Saling The World: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin Topples DS Competitors

Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five real-time Amazon.com sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide. This week's charts, with data taken from January 17th, 2008, show the just-released Advance Wars: Days of Ruin taking a surprise victory in North American DS sales. Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows: Nintendo Wii North America: 1. Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party Bundle (Konami), 2. Wii Play (Nintendo), 3. Endless Ocean (Nintendo), 4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 5. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 3. NiGHTS: Hoshi Furu Yoru no Monogatari (Sega), 4. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo), 5. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo). UK: 1. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega), 3. Big Brain Academy for Wii (Nintendo), 4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (EA Sports), 5. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts). Though it remained a difficult find in stores and online throughout the holidays, the dance mat-bundled Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party leads this week's North American Nintendo Wii software sales, following a resupply at Amazon. Wii Play also rejoins the region's sales chart after a long absence, as Amazon's stock of especially popular titles stabilizes. The just-released Endless Ocean enters the top five this week at third place, though the anticipated No More Heroes fails to chart, thanks to a delay that suspends item shipment until the end of the month. Elsewhere, a discount in price places NiGHTS: Hoshi Furu Yoru no Monogatari back in the top five in Japan, and Wii Play returns to lead sales in the UK. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 4. Burnout Paradise (EA Games), 5. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft). Japan: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Dead Rising / Gears of War -- Xbox 360 Platinum Double Pack (Capcom/Microsoft), 3. The IdolM@ster -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Namco), 4. Armored Core 4 -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (From Software), 5. Chikyuu Boueigun 3 -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (D3 Publisher). UK: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Burnout Paradise (EA Games), 3. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 5. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft). With Amazon's supply issues finally resolved for both titles, the sales battle between Guitar Hero III and Rock Band heats up to new levels of intensity. Though Rock Band came out on top last week, Guitar Hero III narrowly takes the lead in this week's North American sales results. Both titles are expected to remain top sellers for some time to come, and it should be interesting to see which game comes out ahead on a weekly basis. In the midst of this rivalry, Burnout Paradise debuts to a fourth place finish in the United States, and places second in the UK. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Burnout Paradise (EA Games), 3. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 4. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (SCEA). Japan: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Armored Core 4 -- The Best Collection (From Software), 3. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Koei), 4. Uncharted: El Dorado no Hihou (SCEI), 5. Imabikisou (Sega). UK: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Burnout Paradise (EA Games), 3. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami), 5. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE). After opening up preorders for the title earlier this week, Amazon reports that presales for the upcoming U.S. version of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue outperform the sales of all currently available PS3 software this week. Burnout Paradise makes an impressive debut at second place, meanwhile, as Uncharted sees a steep fall from second to fifth place in the wake of a sales jump for Rock Band and Assassin's Creed. In Japan, gamers shift their attention to the soon-to-be-released Devil May Cry 4, which presells more copies than any other title in the region this week. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision), 4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision), 5. God of War II (SCEA). Japan: 1. Lucky * Star -- DX Pack (Kadokawa Shoten), 2. Super Robot Taisen OG Gaiden (Bandai), 3. Lucky * Star (Kadokawa Shoten), 4. Okami -- PlayStation 2 The Best (Capcom), 5. Persona 3: Fes -- Standalone Version (Atlus). UK: 1. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 2. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 (THQ), 3. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 4. Ben 10: Protector of Earth (D3 Publisher), 5. SingStar (SCEE). The battle between Rock Band and Guitar Hero III is also closely waged on the PlayStation 2 this week, with Rock Band maintaining its lead after a first-place finish last week. Guitar Hero wins out in overall sales across all entries in the franchise, however. In Japan, Lucky * Star unsurprisingly tops sales in its first week of release, and will likely head future weeks as well, given its high degree of preorder popularity that spanned months prior to its release. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft Battlechest (Blizzard), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 4. Crysis (EA Games), 5. The Sims 2 Deluxe (EA Games). Japan: 1. Civilization IV Deluxe Pack (Cyber Front), 2. Civilization IV: Complete Japanese Edition (Cyber Front), 3. Final Fantasy XI: Altana no Kamihei (Square Enix), 4. Crysis (EA Games), 5. RPG Tsukuru VX (Enterbrain). UK: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Football Manager 2008 (Sega), 3. Pirates of the Burning Seas (Sony Online), 4. The Sims 2 (EA Games), 5. World of Warcraft (Blizzard). Demand for World of Warcraft Battlechest varies wildly from week to week, as the title once again takes a first-place sales victory despite being nowhere in the top five in the week prior. Whether this is due to supply shortages or bursts of interest resulting from sale prices is unknown, and the title remains as likely to lead next week's chart as it is to fail to appear at all. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Nintendo), 2. Wario: Master of Disguise (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Final Fantasy IV (Square Enix), 2. Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi (Square Enix), 3. Mario & Sonic at Bejing Olympics (Nintendo), 4. Takahashi Shoten Kanshuu: Saihinshutsu! SPI Perfect Mondaishuu (Genki), 5. Rune Factory 2 -- Special Edition (Marvelous). UK: 1. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 4. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 5. Sight Training (Nintendo). After remaining stagnant for several weeks running, this week's Nintendo DS sales data sees a rush of activity following the recent release of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which debuts as the week's best-selling DS title in the United States. The relatively obscure and critically panned Wario: Master of Disguise also finishes surprisingly high in this week's chart, as a direct result of a recent "Deal of the Day" sale price at Amazon. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (Konami), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Square Enix), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Konami). Japan: 1. Yggdra Union (Sting), 2. World Soccer Winning Eleven Ubiquitous Edition 2008 (Konami), 3. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku -- Limited Edition (Bandai), 4. Maplus: Portable Navi 2 (Edia), 5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 3. Worms Open Warfare 2 (THQ), 4. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (Activision), 5. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar). The discounted Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles leads weekly PSP sales once again in the United States. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions mounts a minor sales comeback, and finds itself back in the top five after a short absence. Japan, meanwhile, finds a new chart leader in the RPG remake Yggdra Union, which displaces reigning champion Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku. With a PS2 adaptation of Haruhi on the horizon, however, it seems likely that the PSP edition will once again rise up to the top of the region's chart in future weeks.