Saling The World: Army of Two Tops U.S. Charts, Yakuza 3 Leads Japan

Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five 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 March 6th, 2008, see Army of Two debuting to top sales in North America, while Japan finds sales leadership in the latest in Sega's Yakuza franchise, Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan. 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. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo), 3. Carnival Games (Global Star), 4. Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party (Konami), 5. Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge (Conspiracy). Japan: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Dairantou Smash Brothers X (Nintendo), 3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo), 4. Family Ski (Namco), 5. Wii Sports (Nintendo). UK: 1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega), 2. Big Brain Academy for Wii (Nintendo), 3. Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training (Nintendo), 4. Carnival Funfair Games (2K Games), 5. PDC World Championship Darts 2008 (Oxygen). Guitar Hero III once again dips out of chart range thanks to supply shortages at Amazon, leaving Wii Play to pick up the slack with a first-place finish in North America. Carnival Games also catches up to its competition after an inconsistent showing over the last few weeks, placing third in overall weekly sales. In Japan, Wii Fit finally overtakes Dairantou Smash Brothers X after finishing second in weekly Wii software sales throughout February, while Metroid Prime 3 makes its Japanese debut at third place in regional sales. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Army of Two (EA Games), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. Major League Baseball 2K8 (2K Sports), 4. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games), 5. Bully: Scholarship Edition (Rockstar). Japan: 1. The Idolm@ster: Live for You! (Namco), 2. Senko no Ronde Rev. X -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (G.Rev), 3. Riot Act -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Microsoft), 4. BioShock (Spike), 5. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Ubisoft). UK: 1. Army of Two (EA Games), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. Frontlines: Fuel of War -- Special Edition (THQ), 4. Bully: Scholarship Edition (Rockstar), 5. Lost Odyssey (Microsoft). EA's anticipated co-op shooter Army of Two finds fast sales in its first week of North American release. Amazon reports that the title surpasses Wii Play as this week's best-selling title across all platforms in the United States. 2K's Major League Baseball 2K8 also sees a busy debut week, as does Rockstar's upgraded Xbox 360 port of Bully. Namco's The Idolm@ster: Live for You! still leads Xbox 360 sales in Japan, meanwhile, as newly inducted entries in Microsoft's budget-priced Xbox 360 Platinum Collection receive renewed interest among shoppers at Amazon.co.jp. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. MLB 08: The Show (SCEA), 2. Army of Two (EA Games), 3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 4. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games), 5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (SCEA). Japan: 1. Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (Sega), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom), 4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 5. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom). UK: 1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 2. Army of Two (EA Games), 3. Burnout Paradise (EA Games), 4. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft), 5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami). Though Major League Baseball 2K8 performs well in its debut week on other platforms, Amazon reports that this week's most popular debuting baseball sim is the PS3 version of Sony's MLB 08: The Show. MLB 08 outsells all competing PS3 software this week, and makes an impressive showing as the week's fifth-best overall software seller across all platforms in North America. Elsewhere, Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! sweeps PS3 sales in its first week of release in Japan, while the UK finds Call of Duty 4 barely edging out a victory over Army of Two. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 2. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games), 3. MLB 08: The Show (SCEA), 4. Silent Hill Origins (Konami), 5. Guitar Hero II Bundle (Activision). Japan: 1. Gundam Musou Special (Bandai), 2. Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi -- Limited Edition (Banpresto), 3. Lucky * Star -- DX Pack (Kadokawa Shoten), 4. eb!Kore + Kimikiss Special Edition (Enterbrain), 5. Naraku no Shiro (Nippon Ichi). UK: 1. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 3. High School Musical: Sing It! (Disney), 4. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 (THQ), 5. Ben 10: Protector of Earth (D3 Publisher). MLB 08: The Show and Konami's PS2 port of the PSP-born Silent Hill Origins break into this week's top five sellers in North America, ending the weeks-long exclusive chart domination of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Amazon's PlayStation 2 charts additionally show a strong preorder debut for Persona 3: FES, an upcoming expansion to last year's popular Atlus-published RPG Persona 3. Presale numbers for FES currently outperform the weekly sales of all currently available PS2 software in the United States, and the title is expected to arrive as a top seller upon its release in April. PC North America: 1. The Sims 2: FreeTime (EA Games), 2. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Soulstorm (THQ), 3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 4. Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock), 5. The Sims 2 Deluxe (EA Games). Japan: 1. Clannad Full Voice (Key), 2. The Typing of the Dead II (Sega), 3. The Typing of the Dead II W Pack (Sega), 4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 5. Vocaloid 2 Character Vocal Series 01 -- Hatsune Miku (Cripton Future Media). UK: 1. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Soulstorm (THQ), 2. The Sims 2: FreeTime (EA Games), 3. The Sims 2 (EA Games), 4. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision). The Sims 2: FreeTime maintains its chart lead in the United States its second week of release. The real-time strategy expansion Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Soulstorm provides strong competition in its debut week, however, and takes top honors in this week's UK results. The recent sales leader Sins of a Solar Empire slides down to fourth place in the U.S., meanwhile, and could find itself out of chart range as soon as next week. Nintendo DS North America: 1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 2. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo), 3. Brain Age (Nintendo), 4. Brain Age 2 (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Soma Bringer -- Limited Edition (Nintendo), 2. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season (Konami), 3. Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Shoou no Seihai -- Limited Edition (Atlus), 4. Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Shoou no Seihai (Atlus), 5. Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Yasoukyoku (Marvelous). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega), 3. Cooking Mama (505 Games), 4. Sight Training (Nintendo), 5. More Brain Training (Nintendo). Professor Layton and the Curious Village finally succumbs to the sales might of New Super Mario Bros. this week, falling to second place after spending nearly an entire month at the top of the DS charts in North America. Japan also sees its chart upset with Nintendo's Soma Bringer beating Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2, which had previously headed Japanese DS sales for two weeks running. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. God of War: Chains of Olympus (SCEA), 2. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (Konami), 3. Patapon (SCEA), 4. MLB 08: The Show (SCEA), 5. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar). Japan: 1. MyStylist -- Camera Bundle (SCEI), 2. Musou Orochi (Koei), 2. MyStylist (SCEI), 3. Maplus: Portable Navi 2 (Edia), 4. Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou - Axis no Kyoui (Bandai), 5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom). UK: 1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami), 2. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (Activision), 3. Worms: Open Warfare 2 (THQ), 4. FIFA 08 (EA Sports), 5. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar). The awaited prequel God of War: Chains of Olympus dominates this week's PSP chart following a recent successful debut in the United States. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles sees yet another surge in sales, meanwhile, once again as a direct result of a "Deal of the Day" price drop at Amazon. Last week's sales champion Patapon still hangs on at third place, as the anticipated Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII continues to generate big presale numbers.