Report: New Super Mario Bros Gets Big Japanese Sales Start

According to apparent information from Japanese retailers, filtered via Japanese weblogs and import gaming site Game-Science, Nintendo's DS title New Super Mario Bros, which debuted on May 25th in Japan, sold a gigantic 480,000 copies on its first day at retail. The figure, if confirmed by Japanese tracking firm Media Create next week, will be the largest ever single-day sales figure in Japan, with fellow Nintendo DS title Brain Training 2 holding the previous figure at 415,000 in first-day sales, and shows the supreme strength of both DS hardware and software in Japan of recent. In fact, the latest Media Create charts covered on Gamasutra noted of the Japanese market: "The release of New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS is likely to have a significant impact on the charts next week, with Nintendo DS hardware sales increasing by 75 percent this week in anticipation, for a total of 177,049 (including 16,867 of the original version of the hardware)." Thus, it seems likely that, depending on whether DS Lite is again sold out in Japan, the DS hardware figures will shoot even higher this week - Gamasutra will have official confirmation of both hardware and software sales figures after the holiday weekend.