14 DAY TRIAL // Although 2008 ended two months ago, things are barely starting to become clear in terms of sales for games in a lot of countries. We've already seen charts from other territories, but it was yesterday that Enterbrain, the publisher of the famous Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, posted the Top 100 best selling titles in the Land of the Rising Sun.
While we will only post the first 20 games, anyone with remote knowledge of what went on last year in terms of gaming will already have a pretty big idea about which titles sold and which didn't. The number one spot is held by Monster Hunter Portable 2G, the smash hit for the PlayStation Portable in the Asian country, one that was almost single handedly responsible for the 50 million units sold worldwide by Sony.
Number two was a very sought after one, with Pokemon Platinum barely managing to top the worldwide phenomenon Wii Fit, selling 40,000 more units than Nintendo's marvelous title. And speaking of Nintendo, number four is occupied by everyone's favorite casual racer Mario Kart for the Wii, which sold over 2 million units in Japan.
Here are the rest of the top 20 games from the list made by Enterbrain:
1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Sales: 2,452,111 Life to date: 2,452,111
2. Pokemon Platinum Sales: 2,187,337 Life to date: 2,187,337
3. Wii Fit Sales: 2,149,131 Life to date: 2,967,297
4. Mario Kart Wii Sales: 2,003,315 Life to date: 2,003,315
5. Dairantou Smash Brothers X Sales: 1,747,113 Life to date: 1,747,113
6. Rhythm Tengoku Gold DS Sales: 1,350,671 Life to date: 1,350,671
7. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome Sales: 1,176,082 Life to date: 1,176,082
8. Animal Crossing: City Folk Sales: 895,302 Life to date: 895,302
9. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe Sales: 855,427 Life to date: 855,427
10. Wii Sports Sales: 841,736 Life to date: 3,306,470
11. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Sales: 686,254 Life to date: 686,254
12. Dissidia Final Fantasy Sales: 660,262 Life to date: 660,262
13. Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage Sales: 636,777 Life to date: 636,777
14. Phantasy Star Portable Sales: 633,954 Life to date: 633,954
15. Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou Sales: 628,143 Life to date: 628,143
16. Mario Kart DS Sales: 621,890 Life to date: 3,317,318
17. Hajimete no Wii: Your First Step To Wii Sales: 602,625 Life to date: 2,593,294
18. Mario Party DS Sales: 599,621 Life to date: 1,832,265
19. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode Sales: 549,348 Life to date: 549,348
20. Super Robot Taisen Z Sales: 480,093 Life to date: 480,093.
The entire top is available here.
You can clearly see why Japan is such an important market for game developers from across the world, as a lot of titles sold extremely well. With the recession taking its toll on the budget of a lot gamers worldwide, the 2009 list will be something completely different, according to a lot of analysts. All that's left for us is to wait and see.