2004 Japanese Console Sales Charts Released

Full details of software sales for the whole of 2004 in Japan have been released by consumer magazine Famitsu and publisher Enterbrain, showing the expected domination of the market by a few key titles. As can seen from the list of the top five publishers in Japan during 2004, Nintendo have the greatest number of titles in the top 100, although the top ten has a impressively diverse range of publishers, with Square Enix taking the number one spot with Dragon Quest VIII. The only surprise in the chart is Metal Gear Solid 3 at number eight, which has traditionally not fared as well in Japan as in the West. The rest of the chart, though, is eminently predictable, with the only new franchises being Sangoku Musou (aka Samurai Warriors) and Sammy’s oddly popular pachinko/fruit machine/anime license Jissen Pachi-Slot Hisshouhou: Fist of the North Star. With these Japanese results, it is now theoretically possible to compare the worldwide top titles from the U.S., from Japan and from the UK. However, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas not released in Japan as yet, there are no titles common to all three charts. (The previous two games in the GTA series did perform well above expectations in Japan, though, with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City appearing at number 22 in the top 100, with 410,293 sales.) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Need for Speed: Underground 2, Spider-Man 2 and Halo 2 are common to both the UK and USA charts, though and Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen is common to both the USA and Japanese charts. The only commonality between the UK and Japanese charts is World Soccer Winning Eleven 8, a revised version of which was sold in Britain as Pro Evolution Soccer 4.