Saling The World: Guitar Hero Debuts High, Puzzle Quest Tops DS Demand

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 list, with data taken from April 6th, 2007, include a chart-topping debut for Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360, while Puzzle Quest continues to beat the odds and outsell all competing DS software for the second week in a row. 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. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 3. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo), 4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 5. Sonic and the Secret Rings (Sega). Japan: 1. Wii Sports (Nintendo), 2. Mezase!! Tsuri Master (Hudson), 3. Hajimete no Wii (Nintendo), 4. Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami (Nintendo), 5. Zelda no Densetsu: Twilight Princess (Nintendo). UK: 1. Wii Play (Nintendo), 2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 3. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 4. The Godfather: Blackhand Edition (EA Games), 5. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Nintendo). The Wii charts exhibit very little change in any region this week, and the Japanese list is, remarkably, an exact copy of last week's results. This lack of activity should continue throughout most of April, though the upcoming release of Super Paper Mario should generate big sales in all territories. In the meantime, however, familiar faces like Wii Play and Twilight Princess continue to be the biggest sellers from week to week. Xbox 360 North America: 1. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 2. Viva Pinata (Microsoft), 3. Gears of War (Microsoft), 4. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft), 5. Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Activision). Japan: 1. Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (Tecmo), 2. Culdcept Saga: Title Up Data Edition (Bandai), 3. The IdolM@ster (Namco), 4. Call of Duty 3 (Spike), 5. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix). UK: 1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games), 2. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 3. Crackdown (Microsoft), 4. Earth Defence Force 2017 (D3 Publisher), 5. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft). Guitar Hero II debuts at the top of this week's Xbox 360 software sales chart in the United States (and places second in Europe to a discounted Oblivion),meeting with high demand from series fans in the days following its release. Viva Pinata, meanwhile, makes a surprising sales jump this week, placing second in weekly sales in the U.S. thanks to Amazon's recent price drop to $29.99. Tony Hawk's Project 8 also returns to the charts after being featured in Amazon's "Deal of the Day" promotion earlier in the week, though its newfound popularity faded shortly after its day-long price drop expired. PlayStation 3 North America: 1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda), 2. NHL 2K7 (2K Sports), 3. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA), 4. MotorStorm (SCEA), 5. Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Activision). Japan: 1. Gundam Musou (Bandai), 2. Power Smash 3 (Sega), 3. MotorStorm (SCEI), 4. Mist of Chaos (Idea Factory), 5. Resistance: Jinrui Botsuraku no Hi (SCEI). UK: 1. MotorStorm (SCEE), 2. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEE), 3. Formula One Championship Edition (SCEE), 4. NHL 2K7 (2K Sports), 5. Call of Duty 3 (Activision). Reaping the benefits of a significant drop in price, NHL 2K7 takes a position in the PlayStation 3 top sellers list in the United States for the first time in several months. Marvel Ultimate Alliance also returns to the top five for the same reason, though as was the case with this week's success of the Xbox 360 version of Tony Hawk's Project 8, Ultimate Alliance's popularity is likely to be short-lived. PlayStation 2 North America: 1. God of War II (SCEA), 2. God of War (SCEA), 3. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane), 4. MLB 07: The Show (SCEA), 5. Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix). Japan: 1. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ (Square Enix), 2. Rakushou! Pachi-Slot Sengen 5: Rio Paradise (Tecmo), 3. Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel (Bandai), 4. Musou Orochi (Koei), 5. VitaminX (D3 Publisher). UK: 1. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts), 2. Cricket 07 (EA Sports), 3. Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix), 4. EyeToy Play 3 with Camera (SCEE), 5. Okami (Capcom). Though the enhanced Xbox 360 port of Guitar Hero II has proven to be one of this week's best selling titles across all platforms, the five-month-old PS2 release also continues to move big numbers and outsell much of its competition in the United States. Also worth noting is this week's universal price drop for Kingdom Hearts II, which is significant enough to propel the title back into the top five PS2 sellers for the week. The same goes for LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Cricket 07, and Okami, all of which are seeing new life on the European sales charts thanks to recent reductions in price. PC North America: 1. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games), 2. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard), 3. The Sims 2 (EA Games), 4. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (EA Games), 5. The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (2K Games). Japan: 1. Medieval II: Total War (Sega), 2. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica -- 1 & 2 Box Edition (Ocelot), 3. Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack 2006 (Square Enix), 4. Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~ (QuinRose), 5. The Sims 2 Seasons! Data Set (EA Games). UK: 1. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (EA Games), 2. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars -- Kane Edition (EA Games), 3. The Sims 2: Seasons (EA Games), 4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (2K Games), 5. The Sims 2: Celebration Stuff (EA Games). World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade thankfully returns to the U.S. PC bestseller list this week, after a terrifying upheaval last week resulted in the chart lacking any version of World of Warcraft for the first time in several months. PC sales have once again calmed, with The Sims 2, Command & Conquer 3, and The Elder Scrolls IV providing predictable results in the United States, while Electronic Arts makes a clean sweep of every chart position in Europe. Nintendo DS North America: 1. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (D3 Publisher), 2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo), 4. Brain Age (Nintendo), 5. Tetris DS (Nintendo). Japan: 1. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Duke (Nintendo), 2. TOEIC Test DS Training (IE Institute), 3. Layton Kyouju no Fushigi na Machi (Level 5), 4. Yoshi's Island DS (Nintendo), 5. Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun (Shogakukan). UK: 1. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo), 2. 42 All-Time Classics (Nintendo), 3. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 4. Nintendogs: Lab & Friends (Nintendo), 5. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo). Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords continues to amaze with its sales strength in its third week of release, still besting even Nintendo's most popular first-party offerings in its reign of chart domination. Japan, meanwhile, still lists Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Motto Eigo Dukeas its top selling title across all platforms for the second week in a row, though competition from recently released brain training titles like TOEIC Test DS Training and Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun remains fierce. PlayStation Portable North America: 1. Daxter (SCEA), 2. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (D3 Publisher), 3. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts), 4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Rockstar), 5. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (SCEA). Japan: 1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom), 2. Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. Portable (Bandai), 3. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 2 (Konami), 4. Maplus: Portable Navi (Edia), 5. Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa (SCEI). UK: 1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar), 2. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (EA Sports), 3. Football Manager 2007 (Sega), 4. Test Drive Unlimited (Atari), 5. Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City (EA Games). Though its sales don't quite match the meteoric rise of its Nintendo DS cousin, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has seen a steady climb up the PSP sales charts since its release, and could very well find itself in the top spot if its popularity holds out. The only thing standing in its way of taking top honors this week is Daxter, which recently saw a large boost in sales after being promoted to Sony's budget-priced "Greatest Hits" series. In Japan, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd still reigns atop the PSP sales chart, despite a close battle with newcomers Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. Portable and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 2.