On account of Golden Week, there were no new releases in Japan the week of May 3rd – 9th. Here’s the usual top-ten chart, but be sure to look at the one below it as well:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Tw. Sales | Tot. Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| 01. | 01. | Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 | 252,862 | 876,505 | DS | Square Enix |
| 02. | 02. | Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | 140,591 | 574,957 | PSP | Konami |
| 04. | 03. | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | 46,690 | 3,806,779 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 07. | 04. | Tomodachi Collection | 33,342 | 3,190,794 | DS | Nintendo |
| 06. | 05. | Mario Kart Wii | 32,340 | 2,771,000 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 10. | 06. | Wii Fit Plus | 23,314 | 1,890,761 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 03. | 07. | Super Street Fighter IV | 20,084 | 101,147 | PS3 | Capcom |
| 12. | 08. | Pokémon Ranger: Tracks of Light | 20,007 | 446,000 | DS | The Pokémon Company |
| 16. | 09. | Wii Sports Resort | 15,902 | 1,886,000 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 09. | 10. | NieR Replicant | 15,858 | 96,921 | PS3 | Square Enix |
In its second week, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is holding up better than Metal Gear Solid 4 did. Where MGS4 reached 533,000 units its second week, Peace Walker is at 574,957.
Aside from that, the top-ten isn’t all that thrilling, is it? But the fact that there weren’t any new releases doesn’t mean nothing of interest happened. Take a look at this second chart:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Sys. | Publisher |
| 11. | 11. | Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 | PSP | Konami |
| 21. | 12. | New Super Mario Bros. | DS | Nintendo |
| 18. | 13. | Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 | PS3 | Konami |
| 17. | 14. | Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (the Best) | PSP | Capcom |
| 09. | 15. | The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks | DS | Nintendo |
| 26. | 16. | Pokémon Heart Gold / Soul Silver | DS | The Pokémon Company |
| 29. | 20. | Dragon Quest IX (Ultimate Hits) | DS | Square Enix |
| 40. | 21. | Mario Kart DS | DS | Nintendo |
| 35. | 22. | Inazuma Eleven 2 Fire / Blizzard | DS | Level-5 |
| 42. | 28. | Taiko Drum Master Wii 2 | Wii | Namco Bandai |
| 39. | 29. | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | Wii | Nintendo |
See all those huge jumps from “last week” to “this week”? It appears the lack of new releases provided a chance for older titles that resonated with the Japanese audience to creep their way up the chart as Golden Week kicked in. These are the games with relatively longer tails that keep selling consistently every week. In the absence of new products, a relatively large portion of the market tends to fall back on them.
All sales data provided by the Media Create group.
Published: May 16, 2010 06:21 pm