Nintendo leads Japanese sales resurgence

The Japanese software market rose 125 per cent in 2006, to 363.89 billion yen (EUR 2.33bn), with Nintendo the most successful company in the market.

Hardware sales for the market as a whole also climbed to 261.9 billion yen (EUR 1.68bn), a 160 per cent increase for the last twelve months, according to data from Enterbrain.

The Nintendo DS was the best-selling hardware in the region, clocking up 7.5 million units sold, leaps ahead of its closest rival, the PSP, which sold 1.9 million units. The PS2 managed 1.5 million units sold.

Nintendo also sold 24.2 million units of software in 2006, which rises to 29.8 million when including sales from affiliate, The Pokemon Company.

The second highest-selling publisher was Square Enix, which managed sales of 6.8 million units.

The top ten best-selling games for 2006 also included eight Nintendo titles - all for the DS - with only appearances from Square Enix (Final Fantasy XII, PS2) and Konami (World Soccer Winning Eleven 10, PS2) breaking up the pack.

Pokemon Diamond/Peal was the number one selling game with 4.3 million units sold in the region, while New Super Mario Bros. was in second place with 3.8 million units by the end of the year.