Saling The World: Dragon Quest Swords Tops Sales in Debut Week

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 July 12th, 2007, feature platform-spanning sales domination by Dragon Quest Swords in Japan and surges in popularity for Gears of War and World of Warcraft in the United States. 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. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo), 3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 4. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom), 5. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou (Square Enix), 2. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 3. BioHazard 4: Wii Edition (Capcom), 4. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 5. Zelda no Densetsu: Twilight Princess (Nintendo). UK: 1. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom), 2. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo), 3. Mario Strikers Charged Football (Nintendo), 4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 5. Wii Play (Nintendo). As many predicted, Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joou to Kagami no Tou debuted to take first place in Japanese Nintendo Wii software sales, and faced little trouble in becoming this week's single best-selling game across all platforms in the region. Meanwhile, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Mario Party 8 continue to battle for chart dominance in the United States and Europe. Mario Party 8 takes the lead this week in the U.S. after lagging behind RE4 last week, though Wii owners in the UK prefer Resident Evil 4 by a narrow margin. Xbox 360 North America: 1. The Darkness (2K Games), 2. Gears of War (Microsoft), 3. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 4. Overlord (Codemasters), 5. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft). Japan: 1. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 2. Dead Rising -- Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Capcom), 3. The IdolM@ster (Namco), 4. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix), 5. Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (Microsoft). UK: 1. The Darkness (2K Games), 2. Colin McRae: DiRT (Codemasters), 3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 4. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 5. Gears of War (Microsoft). Microsoft's recent announcement of an enhanced PC port of Gears of War has done little to slow the title's sales progress. The Xbox 360 version of Gears of War jumps up a few places in this week's sales results after seeing strong but unremarkable sales in weeks previous. In Japan, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 outsells all competing Xbox 360 software in its first week of release. Its chart longevity is questionable, however, given that first-person shooters tend to disappear quickly from weekly Japanese bestseller lists. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo), 2. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 4. The Darkness (2K Games), 5. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda). Japan: 1. Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 (SCEI), 2. FolksSoul: Ushinawareta Denshou (SCEI), 3. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (D3 Publisher), 4. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 5. Power Smash 3 (Sega). UK: 1. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft), 2. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEE), 3. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE), 4. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo), 5. MotorStorm (SCEE). Though PlayStation 3 console sales have jumped exponentially following a recent universal price drop in the United States, software sales results see little change in the aftermath. Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Resistance: Fall of Man remain in the highest demand, with little chart variation to speak of. Japanese gamers, on the other hand, continue to drive big sales numbers for Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 and FolksSoul, the latter of which sees a small sales boost after a mediocre performance during its first few weeks of release. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 2. God of War II (SCEA), 3. MLB 07: The Show (SCEA), 4. LEGO: Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 5. Guitar Hero (RedOctane). Japan: 1. Super Robot Taisen Original Generations (Banpresto), 2. Memories Off #5 Encore (Cyber Front), 3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -- Best Price (Capcom), 4. Pop'n Music 14 Fever! (Konami), 5. GrimGrimoire (Nippon Ichi). UK: 1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 2. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Eidos), 3. Shrek the Third (Activision), 4. Formula One 06 -- Platinum (SCEE), 5. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix). Memories Off #5 Encore and Pop'n Music 14 Fever! pull in impressive sales in their debut week in Japan, but Super Robot Taisen Original Generations remains firmly cemented in the top spot. Nippon Ichi's GrimGrimoire makes a return to the chart this week after an absence of several months, thanks to a discount in price by 50 percent. Sales results are otherwise unsurprising elsewhere in the world, though interestingly, the PS2 version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came very close to eclipsing the popular Nintendo Wii port in sales this week. PC North America: 1. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 2. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 3. Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek (Her Interactive), 4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 5. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games). Japan: 1. Monster Hunter Frontier (Capcom), 2. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom), 3. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica Memories White -- First Emotion (Ocelot), 4. Heart no Kuni no Alice -- Wonderful Wonder World (QuinRose), 5. Eiyuu Densetsu VI: Sora no Kiseki the 3rd (Nihon Falcom). UK: 1. World of Warcraft (Blizzard), 2. The Sims 2: H&M Stuff (EA Games), 3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (EA Games), 4. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard). Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek's reign at the top of the PC software sales chart in the United States comes to an end this week in the wake of a recent price drop for World of Warcraft, which Amazon now lists at a price of $9.99 in the United States. The discount has reignited interest in The Burning Crusade as well, with the expansion pulling in impressive sales numbers despite receiving no discount in price. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix also performs much better this week than in its first weeks of release, and finishes as the week's best-selling port of the game, second only to the Nintendo Wii version. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 4. Brain Age (Nintendo), 5. Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei (Nintendo), 2. Ganbaru Watashi no Kakei Diary (Nintendo), 3. Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! (SNK Playmore), 4. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke (Nintendo), 5. Miru Chikara o Jissen de Kitaeru: DS Ganryoku Training (Nintendo). UK: 1. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo), 2. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 3. Cooking Mama (505 Games), 4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5. Big Brain Academy (Nintendo). A particularly strong debut for Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! last week prompted some doubt as to whether the popular Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei could reclaim a first-place finish in the weeks thereafter. This week's results, however, feature a decisive victory for Zelda, as both Mugen no Sunadokei and the just-released Ganbaru Watashi no Kakei Diary outpace Dokidoki Majo Shinpan!'s sales by a wide margin. In the United States, meanwhile, Pokemon Pearl has now fallen far behind Pokemon Diamond in weekly sales, and seems unlikely to catch up in future weeks. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Lumines (Ubisoft), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts), 4. Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition (Square Enix), 5. MLB 07: The Show (SCEA). Japan: 1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom), 2. Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (Square Enix), 3. Ratchet & Clank 5: Gekitotsu! Dodeka Ginga no MiriMiri Gundan (SCEI), 4. Minna no Chizu 2 with GPS Receiver (Zenrin), 5. Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki FC (Nihon Falcom). UK: 1. Virtua Tennis 3 (Sega), 2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 3. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 4. Lumines -- Platinum (Ubisoft), 5. Sega Mega Drive Collection (Sega). The homebrew-enabling Lumines remains in short supply in the United States, but that doesn't stop many of Amazon's users from buying aftermarket copies at inflated prices of $40 or more. Elsewhere, the once-strong worldwide demand for Lumines continues to dissipate, with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd once again outselling all competing PSP software in Japan, while a discounted Virtua Tennis 3 takes top honors in the UK.