games from 3/30/2009 to 3/28/2010:
1. Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Sky (DS) 4,150,667
2. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (DS) 3,663,655
3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) 3,587,755
4. Tomodachi Collection (DS) 3,085,838
5. Final Fantasy XIII (Playstation 3) 1,881,972
Three of the top five being RPGs, it’s still pretty clear what Japan’s favorite genre is. And with so many friggin’ DS units still being shifted, it should be no surprise that three of the top five selling games are on DS. The PSP sold an awful lot of units (coming in second places overall this fiscal year), but it seems its console sales surge came late in the fiscal year, so even though some games like God Eater and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep have sold excellently, they didn’t quite get into top five territory. (With sales like God Eater has experienced, though, don’t be surprised when a sequel is announced.)
Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest IX continued the sales trends set by their respectie forefathers by placing on the charts, as anyone could have predicted. It appears that once again this year, Dragon Quest is king in Japan, and with Famitsu’s most wanted list constantly placing the Wii’s Dragon Quest X as its fans’ #1 most anticipated game, don’t be surprised to see this pattern go on, at least for the next couple of years.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3) and the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV (PC, PS3 are likewise looking in the future, and current anticipation levels seem to indicate that they will be likewise be carrying on the market legacy of their title.
Source: Yahoo! Japan
Topics: Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Industry, Pokémon: Heart Gold/Soul Silver