The week of April 26th – May 2nd saw five new releases in the Media Create top-ten chart, with three of them taking up the top-three slots.
Encouragingly, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker debuted with numbers close to those of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which sold 464,926 copies in its opening week. Given the relatively slow adoption of the PlayStation 3 in the market at the time of MGS4’s debut, the current status of the PSP, and the general tendency of portable games to have longer tails, it should be interesting to see how Peace Walker compares to the previous game.
Also worth noting is the fact that Peace Walker is built from the ground-up to be a cooperative Monster Hunter-like experience, which — as God Eater from Namco Bandai demonstrated — alone will pique the interest of a certain, sizable demographic. Brand, audience, system…Peace Walker has a lot in its favour.
| Lw | Tw | Title | Tw. Sales | Tot. Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| New | 01. | Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 | 623,643 | New | DS | Square Enix |
| New | 02. | Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | 434,366 | New | PSP | Konami |
| New | 03. | Super Street Fighter IV | 80,882 | New | PS3 | Capcom |
| 02. | 04. | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | 44,593 | 3,760,089 | Wii | Nintendo |
| New | 05. | Super Street Fighter IV | 28,454 | New | 360 | Capcom |
| 08. | 06. | Mario Kart Wii | 28,152 | 2,739,000 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 04. | 07. | Tomodachi Collection | 26,787 | 3,157,452 | DS | Nintendo |
| New | 08. | Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! DS Fate of Heat III | 24,050 | New | DS | Takara Tomy |
| 01. | 09. | NieR Replicant | 20,889 | 81,063 | PS3 | Square Enix |
| 07. | 10. | Wii Fit Plus | 19,690 | 1,867,447 | Wii | Nintendo |
Mario Kart Wii amazes once again, as Nintendo’s renewed advertising campaign in Japan does its job. Sales of the title increased by over a 100% over the week prior, lending further credence to the theory that it is the second title of choice for new Wii owners who bought the system for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Outside of the top-ten at #13 was Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, which sold in the range of 11,000 units according to Dengeki’s tracker (it also placed lower on Dengeki’s chart at #17) — well below Assassin’s Creed 2, which debuted at 48,748 units last November. Now’s a good time to mention that Square Enix act as a distributor for Ubisoft titles in Japan.
Meanwhile, the budget reprint of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite just keeps going and going, selling another 12,000 or so copies. It’s easy to understand why Capcom cited it as an example of a game that contributed to their bottom line in Japan.
