This Week In Sales: The Golden Week Effect

Period: The week of May 2nd – May 8th (2011)

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Top-seller: Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional – 43,886 | Total sales: 454,781

Nintendo 3DS sales: 29,149 | Total sales: 977,695

 

Just like the week prior, this week’s sales post also covers the Golden Week period in Japan, which runs from April 29th – May 5th every year. The holiday effect is very evident in the week’s top-20 chart (below), which depicts a number of popular games seeing a boost in sales.

 

Still at the #1 position, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional continues to sell well, no doubt aided partly by the Golden Week effect. Interestingly, Pokémon Black/White overtook Monster Hunter Portable 3rd during Golden Week, while New Super Mario Bros. Wii shot up from the #30 spot to #16, with Wii Sports Resort close behind it. Donkey Kong Country Returns, too, saw a boost of its own.

 

Meanwhile, Professional Baseball Spirits 2011 on the PSP has overtaken its PlayStation 3 counterpart, just as one suspected it eventually would. Also on the PSP front, The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z remains in the top-10, at #5.

 

Behind it at #4, Tale of the Last Promise is now at 78,621 units sold, according to Media-Create. We wonder how much of an effect the PlayStation Network downtime is having on its sales. If you recall, Imageepoch were planning a charity drive with the downloadable version of the game on PSN.

 

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

 

Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher
01. 01. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional 43,886 454,781 DS Square Enix
04. 02. Patapon 3 21,546 70,924 PSP Sony
07. 03. Professional Baseball Spirits 2011 20,090 141,869 PSP Konami
02. 04. Tale of the Last Promise 18,185 78,621 PSP Imageepoch
06. 05. The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z 13,670 392,674 PSP Namco Bandai
08. 06. Professional Baseball Spirits 2011 12,754 140,478 PS3 Konami
11. 07. Wii Party 12,433 1,881,598 Wii Nintendo
20. 08. Pokémon: Black/White 9,868 5,172,829 DS Nintendo
12. 09. Nintendogs + cats 9,643 214,838 3DS Nintendo
22. 10. Mario Kart Wii 9,298 3,221,200 Wii Nintendo
10. 11. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd 9,019 4,466,245 PSP Capcom
28. 12. Donkey Kong Country Returns 8,944 892,946 Wii Nintendo
03. 13. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron 8,579 66,684 PS3 Ignition
13. 14. Pilotwings Resort 8,260 54,407 3DS Nintendo
05. 15. Battle & Get! Pokémon Typing DS 7,499 99,485 DS Nintendo
30. 16. New Super Mario Bros. Wii 6,973 4,281,175 Wii Nintendo
29. 17. Wii Sports Resort 6,809 329,832 Wii Nintendo
16. 18. Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection 6,560 186,012 PSP Square Enix
15. 19. Detective Conan: Rondo of the Blue Jewel 6,253 34,749 DS Namco Bandai
21. 20. Earth Defense Force 2 Portable 6,055 102,261 DS D3 Publisher

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media-Create.

Ishaan Sahdev
About The Author
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.

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