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Big in Japan May 24-30: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Portly plumber cleans up with nearly 340,000 copies sold in opening week; games for Nintendo's platforms claim top five spots on sales chart.

The Japanese sales charts are making up for a stagnant stretch with some heavy turnover, according to the latest info from Media Create. The week of May 24-30 was the second straight week in which five new releases managed to crack the top 10.

"I believe I can fly…"

Nintendo's Wii platformer Super Mario Galaxy 2 topped all comers for the week with sales of 339,901. It was the first time a game from Nintendo topped the charts since the week of April 12-18, when New Super Mario Bros. Wii claimed the honor.

It was a good week all the way around for the Wii and DS maker, as Super Mario Galaxy 2 was followed up by a quartet of games for the dual-screened handheld. Namco Bandai's latest Super Robot Taisen strategy role-playing game took second place, followed by Sega's football management sim Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010, Rocket Company's latest Medabot game (which goes under the Medarot name in Japan), and Square Enix's Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, respectively.

The previous week's best seller, Lost Planet for the PlayStation 3, fell to sixth place, trailed by a pair of Konami games in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP and the latest Winning Eleven for the PS3. Rounding out the list were Nintendo's last remaining evergreen title on the top 10, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and a rare appearance for an Xbox 360 game with Cave's "bullet hell" shoot-'em-up DeathSmiles IIX.

Despite the appearance of Xbox 360 software near the top of the charts, Microsoft's hardware didn't perform quite so well. In fact, the Xbox 360 was the only system to sell fewer units week-over-week, with even the perennial basement dweller PSP Go surging to break the 1,000-units-sold mark for the first time in three weeks. The overall order of hardware sales remained unchanged, with the PSP (25,054 sold) and PS3 (20,897 sold) atop the list. However, the Wii narrowed the gap with Sony's console, taking third place overall with 20,467 systems sold.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF MAY 24-30, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 339,901
2. Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental / Namco Bandai / DS / 80,764
3. Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010 / Sega / DS / 50,206
4. Medarot DS: Kabuto and Kuwagata Versions / Rocket Company / DS / 50,164
5. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 / Square Enix / DS / 33,973
6. Lost Planet 2 / Capcom / PS3 / 33,856
7. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker / Konami / PSP / 25,465
8. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PS3 / 22,168
9. New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 16,279
10. DeathSmiles IIX / Cave / X360 / 16,112

Hardware:
PSP - 25,054
PS3 - 20,897
Wii - 20,467
DSi LL - 16,267
DSi - 10,324
Xbox 360 - 3,546
DS Lite - 2,961
PS2 - 1,463
PSP Go - 1,232

50 Comments

  • eal-zubieri

    Posted Jun 9, 2010 8:15 am GMT

    wow!! the ps3 is on the top of the chart in japan and beated all console thier, good for them since they were losing alot of money the past years and i hope they do it in america and europe .

  • wahyudil

    Posted Jun 7, 2010 12:01 pm GMT

    xbox lost again .... maybe xbox should use the oldest strategy of all time ... sex sales ... give permission to release of hentai games in xbox maybe can save the console in Japan ....

  • cajunstrike

    Posted Jun 7, 2010 11:10 am GMT

    Agreed. Not at all surprising...

  • brosim1104

    Posted Jun 7, 2010 11:05 am GMT

    @Golberg51 propably they meant DS XL...

    Why in the world are DS lite, DSi and DS XL sakles figures seperate? So tha t PSP would be on top? And PSP go only 12 hundred sales??? :S:S

  • Golberg51

    Posted Jun 7, 2010 9:43 am GMT

    Good job Nintendo, honestly good job!!
    By the way, what the hell is a DSi LL?

  • Darth_Tyrranus

    Posted Jun 6, 2010 7:01 pm GMT

    melty3219
    I'm in Japan right now and I am going on Gamespot. I have noticed that the advertising for this game is much greater in Japan than in the U.S, so I was wondering what kind of sales this game would see. Now please stop making uninformed, blanket statements.

  • fmacraze

    Posted Jun 6, 2010 3:04 pm GMT

    smg1 was boring imo. and people still wanted a sequel..

  • awesome

    Posted Jun 6, 2010 1:55 pm GMT

    I got Mario Galaxy 2 and seriously i just cant stop playing it! Even though i have Red Dead on the PS3- I just cant put MArio down...its THAT good! Its like playing the most addictive fruit machine in an arcade... you just cant stop. Even when ur not playing it u constantly hear the noise of mario jumping & the dinging noise of getting a load of coins... i mean... i think need help dont i?

  • isaacmj

    Posted Jun 6, 2010 8:31 am GMT

    Super Mario Galaxy 2 is in second place in gameranking's all time best list (just under the unbeatable Ocarina of Time) it should be selling much more copies!

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 11:21 pm GMT

    super mario has always been that ever green title , ff has not always been , i dont see how this is supprising sure ff sells good but it isnt a constant , goldeneye another constant seller , made goty twice for this reason , and ya um , its japan , mario is originally from japan -same with nintendo as a whole , its amazing their doing so good world wide this gen ,, but what do we expect when others just play the horspower game the same game that has cost nintendo 2 gens

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 9:50 pm GMT

    @Denveraic and mistablair

    The DS lite, DS LL, and DSi. Are 3 different models, not different SKUs, all sold at the same time. Not really replacing each other. If you notice, the PSP Go is also like that with the PSP.

    The 360 has true SKUs. Diff price ranges on diff specs on the SAME model. PS3 is the same thing, except for the Slim model, but that's a replacement.

  • huntervaneg

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 9:04 pm GMT

    Nintendo had a good month!

  • gamer082009

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 5:50 pm GMT

    Just can't get enough of Mario. Woohoo!

  • EdwardoMario16

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 5:00 pm GMT

    What's this? A critically-acclaimed game from a franchise that's already to popular in Japan to begin with, sells a lot in Japan? What a surprise! It's an Earth-shattering miracle!

  • melty3219

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 4:24 pm GMT

    whats the point of posting Japanese hardware sales? its not like anyone cares and besides who in Japan would go on gamespot.

  • RealHarry

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 1:03 pm GMT

    I would rather have a game like Super Mario Galaxy 2 be top of the charts for a long time, rather than Wii Fit Plus etc

  • M212

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 12:32 pm GMT

    I would expect nothing less from a fantastic Mario game like this one.

  • Hangtime-

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 12:01 pm GMT

    Not much of a suprise.

  • teknicz

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 9:56 am GMT

    The real scary thing is that SMG2 is probably going to be yet another one of their evergreen titles which will be selling well for a long while to come unlike other supposed big hits like FF13.

  • dramadude186

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 8:58 am GMT

    Is anyone surprised? How could a direct sequel to the best Mario game in years not debut at number one?

  • Pete5506

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 8:18 am GMT

    Wow PSP's are still selling

  • eldin4444

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 7:07 am GMT

    oh SMG2 number one eehh ahhh I woldnt Imagine that..Wait Japan u said oh now thats other deal, wait SMG2 stands for Super Mario Galaxy 2 Wow that explain that XD. Congrats SMG2

  • Smarty12

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 5:25 am GMT

    The Japanese sure love their PSP's.

  • hememi

    Posted Jun 5, 2010 12:57 am GMT

    super mario galaxy 2 deserves to sell

  • zzamaro

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 9:44 pm GMT

    @Flint247

    It almost hit 1 million in America, 879,015.

    http://www.vgchartz.com/game.php?id=35084

    Over 1 million if sales are combined, 1,219,412, not counting Europe/Others.

    Good to see SMG2 is doing great.

  • zzamaro

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 9:41 pm GMT

    @mistablair

    There's no way the xbox sales can split...I mean, if they split them, there'll be like about 1 x360 sold for each model...lol

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 8:58 pm GMT

    wow its all sony nintendo in japan ,, ds out sold psp by 2 thousand wii just behind only 5 hundred somthin units behind ps3 ,
    and mario out sellin by alot ,, ms needs to bail ,, seriouslyt if it isnt helpin them , they need to get out of japan

  • mistablair

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 8:54 pm GMT

    I'm just curious. How come the DS gets split into 3 different SKUs, yet he PS3 and XBOX360 seem to have theirs combined despite having different tiers as well.

  • vader501st

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 8:32 pm GMT

    Mario? ORLY?

    That's why they shouldn't get Peace Walker earlier than the West. That's what happens.

    Back to Conviction, I guess.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 8:10 pm GMT

    The Super Robot Taisen (a.k.a. Super Robot Wars, or just SRW) IP has always been quite big in Japan; watching popular mecha-oriented titles mashing together in one (sometimes silly) massive cross-over is just too irresistible for some people.

  • zenverak

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 5:57 pm GMT

    Pure GOOD FUN.

  • maxwellsdemon13

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 5:13 pm GMT

    While not a big Wii player, when a game is as solid as SMG2 was, it's hard not to be the best seller.

  • susil65

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 4:48 pm GMT

    More psp sales than other consoles that's unbelievable!

  • BenderUnit22

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 4:34 pm GMT

    Congratulations, SMG2. I just ordered a Wii yesterday, gonna get to that game in due time.

    Seems though the system definitely has peaked, at least in Japan, if not even the release of one of the best platformers ever can cause a sales spike.

  • mariostar0001

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 4:23 pm GMT

    All surprised raise your hand. No one? Good.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 4:03 pm GMT

    I think it would have been bigger news if Mario Galaxy 2 didn't make the #1 spot, this is a much bigger number than Lost Planet 2 got last week, intersting though the #2 spot this week only has like 1/4 the sales of the best selling title.

    I really need to play Mario Galaxy 2 myself, I picked it up at launch but I've been too caught up in Red Dead Redemption to play it yet, but at least I took advantage of the $10 off first week buy at Fry's.

  • g1rldraco7

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 4:02 pm GMT

    Way to go Nintendo

  • Kleeyook posted Jun 4, 2010 3:48 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Kleeyook

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 3:48 pm GMT (hide)

    10. DeathSmiles IIX / Cave / X360 / 16,112 That's a laugh! This game is not even popular in its homeland!? How good will it do in US anyway?
    And to hell with Nintendo! They stole all places in the top five this time!

  • Traumerei112 posted Jun 4, 2010 3:32 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Traumerei112

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 3:32 pm GMT (hide)

    @ JPH 360 sucks . PS2 is ten years old already .

  • JPH85

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:57 pm GMT

    @enoslives7

    The 360 outsells the PS2 and PSP Go everytime and recently the DS lite.

  • supertom221 posted Jun 4, 2010 2:52 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    supertom221

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:52 pm GMT (hide)

    Why does gamespot send me to things I don't care about? I tracked Peace Walker, not Super Mario. I get it that he's on the list, but I DONT CARE!.

  • Flint247

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:24 pm GMT

    Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an amazing game. I'm glad it sold well in Japan. Can't wait to see the sales for the US.

  • punanisher

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:22 pm GMT

    Super Mario Galaxy 2 is ridiculous fun.

  • Balmane

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:15 pm GMT

    Half the list is Nintendo... hmmm even though they are getting less popular they still top the charts. It's good to see them get top spot every now and then

  • greenmagnuma

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:04 pm GMT

    A new metabot game, bring me back the old times with the GBA versions. I bought all of them, they were really great

  • charlie_bm

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:03 pm GMT

    Nintendo games aren't the type to generate million sales in a day and dissappear of the charts the week after; instead, they start at a good pace and keep selling and selling and selling (like NSMB Wii).

  • daabulls23

    Posted Jun 4, 2010 2:00 pm GMT

    The only surprise would be if Mario wouldn't be #1, but that would never happen, especially in Japan.

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