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Zelda Pushes 3DS On Top In Weekly Japanese Charts

Nintendo's 3DS is back on top in Japan's weekly hardware sales charts for the first time in nine weeks, thanks to a boost from the release of Nintendo's high-profile The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.

Frank Cifaldi, Contributor

June 22, 2011

2 Min Read
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Nintendo's 3DS is back on top in Japan's weekly hardware sales charts for the first time in nine weeks, thanks to a boost from the release of Nintendo's high-profile The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. According to numbers provided by tracking firm Media Create (as translated on NeoGAF), the 3DS sold 40,649 units for the week ending June 19, beating out the PSP's 31,796. Zelda was the second-best selling game of the week, pushing a healthy 164,110 units for Nintendo. The last time the 3DS topped the charts was during the week ending April 17th. The release of Nintendo's Pilotwings Resort may have boosted sales a bit at the time, but the more likely reason was a shortage of PSPs on store shelves, which caused its sales to dip dramatically. Despite being in second place, the PSP did see a boost during the week, thanks to an anime tie-in called Little Battler Experience being released by Professor Layton publisher Level-5. That game topped the charts at 166,187 copies sold, and is among the strongest debuts for a new IP from the company as a publisher (only the Studio Ghibli collaboration Ninokuni had a stronger debut). Sales for the remaining hardware types remain flat, with the Xbox 360 continuing to struggle while both the Wii and the DS continue their decline as Nintendo begins phasing out support in favor of their new consoles. Rounding out the software top five were Sega's Yakuza: Of The End for the PSP at number 3 with 53,755 copies sold, 5pb's visual novel sequel Steins;Gate: Hiyoku Renri no Darling for the Xbox 360 at number 4 with 31,666 copies, and a double pack containing the Steins;Gate sequel and its predecessor at number 5 with 11,041 sold. The full hardware chart follows.

LW

TW

Platform

Weekly Sales

Last Week

2

1

3DS

40649

24649

1

2

PSP

31796

26750

3

3

PlayStation 3

16081

17104

4

4

Nintendo DS

10895

10661

5

5

Wii

6678

6357

6

6

Xbox 360

2875

2370

7

7

PlayStation 2

1346

1291

About the Author

Frank Cifaldi

Contributor

Frank Cifaldi is a freelance writer and contributing news editor at Gamasutra. His past credentials include being senior editor at 1UP.com, editorial director and community manager for Turner Broadcasting's GameTap games-on-demand service, and a contributing author to publications that include Edge, Wired, Nintendo Official Magazine UK and GamesIndustry.biz, among others. He can be reached at [email protected].

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