Japan Charts: Gran Turismo 4 stays on top as New Year sales season ends
Polyphony Digital's PS2 racing title Gran Turismo 4 has held on to the number one spot in the Japanese sales charts for a second week, but overall sales dropped sharply as the New Years season came to a close.
Polyphony Digital's PS2 racing title Gran Turismo 4 has held on to the number one spot in the Japanese sales charts for a second week, but overall sales dropped sharply as the New Years season came to a close.
Only four new games made it into this week's top 100 ranking, with only one of them entering in the top ten - Namco's GBA role playing title Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3, which debuted at number two with health sales of around 81,000 units.
The big sellers for the week, then, were a familiar bunch of blockbusters from the end of December; with the likes of Metal Gear Solid 3 (No.5), Dragon Warrior VIII (No.6) and sole GameCube entry Mario Party 6 (No.9) all featuring in the top ten.
Nintendo DS software also continues to sell strongly, with Wario Ware: Touched! the top ranked title this week at number three, just ahead of Super Mario 64 DS at number four, while Pokemon Dash slips in at number ten in the ranking. No PlayStation Portable software made it into the top ten, although over half a million units of the console have now been sold through at retail.
In hardware terms, the PlayStation 2 took pole position once more, grabbing 32 per cent market share, ahead of the Nintendo DS with 28 per cent and the Game Boy Advance with 19 per cent, while the PSP had 16 per cent and the GameCube only five per cent.
It's interesting to note that on the basis of these figures, Nintendo holds just shy of 52 per cent of the hardware market in unit terms, while Sony lags behind on 48 per cent - although a similar comparison once PlayStation Portable shipments come up to speed and both consoles get past their launch period may well show more relevant results.