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Big in Japan Nov. 2-8: Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Latest installment in Konami's Winning Eleven series dominates a sales chart crammed with older releases.

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While recent years have seen the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series fall behind EA's competing FIFA franchise in terms of critical acclaim, Konami's footie sim remains a commercial powerhouse. The latest evidence of that comes from Media Create's Japanese sales charts for the week of November 2-8, which were dominated by the PlayStation 3 version of World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 internationally).

Winning Two Hundred Seventeen Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight.
Winning Two Hundred Seventeen Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight.

Winning Eleven 2010 racked up sales of 217,848, the best first-week Japanese sales for a game since Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus racked up nearly 340,000 copies sold for the first week of October. Speaking of Nintendo's latest Balance Board-compatible title, it has proven to have a considerable amount of sales stamina, selling 69,797 copies for the week ended November 8. It wasn't the only long-term resident on the week's Japanese sales charts, as the second through seventh spots were all occupied by previous weeks' and months' releases.

September release Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver was the week's runner-up with 73,554 sold, while Tomodachi Collection--a regular on the charts since June--came in fourth with 63,571 sold. Meanwhile, Inazuma Eleven 2 celebrated its first full month on the charts in sixth place, while Persona 3 for the PSP (fifth place), Final Fantasy Gaiden on the DS (seventh place), and the PS3 edition of Bayonetta (eighth place) all marked their second week on the charts.

The only new releases in the top 10 besides Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 were ninth-place DS role-playing game Summon Night X: Tears Crown from Namco Bandai and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games bringing up the rear. Under the agreement between Sega and Nintendo, the Sonic publisher released the game internationally, while the Mario factory handled the Japanese launch.

As for hardware, the charts were shaken up a bit. Sony's PS3 topped all consoles and handhelds with 48,925 sold, relegating former champ the DSi to second place with 37,421. Sony's PSP held its ground with 33,784 sold, but PSP Go sales dropped more than 50 percent week-over-week, selling just 13,992 units. Meanwhile, Nintendo put another 31,810 Wii systems in Japanese households, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 limped along with another 4,679 added to the console's installed base.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF NOVEMBER 2-8, 2009
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1) Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 / Konami / PS3 / 217,848
2) Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver / Nintendo / DS / 73,554
3) Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 69,797
4) Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 63,571
5) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable / Atlus / PSP / 46,459
6) Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha - Fire and Blizzard / Level 5 / DS / 42,186
7) Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden / Square Enix / DS / 35,195
8) Bayonetta / Sega / PS3 / 29,361
9) Summon Night X: Tears Crown / Namco Bandai / DS / 24,451
10) Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games / Nintendo / Wii / 21,541

Hardware:
PS3 - 48,925
DSi - 37,421
PSP - 33,784
Wii - 31,810
PSP Go - 13,992
DS Lite - 5,515
Xbox 360 - 4,679
PS2 - 2,066

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