The week of February 21st – 27th saw a flood of new releases, with 16 of the 20 slots on the weekly software sales chart occupied by new games. The most prominent, in the top-ten, were new Nintendo 3DS games, which launched alongside the system on February 26th. We’ll get to these in a moment.
Other Points of Interest:
The #1 game on the software sales chart for the week was Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity by Sega, which debuted at 206,654 units. Infinity is an upgraded version of Phantasy Star Portable 2, which released in Japan last year, and sold 286,896 units.
Meanwhile, Marvelous Entertainment also had new releases for the week in the form of Rune Factory Oceans, a Wii/PS3 title. Oceans’ on the PlayStation 3 sold close to 30,000 units, while the Wii version moved a little over 10,000 units. For reference, Rune Factory 3 on the Nintendo DS sold around the same amount in its first week as both versions of Oceans combined, at 40 – 45,000 units.
Finally, Disgaea 4 also saw its release during the week, and moved close to 80,000 units. For the sake of comparison, Disgaea 3 released in 2008 at 54,596 units sold in its first week.
The Nintendo 3DS Launch:
The 3DS launched in Japan on February 26th, so all figures pertaining to the 3DS in this week’s sales chart only account for the system’s first two days on the market. In its opening weekend, the Nintendo 3DS sold 374,764 units of its initial shipment of 400,000.
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle was the system’s highest-selling launch title by a rather wide margin at 119,591 units. For reference, Professor Layton and the Curious Village debuted on the Nintendo DS well into its life in 2007 at 136,736 units, while the most recent (and last) DS Layton game, Professor Layton and the Specter’s Flute, moved 347,360 units in its own first week in November 2009.
Following Layton at close to 65,000 units were the three versions of Nintendogs + cats, which in turn were followed by Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Ridge Racer 3D, all three of which were in the week’s top-10 selling games. Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, however, didn’t make it into the top-ten and debuted at #15.
The top-20 chart for the week of February 21st – 27th is as follows:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Weekly Sales | Total Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| New | 01. | Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity | 206,654 | New | PSP | Sega |
| New | 02. | SD Gundam G Generation World | 192,981 | New | PSP | Namco Bandai |
| New | 03. | Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle | 119,591 | New | 3DS | Level 5 |
| New | 04. | Disgaea 4 | 79,425 | New | PS3 | Nippon Ichi |
| New | 05. | Nintendogs + cats (all three versions) | 64,213 | New | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 06. | Samurai Warriors: Chronicles | 49,327 | New | 3DS | Tecmo Koei |
| New | 07. | Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition | 44,649 | New | 3DS | Capcom |
| New | 08. | Ridge Racer 3D | 38,226 | New | 3DS | Namco Bandai |
| 04. | 09. | Monster Hunter Portable 3rd | 36,323 | 4,325,672 | PSP | Capcom |
| New | 10. | The Idolm@ster 2 | 34,621 | New | 360 | Namco Bandai |
| New | 11. | Rune Factory Oceans | 28,939 | New | PS3 | Marvelous |
| New | 12. | SD Gundam G Generation World | 28,119 | New | Wii | Namco Bandai |
| New | 13. | Killzone 3 | 26,717 | New | PS3 | Sony |
| New | 14. | Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 5 | 26,345 | New | PSP | Tecmo Koei |
| New | 15. | Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D | 24,556 | New | 3DS | Konami |
| 03. | 16. | Samurai Warriors 3Z | 24,075 | 290,712 | PS3 | Tecmo Koei |
| 01. | 17. | Catherine | 21,183 | 163,008 | PS3 | Atlus |
| New | 18. | Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus | 21,002 | New | DS | Konami |
| 02. | 19. | Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds | 14,821 | 82,008 | PSP | Capcom |
| New | 20. | Rune Factory Oceans | 10,495 | New | Wii | Marvelous |
Sales data obtained from 4Gamer and Media-Create.
Published: Mar 2, 2011 05:11 pm