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.
| Pos. | Title | Publisher | Format | Sales |
| 1 | Dragon Quest VIII | Square Enix | PS2 | 3.3 million |
| 2 | Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen | The Pokemon Company | GBA | 2.4 million |
| 3 | Dragon Quest V | Square Enix | PS2 | 1.6 million |
| 4 | Pokemon Emerald | The Pokemon Company | GBA | 1.4 million |
| 5 | World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 | Konami | PS2 | 1.0 million |
| 6 | Sangoku Musou | Koei | PS2 | 1.0 million |
| 7 | Jissen Pachi-Slot Hisshouhou: Fist of the North Star | Sammy | PS2 | 0.9 million |
| 8 | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater | Konami | PS2 | 0.7 million |
| 9 | Gran Turismo 4 | SCE | PS2 | 0.7 million |
| 10 | Derby Stallion 04 | Enterbrain | PS2 | 0.6 million |
