Saling The World: Chinatown Wars, Professor Layton Lead Worldwide DS Sales

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 March 19th, 2009, find Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Professor Layton leading Nintendo DS sales in the United States and Europe, as Super Robot Taisen K takes top honors in Japan. 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 Fit (Nintendo), 2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 3. My Fitness Coach (Ubisoft), 4. Wii Play (Nintendo), 5. Guitar Hero World Tour Full Band Kit (Activision). Japan: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu NEXT (Konami), 3. Wii de Asobu: Pikmin 2 (Nintendo), 4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 5. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii (Namco). UK: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. My Fitness Coach (Ubisoft), 3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 4. Wii Play (Nintendo), 5. MadWorld (Sega). A fresh new shipment of Wii Fit pushes the title back to the top slot in the North American Nintendo Wii sales chart. Ubisoft's My Fitness Coach has picked up steam in the meantime, finishing up this week at third. Wii Fit also returns to the top in Japan, where the debuting Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu NEXT finishes at second place. Last week's leader Wii de Asobu: Pikmin 2 takes third, while Mario Kart Wii drops to fourth. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom), 2. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision), 3. Halo Wars -- Limited Edition (Microsoft), 4. Disney Sing It Bundle with Microphone (Disney), 5. Halo Wars (Microsoft). Japan: 1. BioHazard 5 -- Deluxe Edition (Capcom), 2. The Idolmaster: Twins -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Namco), 3. Chaos;Head Noah (5pb), 4. Tales of Vesperia (Namco), 5. BioHazard 5 (Capcom). UK: 1. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 2. Street Fighter IV (Capcom), 3. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 4. Left 4 Dead (EA Games), 5. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft). Resident Evil 5 tops weekly Xbox 360 software sales numbers in its debut week in North America, beating out Call of Duty: World at War by a healthy margin. Disney Sing It returns to the U.S. top five after a drop in price, as both editions of Halo Wars continue to see brisk sales. Resident Evil 5 leads in Japan as well (as BioHazard 5), leaving Chaos;Head Noah and The Idolmaster: Twins to compete for second place. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom), 2. Killzone 2 (SCEA), 3. MLB 09: The Show (SCEA), 4. LittleBigPlanet (SCEA), 5. Street Fighter IV (Capcom). Japan: 1. BioHazard 5 (Capcom), 2. Musou Orochi Z (Koei), 3. Demon's Souls (SCEI), 4. Ryu ga Gotoku 3 (Sega), 5. Senjou no Valkyria -- PlayStation 3 the Best (Sega). UK: 1. LittleBigPlanet (SCEE), 2. Killzone 2 (SCEE), 3. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 4. WWE Legends of Wrestlemania (THQ), 5. Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (Ubisoft). Resident Evil 5 sees a successful first week on the PlayStation 3, pushing past reigning chart champion Killzone 2 to become the platform's biggest seller in the United States. MLB 09: The Show and LittleBigPlanet also remain strong U.S. contenders, as BioHazard 5 and Musou Orochi Z rule the charts in Japan. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. MLB 09: The Show (SCEA), 2. Katamari Damacy (Namco Bandai), 3. God of War II (SCEA), 4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (Atlus), 5. God of War (SCEA). Japan: 1. Amagami -- Special Edition (Enterbrain), 2. Amagami (Enterbrain), 3. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 (Konami), 4. Shinobido Imashime -- Spike the Best (Spike), 5. Ryu ga Gotoku 2 -- PlayStation 2 The Best (Sega). UK: 1. SingStar: Queen (SCEE), 2. SingStar: ABBA (SCEE), 3. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (Square Enix), 4. FIFA 09 (EA Sports), 5. Rugby 08 (EA Sports). The King of Fighters '98: Unlimited Match disappears from the U.S. charts this week despite a successful second-place debut in the week prior. A discounted Katamari Damacy moves up to take its place, as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and both God of War titles remain popular picks among Amazon shoppers. PC North America: 1. Empire: Total War (Sega), 2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard), 3. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros.), 4. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (THQ), 5. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Game of the Year Edition (2K Games). Japan: 1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Cyber Front), 2. Final Fantasy XI: The Vana'diel Collection (Square Enix), 3. Clannad Full Voice (Key), 4. Shin Koihime Musou Mahjong (BaseSon), 5. Ragnarok Online Beginners Package 2009 (E Frontier). UK: 1. Empire: Total War (Sega), 2. Football Manager 2009 (Sega), 3. Empire: Total War -- Special Forces Edition (Sega), 4. Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (Ubisoft), 5. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (THQ). Empire: Total War tops PC software sales in North America and Europe for the second week in a row, as World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King lags behind in both regions. A returning F.E.A.R. 2 pushes Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst out of the U.S. top five, as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and the Game of the Year edition of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion finish out regional results. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar), 3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. Scrabble (Hasbro). Japan: 1. Super Robot Taisen K -- Special Edition (Bandai), 2. Rittai Picross (Nintendo), 3. Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo), 4. Super Robot Taisen K (Bandai), 5. Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus -- Premium Pack (ASCII Media Works). UK: 1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar), 3. Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (Disney), 4. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 5. Puzzler Collection (Ubisoft). Renewed interest in Professor Layton and the Curious Village takes the title to the top of Amazon's weekly Nintendo DS sales charts in North America and the UK, while the just-released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars finishes at second place. Hasbro's DS adaptation of Scrabble also manages to climb its way into the top five in its premiere week in the United States, landing at fifth place. In Japan, Super Robot Taisen K trumps the former chart leader Rittai Picross, as newcomer Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus arrives at fifth place. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Resistance: Retribution (SCEA), 2. MLB 09: The Show (SCEA), 3. God of War: Chains of Olympus (SCEA), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. LocoRoco 2 (SCEA). Japan: 1. Ever17: The Out of Infinity -- Limited Edition (Cyber Front), 2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G -- PSP the Best (Capcom), 3. Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Izayoiki Aizouban -- Premium Box (Koei), 4. Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life - CS Edition (Prototype), 5. Brandish: Dark Revenant (Nihon Falcom). UK: 1. Resistance: Retribution (SCEE), 2. FIFA 09 (EA Sports), 3. Ben 10: Alien Force (D3 Publisher), 4. Football Manager Handheld 2009 (Sega), 5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (SCEE). Resistance: Retribution takes top honors in its first week of worldwide release, beating out last week's champion MLB 09: The Show in the United States. The popularity of the Nintendo DS release of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has apparently triggered Amazon customer interest in previous portable entries in the series, meanwhile, resulting in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories finishing as this week's fourth-best PSP seller in North America.