Mario Kart, PSP Top Japanese Charts During Golden Week

For the third week in a row, the two top selling titles in Japan have remained the same, as Mario Kart Wii and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G on PSP continue to sell in large quantities during the Golden Week series of national holidays. One of the most important dates on the Japanese retail calendar sales have seen an increase across the board, although with few prominent new releases, the effect has been more limited than previous years. However, the final “Children's Day” holiday that ends Golden Week is not covered by this chart. Mario Kart Wii sold 173,000 units for the week, for a lifetime-to-date title in Japan of 1,120,000. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G sold 102,000 units for a lifetime total of 1,909,000. Capcom’s portable hit will likely reach the 2 million mark within the next two weeks, with Wii Fit, which sold 52,000 units this week, likely to reach the same milestone next week. The only new entry in the top ten is what is known in the West as Link’s Crossbow Training at number three, with 93,000 units of the hardware bundle sold. Although the Wii Zapper was launched at roughly the same time worldwide last year, the hardware peripheral in Japan was originally bundled with Sega’s Ghost Squad, and later Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. With the rest of the top ten largely unchanged from the previous week, the second highest new entry of the week is Namco’s turn-based strategy Emblem of Gundam for the Nintendo DS, at number twelve. Also new at number thirteen is Takara-Tomy’s anime tie-in Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Fate of Heat for the Nintendo DS. Hardware sales figures for the week have also been released alongside the slightly delayed software chart, with the PSP still on top with 100,870 units sold. Despite Golden Week this represents a modest increase of 8,000 units on the previous week. The Wii is again the second best selling console of the week, with sales up by nearly 23,000 units to 71,518. The Nintendo DS saw more moderate gains of 8,000 units, for a weekly total of 52,542. Other formats were also relatively unaffected by Golden Week, with PlayStation 3 sales up only 1,000 units to 10,177. PlayStation 2 sales rose by around 1,500 units to 8,802, while Xbox 360 sales were up only a few hundred to 1,725. Overall in the top fifty there were thirty-two Nintendo DS titles, ten for the Wii, four for the PSP, two each for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 and none for the Xbox 360.

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