Japanese Sales Charts, Week Ending May 1st

Sales results for the first half of the Japanese Golden Week – an almost week-long period of public holidays – have been released, showing disappointing results. During this period the top 100 titles sold only 603,927 units - compared to around 800,000 for the same period in both 2003 and 2004. Although gift giving is not a formal part of any of the Golden Week celebrations, game sales during the period are normally dominated by older mass-market titles – as can be seen with the sudden reversal in fortunes of Bandai’s latest Gundam title and the popular anime license Naruto. Nintendo DS title Nintendogs has also performed well, with sales of all three titles combined (which are functionally identical except for different breeds of dog) adding up to a total of 68,917 – making it the best selling title of the week. By comparison, Mobile Suit Gundam sold only 33,906 units and Naruto 32,958. The success of Nintendogs is also reflected in hardware sales, with the Nintendo DS once again dominating with 64,247 sales and a 38.95 percent share of the market. This has forced the PSP into third place with 38,778 units sold. The PlayStation 2 was in second place with a 24.53 percent market share, followed by the PSP at 23.51 percent, the Game Boy Advance at 9.13 percent, the GameCube at 3.71 percent and the Xbox at 0.16 percent.

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