Nintendo’s Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the DS tops the Japanese software chart for the week ending 17/8, selling 137 000 units to move up from last week’s number 3 and bring the title just shy of half a million sales at 480 000 copies.

Sega’s Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP drops to number 2 after topping the chart for the previous two weeks. It sells 74 000 copies, bringing its life-to-date sales to 564 000. Square Enix’s Dragon Quest V for the DS climbs two places to number 3 with 74 000 copies.

Nintendo’s Wii Fit moves up from last week’s number 8 to fourth with 47 000 copies while Mario Kart Wii races up four places to fifth with 36 000 copies. Both titles increased by roughly 20 000 sales this week, pointing towards a possible hardware spike. Also interesting to note is that Mario Kart Wii has passed Super Smash Bros. Brawl in terms of life-to-date sales, Mario Kart Wii stands at 1.69 million while SSBB is roughly 1.66 million.

Nintendo’s Fire Emblem: New Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light for the DS drops to number 6 after debuting at number 2 last week. It sells 35 000 copies while Nintendo’s Daigasso! Band Brothers DX re-enters the Top 10 at number 7 with 24 000 copies.

Namco Bandai’s Taiko Drum Master 2 for the DS is another new re-entry, finishing eighth with 20 000 copies, while Konami’s Powerful Pro Baseball 15 for the PS2 moves up two places to number 9 with 19 000 copies. Nintendo’s Wario Land: Shake It! for the Wii re-enters the Top 10 at number 10 with 18 000 copies.

360 wars

Namco Bandai’s Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360 drops to number 11 after debuting at number 4 last week. Last week Tales of Vesperia sold 108 328 copies and resulted in the Xbox 360 beating the PS3 in the hardware race, selling 24 962 units for the week ending the 10th of August. Recently Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 has sold out across Japan and that new stock will only arrive at retail stores in September. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on hardware sales this week, sales of the 360 are sure to plummet after the spike last week but how many units were still available between last week’s results and Microsoft’s announcement remains to be seen.

The PS3 version of Namco Bandai’s Soul Calibur IV drops four places to number 14 while Sega’s Sangokushi Taisen Ten for the DS drops to number 26 and Namco Bandai’s Summon Night 2 for the DS drops out of the Top 30, both titles debuted in the Top 10 last week.

Early reports suggest that hardware sales were above ordinary this week, largely due to the holiday in Japan which inevitably leads to an increase in spending. The DS topped the hardware chart last week and I predict it will again be the best-selling console in Japan this week. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the hardware chart, it promises to not disappoint!

Source: Media Create