The Japanese retail game industry has revealed a 16% drop in console and 4% drop in game sales during 2009, as Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX nonetheless sells over 4 million units for the year.
The overarching data comes from the Japanese Dengeki magazine and its parent firm, ASCII Media Works, as translated by weblog Andria Sang, and includes a Top 30 by retail units sold.
According to the company, Japan saw a 16.3% drop in overall console game hardware sales in 2009 to 9.86 million units, a disappointing result. In addition, Japanese retail console game sales fell 4.3% to 65.05 million units.
In the data, which covers the period December 29, 2008 through December 20, 2009, and will likely be supplemented by additional Enterbrain and Media Create data in the future, Nintendo's DS sold the most game hardware and software by units, repeating its 2008 feat.
As for the top-selling games by units, the chart was somewhat predictably topped by Square Enix's much-awaited Dragon Quest IX for DS, which topped 4 million units for the year.
Nintendo's evergreen Pokemon series managed second place, and Nintendo-published or closely affiliated titles had 5 of the top 10 entries, with a late charge from Square's Final Fantasy XIII bringing it up to 6th place.
The full Top 30 selling games for the year in Japan, as relayed by Andria Sang, reads as follows (lifetime sales outside of 2009 are in brackets):
1. Dragon Quest IX (Square Enix, DS): 4,089,136
2. Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (Pokemon, DS): 3,301,873
3. Friend Collection (Nintendo, DS): 2,059,236
4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 1,897,089
5. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii): 1,499,058
6. Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, PS3): 1,455,505
7. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii): 1,205,424
8. Monster Hunter 3 (Capcom, Wii): 949,095
9. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP the Best (Capcom, PSP): 878,880 (1,080,715)
10. Inazuma Eleven 2 Fire/Blizzard (Level-5, DS): 851,175
11. Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! (Nintendo, DS): 708,311
12. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Square Enix, DS): 571,981
13. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, PS3): 552,553
14. Yakuza 3 (Sega, PS3): 552,826
15. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii): 499,251 (3,470,235)
16. Professor Layton and the Demon's Flute (Level-5, DS): 481,311
17. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Sega, PSP): 415,522
18. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 404,751 (2,447,964)
19. Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (Koei, PSP): 397,080
20. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Sky Battalion (Pokemon, DS): 383,226
21. Taiko Drum Master Wii (Namco Bandai, Wii): 375,895 (625,391)
22. Winning Eleven 2010 (Konami, PS3): 370,831
23. Rhythm Heaven Gold (Nintendo, DS): 361,292 (1,763,270)
24. Tales of Vesperia (Namco Bandai, PS3): 352,961
25. Tales of the World Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai, PSP): 339,523
26. Pokemon Platinum (Pokemon, DS): 325,911 (2,536,712)
27. Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus (Namco Bandai, PSP): 323,531
28. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (Nintendo, DS): 314,832 (861,393)
29. Ace Attorney Investigations (Capcom, DS): 313,891
30. SD Gundam G Generation Wars (Namco Bandai, PS2): 306,985
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