Japanese Sales Charts, Week Ending September 19th

The Japanese sales charts have exploded into life, with a 316% increase on last week, and 157% of the weekly average in volume. This is the first such sign of life since the end of the obon holiday in August. The retail charge has been led by Pokémon Emerald, which sold a colossal 791,000 units in its first week, over 372,000 in just the first day. This despite the title being merely a 'director’s cut' of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, in the tradition of previous titles Pokémon Yellow and Crystal, proving once again that the market for Pokémon video games is as vibrant as ever. Second placed title Sengoku Musou: Moushouden (aka Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends) sold a still impressive 191,000 units, and is the second expansion pack-esque release in the charts, above Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia, which sold around 104,000 units. The release of Pokémon Emerald has had a marked effect on hardware sales for the week, with the Game Boy Advance taking an enormous 67.34% of the market. All the other formats have seen their shares halved, with the PlayStation 2 at 27.44%, the GameCube at 4.82% and the Xbox at 0.32%.

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