Saling The World: Company of Pokemon

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 September 7th, 2006, includes Pokémon madness and FIFA fanaticism. 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: Xbox 360 North America: 1. NBA Live 07 (EA Sports), 2. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 3. Dead Rising (Capcom), 4. Saints Row (THQ), 5. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts). Japan: 1. Dead Rising (Capcom), 2. Project Sylpheed (Square Enix), 3. Bullet Witch (AQ Interactive), 4. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft), 5. Zegapain XOR (Bandai). UK: 1. Just Cause (Eidos Interactive), 2. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. Saints Row (THQ), 4. Dead Rising (Capcom), 5. Test Drive: Unlimited (Atari). Japan has the most interesting selection of top sellers for the Xbox 360 this week, with region-exclusive titles like Zegapain XOR and Bullet Witch seeing almost as many sales as recent releases like Dead Rising and the Square Enix-published shooter Project Sylpheed. The United States, meanwhile, sees EA's NBA Live 07 as its biggest seller, with rival basketball sim NBA 2K7 trailing several places behind. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. Okami (Capcom), 3. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 4. NBA Live 07 (EA Sports), 5. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (Square Enix). Japan: 1. Kuryuu Youma Gakuenki re:charge (Atlus), 2. .hack//G.U. Vol.2 Kimi Omou Koe (Bandai), 3. God of War (Capcom), 4. Minna no Tennis (SCEJ), 5. Aria: The Natural (Alchemist). UK: 1. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 2. Kingdom Hearts 2 (Square Enix), 3. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 5. Just Cause (Eidos Interactive). LEGO Star Wars II takes the top spot from Okami this week in the United States, once again asserting its staying power in terms of sales. Rounding out the top 5 in the U.S. is newcomer Valkyrie Profile 2, while Europe sees similar success in another Square Enix-published RPG -- the recently released Kingdom Hearts 2. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 2. King's Quest Collection (Vivendi Games), 3. Company of Heroes (THQ), 4. Space Quest Collection (Vivendi Games), 5. The Sims 2 (EA Games). Japan: 1. Phantasy Star Universe (Sega), 2. Sim People: Expansion Collection 3 (EA Games), 3. Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan (Square Enix), 4. RPG Tsukuru 2000 (Enterbrain), 5. The Sims 2: Gorgeous Pack (EA Games). UK: 1. Company of Heroes (THQ), 2. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. The Sims 2: Open for Business Expansion Pack (EA Games), 4. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 5. The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff (EA Games). Vivendi's adventure game compilations continue to perform well in the U.S. this week, though both the King's Quest and Space Quest collections were bested by World of Warcraft in the end. Europe seems to be taking a shine to Company of Heroes, which has quickly climbed over tough competitors like LEGO Star Wars II and various editions of The Sims following its recent debut to take the #1 slot. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (Nintendo), 4. Brain Age (Nintendo), 5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Capcom). Japan: 1. Pokémon Diamond (Nintendo), 2. Pokémon Pearl (Nintendo), 3. Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen DS (Rocket Company), 4. Final Fantasy III (Square Enix), 5. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo), 4. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo). Though the series may be more than a decade old, Japan's love for Pokémon has not waned in the least. Debuting a scant two days ago, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl sold tremendous numbers in the meantime, becoming the top two sellers across all platforms in Japan. Pokémon is also currently enjoying success of a somewhat lesser magnitude in the United States with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, though the recently released Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 could prove to be a strong sales competitor in the coming weeks. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 2. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 3. NBA Live 07 (EA Sports), 4. Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Bandai Namco Games), 5. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (Square Enix). Japan: 1. Kiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki FC (Nihon Falcom), 2. Chronicle of Dungeon Maker (Taito), 3. Boxer's Road 2: The Real (Ertain), 4. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Tagforce (Konami), 5. Valhalla Knights (Marvelous). UK: 1. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 2. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 3. Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Bandai Namco Games), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar Games), 5. Gangs of London (SCEE). The sales charts for the United States and Europe hold little surprise, with EA Sports titles continuing to dominate, and old favorites like Tekken: Dark Resurrection maintaining popularity. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth sees a slight boost in the United States this week, however, thanks to the introduction of its sequel on the PS2, while Japan's list is shaken up by a number of prominent newcomers. Game Boy Advance North America: 1. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Nintendo), 2. Pokémon Leaf Green Version (Nintendo), 3. Pokémon Fire Red Version (Nintendo), 4. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Square Enix), 5. Super Mario Advance (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Rhythm Tengoku (Nintendo), 2. Screw Breaker (Nintendo), 3. Pokémon Emerald Version (Nintendo), 4. Famicom Mini: Ice Climber (Nintendo), 5. Final Fantasy IV Advance (Square Enix). UK: 1. Pokémon Emerald Version (Nintendo), 2. Cars (THQ), 3. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 4. Madagascar (Activision), 5. FIFA 07 (EA Sports). Though they may not be seeing the huge sales of the series' newest DS installments in Japan this week, several Game Boy Advance Pokémon titles continue to prosper in all regions. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is another popular seller in the United States -- a result possibly bolstered by Square Enix's recent announcement that a full remake of the title will be featured in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix + for the PS2. Xbox North America: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. Halo 2 (Microsoft), 3. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos Interactive), 4. Madden NFL 07 (EA Sports), 5. NBA Live 07 (EA Sports). Japan: 1. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Tecmo), 2. Halo (Microsoft), 3. Halo 2 (Microsoft), 4. Forza Motorsport (Microsoft), 5. Fable (Microsoft). UK: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 3. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 4. Just Cause (Eidos Interactive), 5. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos Interactive). Not even EA's new NBA Live and FIFA sequels were able to unseat the reigning LEGO Star Wars II in the United States and Europe this week, though the future could hold a different story. The only region to remain unaffected by LEGO Star Wars II is Japan, which remains content with safe, established hits in the Dead or Alive and Halo series. GameCube North America: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Nintendo), 3. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos Interactive), 4. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Nintendo), 5. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes (Nintendo), 2. Dairantou Smash Brothers DX (Nintendo), 3. Pokémon XD: Yami no Kaze Dark Lugia (Nintendo), 4. The Urbz: Sims in the City (EA Games), 5. Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire (Nintendo) UK: 1. FIFA 07 (EA Sports), 2. LEGO Star Wars (Eidos Interactive), 3. Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Nintendo), 4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo), 5. Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo). Same as it ever was. A distinct lack of new or future releases means that the GameCube charts only see a slight reshuffling this week for most regions. European Nintendo fans, however, are currently enjoying FIFA 07, and will likely continue to do so for the next several weeks.