Saling The World: God of War III, Pokemon Lead U.S. Software Sales

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 18th, 2010, find God of War III leading console software sales in the United States, while Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver head the portable sales rankings. 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 Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo), 3. Just Dance (Ubisoft), 4. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo), 5. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo). Japan: 1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo), 2. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo), 3. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo), 4. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo), 5. Karaoke Joysound Wii DX (Hudson). UK: 1. Just Dance (Ubisoft), 2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo), 3. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo), 4. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo), 5. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo). The Balance Board-bundled version of Wii Fit Plus surges to the top of the U.S. Wii sales chart after a recent restock at Amazon this week. Amazon's renewed supply has since been exhausted, however, and the game's aftermarket value is beginning to rise among third-party sellers. Ubisoft's Just Dance once again leads the UK sales chart, meanwhile, as New Super Mario Bros. Wii keeps the top spot in Japan. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 2. Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix), 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), 4. Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening (EA Games), 5. Mass Effect 2 (EA Games). Japan: 1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix), 3. Borderlands (2K Games), 4. Darksiders: Shinpan no Toki (Konami), 5. Steins;Gate (5pb). UK: 1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), 3. FIFA 10 (EA Sports), 4. Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix), 5. Metro 2033 (THQ). Battlefield: Bad Company 2 overtakes Final Fantasy XIII to become this week's biggest-selling Xbox 360 title in North America. Bad Company 2 also tops the charts in Europe and Japan. Final Fantasy XIII drops to fourth place in the UK in its second week of release, meanwhile, as THQ's Metro 2033 debuts at fifth. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. God of War III (SCEA), 2. Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix), 3. God of War Collection (SCEA), 4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 5. Heavy Rain (SCEA). Japan: 1. Ryu ga Gotoku 4: Densetsu o Tsugumono (Sega), 2. God of War Collection (Capcom), 3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 4. Demon's Souls (SCEI), 5. BioHazard 5 Alternative Edition (Capcom). UK: 1. God of War III (SCEE), 2. Heavy Rain (SCEE), 3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), 5. FIFA 10 (EA Sports). God of War III is off to a strong sales start in North America, beating out Final Fantasy XIII to become the week's biggest PS3 software seller. God of War Collection sees a sales boost as a result, while Heavy Rain lags behind Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at fifth place. Elsewhere, Sega's Yakuza series sequel Ryu ga Gotoku 4: Densetsu o Tsugumono leads the Japanese charts in its debut week, as God of War III overtakes Heavy Rain in the UK. PC North America: 1. Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening (EA Games), 2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 3. The Sims 3 (EA Games), 4. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (EA Games), 5. Napoleon: Total War -- Limited Edition (Sega). Japan: 1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 2. Monster Hunter Frontier Online Season 5.0 Premium Package (Capcom), 3. Monster Hunter Frontier Online Season 7.0 Premium Package (Capcom), 4. Anniversary no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World (QuinRose), 5. SimCity 4 Deluxe (EA Games). UK: 1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 2. Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening (EA Games), 3. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (EA Games), 4. Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (THQ), 5. Football Manager 2010 (Sega). BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening takes top honors in its debut week in North America, surpassing last week's sales champ Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight premieres at fourth place, pushing Napoleon: Total War to fifth. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 maintains its sales lead in the UK, meanwhile, and beats two editions of Monster Hunter Frontier to become the week's top seller in Japan. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Pokemon SoulSilver Version (Nintendo), 2. Pokemon HeartGold Version (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 5. Infinite Space (Sega). Japan: 1. Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo), 2. Fushigi no Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren 4 - Kami no Hitomi to Akuma no Heso (Spike), 3. Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki (Nintendo), 4. Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi (Square Enix), 5. Love Plus (Konami). UK: 1. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Nintendo), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo), 4. Pokemon Platinum Version (Nintendo), 5. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo). Pokemon SoulSilver and Pokemon HeartGold dominate Nintendo DS sales in their premiere week, and easily overtake New Super Mario Bros. for the top two chart positions in the United States. Mario Kart DS drops to fourth place, as the PlatinumGames-developed RPG Infinite Space finishes fifth. Nintendo's Pokemon spinoff title Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki sees another big sales week in Japan, meanwhile, as Pokemon Platinum finds a sales boost as anticipation builds for the upcoming UK release of Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix), 2. Killzone: Liberation (SCEA), 3. God of War: Chains of Olympus (SCEA), 4. Resistance: Retribution (SCEA), 5. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony -- Limited Edition (Xseed). Japan: 1. Gundam Assault Survive (Bandai), 2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom), 3. God Eater (Namco), 4. Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 3D (SCEI), 5. Shin Sangoku Musou: Multi Raid 2 (Koei). UK: 1. FIFA 10 (EA Sports), 2. James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (Ubisoft), 3. LittleBigPlanet (SCEE, 4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar), 5. Invizimals -- Camera Bundle (SCEE). Dissidia Final Fantasy climbs to the top of the North American PSP chart following a recent Amazon "Deal of the Day" price drop. God of War: Chains of Olympus also sees a sales boost resulting from the recent release of God of War III, as former chart leader Lunar: Silver Star Harmony falls to fifth place. Gundam Assault Survive debuts at first place in Japan, meanwhile, as the Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! follow-up Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 3D leads over Koei's Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce sequel Shin Sangoku Musou: Multi Raid 2.