Japanese Sales Charts, Week Ending March 12

The release of the extra two DS Lite colors has had a more pronounced effect on the Japanese software sales chart this week, with notably more stock available than in previous weeks. However, this has coincided with the slowest week of software sales so far this year in Japan, with games selling only 62 percent of the weekly average. As a result of the new DS Lite colors, the DS version of Animal Crossing rose into the number one position for the first time since its debut in November. In that time it has not bee out of the top five, and it is already one of the top five selling Japanese titles of this generation, with a lifetime total of approximately 2,117,000 units. This week’s sales were relatively modest though, with just 81,850 units sold. Despite the lack of any new releases in the top ten, the continued strong performance of Samurai Warriors 2 at number three is impressive, with 48,632 units sold this week. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth has also proven to be unexpectedly popular for what is essentially a port of the PlayStation 2 version, with another 20,826 units added to its tally this week. In terms of hardware sales, the Nintendo DS totaled 138,737 units (89,790 DS Lite and 48,947 of the original model) amidst the now familiar reports of stock sell outs. Consumer interest in the DS seems to have positively affected the PSP, with another increase in sales to 40,091. All other formats saw decreases this week, with the PlayStation 2 down to 22,476 units sold and the Game Boy Advance family of consoles at 7,320. The GameCube accounted for just 1,360 sales, while the Xbox 360 was once again in last place with 1,296 units sold.

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