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Big in Japan: Dragon Quest IX dominates charts

Square Enix RPG tops 2.3 million, pushes DSi sales to double previous week's total; Wii Sports Resort also hangs tough.

"Big in Japan" doesn't even begin to describe Square Enix's Dragon Quest series, a fact that was bolstered by Japanese industry tracker Media Create's latest retail sales charts for the week of July 6-12. As reported earlier this week, Dragon Quest IX sold through a staggering 2.3 million copies in its debut week.

All the sales of Madden to a population a fraction of the size.

All the sales of Madden to a population a fraction of the size.

To put that figure in perspective, in one week on sale in Japan, Dragon Quest IX sold more copies on a single platform than Madden NFL 09 sold in its debut month in the United States on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, DS, and original Xbox combined, according to NPD figures. Even more remarkably, Japan's population is around one third that of the US.

The first installment in the series to debut on the DS crushed all competition for the week, outselling Nintendo's second-place Wii Sports Resort by a 22:1 ratio. Few publishers bothered to release games against the juggernaut, with the second-best new release of the week--Global A's PSP RPG Sekai wa Atashi de Mawatteru Hikari to Yami no Princess--ranking 46 on Media Create's top 50. One other new release, the Japanese PlayStation 3 edition of WWE: Legends of Wrestlemani, managed to sneak just inside the top 50 at 49.

Dragon Quest IX's impact was also felt on the hardware charts for the week. The DSi easily doubled its sales from the previous week, jumping from 47,000 to more than 118,000. All other systems--with the exception of the legacy DS Lite--saw their hardware sales slide week-over-week.

Looking at the non-Dragon Quest parts of the charts, evergreen Japanese hits like Wii Fit, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in the US), and Pokemon Platinum continued to pad their stats, while more recent releases like Square Enix's action-RPG Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Level 5's puzzler Sloane to MacHale no Nazo no Story maintained momentum as well.

Week of July 6-12, 2009
Software:
1) Dragon Quest IX (DS) - 2,319,000
2) Wii Sports Resort (WII) - 103,000
3) Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 57,000
4) Boku no Natsuyasumi 4: Seitouchi Shounen Tanteidan, Boku to Himitsu no Chizu (PSP) - 24,000
5) Hatsune Miku: Project Diva (PSP) - 14,000
6) Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) - 13,000
7) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) - 9,000
8) Wii Fit (Wii) - 9,000
9) Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 8,000
10) Sloane to MacHale no Nazo no Story (DS) - 7,000

Hardware:
DSi - 118,202
PSP - 26,527
Wii - 22,141
DS Lite - 10,161
PS3 - 9,864
Xbox 360 - 3,561
PS2 - 3,508

92 Comments

  • Baramos6

    Posted Jul 23, 2009 6:00 pm GMT

    @2bitsmokey; Idiotic Trolls? People not liking DQ9 not being here yet? Dragon Quest Haters? I don't really understand it either, Dragon Quest is a great game and it will come over here eventually, just give them a little time to port it and stuff.

  • 10679

    Posted Jul 22, 2009 4:50 am GMT

    @vgbum

    Even if the population of america is greater than japan, the population of japan is big enough for the ps3 to sell at least 10k .

  • 2bitSmOkEy

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 8:24 pm GMT

    Who are the 3 people just thumbing down any pro-Dragon Quest comments? Go outside........

  • vgbum

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 12:25 pm GMT

    @10679
    Nice try at trying to hate. You forget that the US has three times the amount of people that Japan has. It's only logical that there's more 360's sold but, I'll bet it's not three times more the PS3's in Japan.

  • 10679

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 6:38 am GMT

    @Mamikapapo

    the funniest thing is that the ps3 can't even sell 10k units on their home ground . just look at the 360 in US . i am sure that the 360 in US has sold more that what the ps3 has sold in japan.

  • LuLuClassiC

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:30 am GMT

    There's a reason why Dragon Quest is called the National RPG in Japan. Very glad to see that they're performing well, and I hope that us here in the states will be able to experience it soon.

  • Mamikapapo

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:52 am GMT

    @scarface_dm
    Barely? The PS3 outsold the 360 by almost 3 times over.

  • scarface_dm posted Jul 20, 2009 9:42 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    scarface_dm

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:42 am GMT (hide)

    its funny how the ps3 barely outsold the 360 when this is Japan people lol

  • maxgoh

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:19 am GMT

    dragon quest is a game series which effectively reduce tension, improve general knowledge, makes people happy with very familiar classic stories... japanese likes it... I still not happy with the DS limitations of 3D presentation, some scenes get crappy framerates... I mean the imperfections. I like the VIII more than this one

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 6:25 am GMT

    It's always great to see the Wii and DS dominate the Japanese sales charts!

  • KathR

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 5:25 am GMT

    Wow, that's impressive.. I hope they release it for the US soon..

  • 10679

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 4:49 am GMT

    @joynul

    "Haha Xbox barely beat the ps2 ova ther"

    The funniest thing is that the only region that the ps3 can beat xbox360, is only winning by a very small margin but when you compare the difference in other regions like the US and Europe where the 360 is beating the ps3, the difference is usually 10 times more than the difference in japan . instead of laughing , you should be worried that the ps3 can't even sell that well in their own region.

  • mmnlm1982

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 4:42 am GMT

    i sure ps3 first consule in japan after realise ff12 and gt5

  • mmnlm1982 posted Jul 20, 2009 4:40 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    mmnlm1982

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 4:40 am GMT (hide)

    com on ps3 com on!!!!!!!!

  • joynul

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 3:16 am GMT

    Haha Xbox barely beat the ps2 ova ther

    when will the ps3 pick up here its got the games and the graphics

  • GatCloudX

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 11:29 pm GMT

    this game is definetely better than football

  • gameking5000

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 11:11 pm GMT

    Nintendo's Week

  • geedotherodian

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 9:52 pm GMT

    @Ziltodian They already had a news article covering NPD june results of consoles "ChartSpot: June 2009" so stop complaining, anything that sells 2,319,000 in one week deserves special mention

  • OnionTree

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 8:45 pm GMT

    ...it couldn't possibly be as annoying as people like you, Ziltoidian.

  • 2bitSmOkEy

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 6:21 pm GMT

    Hey so is this not coming to the states? I would love to play this. As far as CLASSICAL styled jrpgs you just can't beat the dragon quest or breath of fire series.

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 5:43 pm GMT

    Dragon Quest must have been like the longest DS game in development, because it was announced like 2-3 years ago.

  • Tauu

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 5:41 pm GMT

    ps3 always outsells the 360 in Japan...

  • Javieralijandro posted Jul 19, 2009 4:04 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Javieralijandro

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 4:04 pm GMT (hide)

    ps3 out sold xbox finally even though this is just a week

  • bubnux

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 2:23 pm GMT

    Me wantee

  • CoolKidX

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 1:31 pm GMT

    @ej1041
    XBOX360 = WIN!!! in US

  • CoolKidX

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 1:29 pm GMT

    Number 1 is 2,319,000 sells
    and number 10 is 7,000
    lolwut

  • adam270391

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 1:25 pm GMT

    I knew dragon quest was popular in Japan, just didn't realise it was THAT popular.

  • Mugen76

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 1:11 pm GMT

    @keijigoto
    When the next week's numbers come out, we'll see Pro Yakyu Spirits 6 at the very least.

  • Jaster_DCX

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 11:15 am GMT

    Dragon Quest is a fun game. Too bad i don't have a DS.

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 10:20 am GMT

    lol, the Xbox 360 even with all of those RPGs ain't doing well at all, well they don't help much past the hype since they haven really been exceptional other than a few (Lost Odyssey, ToV, and Eternal Sonata).

  • kejigoto

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 9:37 am GMT

    Called it.

    Wii has a big game launch, sales make a come back.

    Also big ouch for Sony having no console games on the top ten chart. Nintendo occupies 7 of the 10 and the PSP managed to snag the other 3. So much for those recent major game releases in Japan for the PS3 huh?

  • lowkey254

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 6:06 am GMT

    wow the ps2 matched the 360... I guess sony has a reason for keeping the ps2 around.

  • spotty6

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 5:59 am GMT

    people in japan are smart most of them scraped there 360 and bought a ps3
    i congratulate them for that

  • Max1363

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 4:44 am GMT

    Japan's market is'nt matter because popularest platform(PS2) in 9 years sold 21 million units against 50 million in US and 42 or 3 million in europ is not a big deal...
    but it's not bad fo Microsoft in it's 2nd GEN of being in market...
    any way still want to see natal's impact on worldwide market...

  • frazzle00

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:48 am GMT

    The PS3 isnt doing a lot better. What hurts the Sony fanboys the most is that this holds true in the other major regions as well.

  • ej1041

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 11:06 pm GMT

    XBOX360 = FAIL!!! in Japan...

  • 3D3

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 8:27 pm GMT

    Wow @ the PS2, it's barely behind 360 sales.

  • aznstyle11

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 8:17 pm GMT

    Wow Japan sure love their Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, Dragon Quest IX and Wii...

  • Mike4842003 posted Jul 18, 2009 7:22 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Mike4842003

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 7:22 pm GMT (hide)

    ugh, some how I knew the nerdy Sony fanboys would trickle onto this page

  • lew_0911

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 6:45 pm GMT

    God I can't wait! Come on, make me part of the 2M-strong people who already have DQIX!!!

  • frazzle00

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 5:53 pm GMT

    As expected the PS3's dominance over the Wii in Japan has come to a halt.

  • EdwardoMario16

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 5:17 pm GMT

    Dragon Quest was always big in Japan. A Dragon Quest release date is a national holiday over there.

    It's unfortunate that DQ is lukewarm outside of Japan. We should appreciate it more.

  • Gamingcucumber

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 4:55 pm GMT

    Those sales are insane! Also the DSi KILLED this one. I expected Kingdom Hearts and Wii Sports Resort to sell a lot more though, time will tell if they are going to lift off.

  • Trogeton

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 4:17 pm GMT

    OMG the ps2 is going GOOD considering how long it's been out..

  • GhostfaceL94

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 4:07 pm GMT

    Oh man, a 10 year old console almost outsold Xbox 360.

  • Fandango_Letho posted Jul 18, 2009 3:44 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Fandango_Letho

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 3:44 pm GMT (hide)

    Dragon Quest IX : It wont ever end because we love cash and RPG players have low standards!

  • XxTerryH15xX

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 3:18 pm GMT

    dang if this game is selling like crazy can yall imagine how much final fantasy 13 will sell there ..... like 4-5 million not counting the us either...

  • Ranma_X_basic

    Posted Jul 18, 2009 3:15 pm GMT

    Its no real surprise that whenever a new dragon quest game releases in japan it's gonna sell like crazy. after its right behind the final fantasy series as the best rpg franchise around to the point ppl in japan used to skipped work/school just to wait on line just to get the game. so i'm not at all surprised it would help boost sells of the ds in that country lol.

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