Japanese Video Game Charts: Baseball Beats All

It’s baseball season in Japan at the moment, and as a result it’s time for Konami to dominate the Japanese Video Game Chart (week ending 17th July 2011, courtesy Media Create) with its Jikkyou Powerful Pro series. As expected, the PS3 version stormed the Top 10, hitting #1 with a comfortable 117,000 units. The PSP version debuted at #4.

1 Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 – Konami (PS3) – 117,759 / NEW
2 Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX – Namco Bandai (PSP) – 80,215 / NEW
3 Inazuma Eleven Strikers – Level-5 (Wii) – 74,227 / NEW
4 Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 – Konami (PSP) – 73,247 / NEW
5 Puyo Puyo!! – SEGA (DS) – 34,903 / NEW
6 Star Fox 64 3D – Nintendo (3DS) – 32,475 / NEW
7 Unchain Blaze ReXX – FuRyu (3DS) – 18,256 / NEW
8 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – Nintendo (3DS) – 15,636
9 Wii Sports Resort with Wii Motion Plus – Nintendo (Wii) – 14,725
10 Cardboard Senki – Level-5 (PSP) – 12,085

A huge batch of fresh games has led to a rejuvenation of the chart to somewhat healthy levels since last week’s rather stagnant sales numbers. It also means that the success of L.A. Noire, inFAMOUS 2 and other Western games have been shoved aside in favour of a whopping seven new entries to the Top 10. A new Taiko no Tatsujin enters at #2, while SEGA’s Puyo Puyo anniversary game performs well at #5. Nintendo’s 3DS re-working of Star Fox 64 debuts at #6.

While the Sony platforms are getting well represented in the software chart, in the hardware list it’s another story - Nintendo’s 3DS is starting to capture the hearts of Japanese gamers as the release of Star Fox 64 3D more than doubles the handheld’s weekly sales. That takes the 3DS to the top of the overall hardware chart and leaves the PSP sitting with level sales.

Besides a few dips and rises here and there, no other major changes have occurred this week. Only question is, when will the PSP Go be put out of its poor misery?

Hardware Chart - Home Console
PS3: 23,322 (22,900)
Wii: 14,237 (13,068)
360: 1,734 (2,016)
PS2: 1,405 (1,309)

Hardware Chart - Handheld
3DS: 46,637 (22,943)
PSP: 26,551 (26,373)
DSi LL: 4,693 (4,811)
DSi: 4,384 (4,725)
DS Lite: 131 (56)
PSP Go: 14 (34)