Japan's Yearly Sales Grow 3.8% To $6.6 Billion, Nintendo Dominates

Japanese media and research company Enterbrain has released details of hardware and software sales in Japan during the financial year ended March 30, 2008. During this period, all five of the best selling games were Nintendo first party titles, and the top two selling console formats were also from Nintendo. Overall, the Japanese market saw a 3.8 percent increase in combined hardware and software revenues from the previous year, to a total of ¥677 billion ($6.6bn), according to figures released via Enterbrain’s Famitsu magazine and website. The Nintendo DS sold almost twice as much as its nearest rival over the twelve month period, with a total of 6,343,547 units sold and a lifetime total estimated at 22,169,761. The Wii was next at 3,741,946 (lifetime total: 5,695,579) and the PSP at 3,427,971 (lifetime total: 8,574,026) – although recently all three top formats have shared almost interchangeable hardware results in Media Create’s weekly data. Sales for the PlayStation 2 were not revealed, but the PlayStation 3 sold 1,197,418 units over the year (lifetime total: 2,009,492) and the Xbox 360 sold just 235,318 (lifetime total: 602,558). In terms of software, Nintendo’s domination was absolute, with Wii Fit proving to be the best seller over the period, despite only being released in December. The hardware and software bundle sold 1,762,193 units, compared to 1,659,315 for Mario Party DS and 1,616,377 for Wii Sports. Despite only being released in late January, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the fourth highest seller of the period with 1,554,852 unit sales, followed by Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 on the Nintendo DS - with 1,354,447 unit sales for both versions.