Tidbits From Famitsu’s Top 50 Sellers Of 2009

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Enterbrain, the publisher behind Famitsu, recently published their top 50 game sales ranking chart for 2009 on the magazine’s website. Below is a partial chart with some games our readers might find interesting. The complete chart can be perused at the link above.

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Keeping with the trend in recent years, Nintendo DS software occupied the most spots on the chart. Unsurprisingly, Dragon Quest IX took the top spot, with 4,100,968 units sold in just a few months. What is of more interest are the numbers for Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (Style Savvy / Nintendo presents: Style Boutique in North America / Europe), which actually released in 2008 and continued to sell through 2009, albeit at a slower pace. Current numbers put it at just below 1 million, which, while less than what was probably expected of it internally, is enough to justify further development as a new IP.

 

Level-5’s Inazuma Eleven 2, too, was a breakout hit last year, outselling its predecessor by a wide margin. While the popularity of the manga and anime certainly seem to have helped awareness of the franchise, the fact that Level-5 opted for a simultaneous release of two separate SKUs with differences — like Pokémon — is very telling. It will be interesting to observe if other publishers decide to follow the same trend with portable franchises like Monster Hunter going forward.

 

The success of SD Gundam G Generation Wars on PS2 at 307,754 units is another point of interest that shows just how strongly fans tend to associate franchises with platforms. With sales of PSP software to rely on, and the relative ease of porting its games to the PS2, one wonders if Namco Bandai will experiment with multiplatform games the way Sony have with Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and wipEout: Pulse in the future.

 

Also, Final Fantasy XIII is now the highest-selling third-party game on a home console at 1,698,256 units, followed by Monster Hunter Tri at 968,033 units.

 

Rank Title Sales Sys. Publisher
1. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies 4,100,968 DS Square Enix
2. Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver 3,382,597 DS Nintendo
3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2,485,150 Wii Nintendo
4. Tomodachi Collection 2,311,948 DS Nintendo
5. Final Fantasy XIII 1,698,256 PS3 Square Enix
8. Monster Hunter Tri 968,033 Wii Capcom
9. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard 943,615 DS Level-5
13. Professor Layton and the Devil’s Flute 552,085 DS Level-5
14. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days 522,260 DS Square Enix
15. Yakuza 3 509,223 PS3 SEGA
17. Rhythm Heaven1 480,326 DS Nintendo
25. Tales of Vesperia 337,783 PS3 Namco Bandai
26. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode1 330,079 DS Nintendo
30. Tales of the World: RM2 317,730 PSP Namco Bandai
32. SD Gundam G Generation Wars 307,754 PS2 Namco Bandai
33. Ace Attorney Investigations 303,445 DS Capcom
36. Final Fantasy CC: Echoes of Time 259,705 DS Square Enix
39. Gran Turismo 247,869 PSP SCE
42. Dissidia: Final Fantasy1 242,136 PSP Square Enix
47. Tales of Versus 231,351 PSP Namco Bandai

 

1. Released in 2008. Total sales as follows: Rhythm Heaven: 1,830,997 Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode: 879,427 Dissidia: Final Fantasy: 902,398

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Author
Image of Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.