This Week In Sales: Congratulations, Namco And Level 5

Period: The week of December 30th (2013) – January 5th (2014)

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Top-seller: Puzzle & Dragons Z – 157,883

Nintendo 3DS sales: 62,399 | Total sales: 9,298,433

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 114,156 | Total sales: 5,540,042

PlayStation Vita sales: 70,087 | Total sales: 2,349,200

Vita TV sales: 5,313 | 81,557

Wii U sales: 51,271 | Total sales: 1,576,701

<< Last week’s software sales chart

 

The first week of the year tends to be a time for spending in Japan. A Japanese tradition takes place on New Year’s day that involves adults giving money to children to spend. This tends to be reflected in the software sales charts, as a large number of children spend their otoshidama on videogames. Last week was no different.

 

Puzzle & Dragons Z reclaimed the #1 spot on the top-20 sales chart last week, selling another 158,000 copies. Total sales of the game are now well over 1 million at retail.

 

At #2 were Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, both at 3.8 million copies sold at retail thus far. Following them at #3 was The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which sold another 73,000 copies in its second week, reaching nearly 300,000 sold.

 

Meanwhile, a number of popular older games have held up fairly well over the course of the holidays as well. Monster Hunter 4, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Tomodachi Collection: new Life haven’t left the top-20 since release, but what’s more impressive is the strength of Namco Bandai and Level 5’s Nintendo 3DS games, some of which can be found in the chart below. In particular, Disney Magic Castle by Namco and Youkai Watch by Level 5 have performed remarkably well for new IPs.

 

Next week should be interesting to see. The second week of a new year is when everything sees a drastic drop in sales, once the holiday effect and otoshidama effect has worn off. Vita and Wii U sales in particular should be interesting to observe over the course of the next few weeks, as both platforms face unique challenges.

 

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

 

Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher
02. 01. Puzzle & Dragons Z 157,883 1,163,541 3DS GungHo
04. 02. Pokémon X and Y 109,350 3,835,946 3DS Pokémon Co.
01. 03. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 73,072 297,216 3DS Nintendo
07. 04. Monster Hunter 4 49,814 3,160,054 3DS Capcom
06. 05. Super Mario 3D World 47,354 439,442 WiiU Nintendo
03. 06. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster 39,529 225,448 PS3 Square Enix
05. 07. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Twin Pack) 33,038 182,170 PSV Square Enix
09. 08. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 32,393 3,630,392 3DS Nintendo
15. 09. Sentouchuu: Survival Battle with the Legendary Ninjas 31,041 211,204 3DS Namco Bandai
08. 10. Shin Dynasty Warriors Gundam 28,619 192,263 PS3 Namco Bandai
11. 11. Tomodachi Collection: New Life 26,336 1,638,374 3DS Nintendo
17.  12. Mario Kart 7 24,138 2,251,043 3DS Nintendo
14. 13. Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy: Big Bang and Supernova 23,724 209,594 3DS Level 5
19. 14. New Super Mario Bros. 2 22,039 2,225,386 3DS Nintendo
13. 15. One Piece Unlimited World: RED 20,092 213,273 3DS Namco Bandai
??? 16. Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life 19,562 418,735 3DS Namco Bandai
18. 17. Aikatsu! Futari no My Princess 19,417 187,326 3DS Namco Bandai
??? 18. Taiko Drum Master: Wii U Version 19,387 112,880 WiiU Namco Bandai
??? 19. Youkai Watch 18,449 294,751 3DS Level 5
??? 20. Super Mario 3D Land 18,177 1,973,715 3DS Nintendo

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.

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Author
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.