Japanese Market Shrinks, Dragon Quest IX Is the Best Seller

Figures offered by the Dengeki magazine in Japan and by its publishing company, ASCII Media Works, are showing that the videogame market for the Land of the Rising Sun shrank pretty dramatically last year while also showing Dragon Quest IX, the Japanese role playing game published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS, as being the best sold title of 2009, with no less than 4,089,136 units sold.

The sales of hardware, including home consoles like the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii and of handhelds, plunged most dramatically, going down 16.3% despite price cuts, the relaunch of the PS3 as the Slim and special bundles. Meanwhile, console videogame sales went down by 4.3%, reaching 65.05 million copies sold throughout the year. The Nintendo DS is again said to have sold the most consoles and the most videogames as in 2008.

With Dragon Quest IX taking the first spot when it comes to individual titles, Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver took second place, selling 3,301,873 copies. The gap between the second and third place is bigger than between number 1 and 2 with Friend Collection for the DS coming in at 2,059,236 units moved. New Super Mario Bros. is the first non-DS title to make it to the chart, selling 1,897,089 units, followed by Wii Sports Resort, which sold close to 1,5 million copies.

The first non-Nintendo platform game to appear is Final Fantasy XIII from Square Enix, which has managed the impressive feat of selling 1,455,505 units since it was released on December 17 and is followed by Wii Fit Plus, Monster Hunter 3 and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G.

The top 20 also includes Inazuma Eleven 2 Fire/Blizzard, Mario & Luigi RPG 3, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days , Resident Evil 5, Yakuza 3, Wii Fit, Professor Layton and the Demon's Flute, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Mario Kart Wii, Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky Battalion.