By Keith Jackson 09th Jan 2009
Nintendo, 9,139 views
After a long break, the holiday numbers are in. Hudson has the top two WiiWare games, and three of the top five. Meanwhile the holiday boost for Virtual Console has mainly focused on familiar chart-
Today we present to you the worldwide and regional sales for the four weeks ending December 28th, 2008. As you might expect, there was a sizeable spike in the final week as a number of people took their Christmas Wiis online to download some games. Titles in bold italic were released in some region in December.
WiiWare Games
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
My Aquarium
Hudson
44,000
257,900
$1,502,300
2
Tetris Party
Hudson
39,000
141,200
$1,904,900
3
World of Goo
2D Boy
35,800
97,800
$1,546,100
4
My Pokemon Ranch
Nintendo
33,900
495,500
$5,527,100
5
Bomberman Blast
Hudson
29,400
140,700
$1,606,000
6
TV Show King
Gameloft
28,900
394,400
$4,637,500
7
Brain Challenge
Big Blue Bubble
24,400
66,900
$778,300
8
Mega Man 9
Capcom
22,400
231,500
$2,541,000
9
Dr. Mario Online Rx
Nintendo
20,900
346,900
$3,767,000
10
Space Invaders Get Even
Taito
19,900
47,800
$283,900
11
Defend Your Castle
XGen Studios
19,400
259,000
$1,395,300
12
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Square Enix
19,200
434,700
$7,399,000
13
Wild West Guns
Gameloft
18,900
148,700
$1,744,000
14
Midnight Bowling
Gameloft
17,600
60,100
$535,900
15
The Incredible Maze
Digital Leisure, Inc.
15,400
58,700
$344,300
16
Target Toss Pro: Bags
Incredible Tech.
14,500
27,500
$192,500
17
LostWinds
Frontier
14,400
295,400
$3,519,000
18
Sudoku Challenge!
Digital Leisure, Inc.
12,600
19,900
$105,300
19
CueSports -- Pool Revolution
Hudson
11,900
20,100
$217,300
20
Pit Crew Panic!
Hudson Soft
9,900
10,400
$67,100
Americas WiiWare Games
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
World of Goo
2D Boy
20,800
82,800
$1,242,000
2
Tetris Party
Hudson
19,700
77,200
$926,400
3
My Aquarium
Hudson
18,400
101,900
$509,500
4
Dr. Mario Online Rx
Nintendo
15,400
217,700
$2,177,000
5
Target Toss Pro: Bags
Incredible Tech.
14,500
27,500
$192,500
6
Defend Your Castle
XGen Studios
12,600
201,900
$1,009,500
7
Brain Challenge
Gameloft
12,200
31,700
$317,000
8
Space Invaders Get Even
Taito
12,000
12,000
$60,000
9
Mega Man 9
Capcom
11,600
102,900
$1,029,000
10
Midnight Bowling
Gameloft
11,400
42,200
$337,600
PAL WiiWare Games
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
My Aquarium
Hudson
21,200
105,000
525,000 €
2
TV Show King
Gameloft
17,300
191,700
1,917,000 €
3
World of Goo
2D Boy
15,000
15,000
225,000 €
4
Tetris Party
Hudson
14,900
43,400
520,800 €
5
Cue Sports-Snooker vs Billards
Hudson
11,900
20,100
160,800 €
6
Brain Challenge
Big Blue Bubble
11,200
29,200
292,000 €
7
Bomberman Blast
Hudson
10,500
42,000
420,000 €
8
My Pokemon Ranch
Nintendo
8,900
90,500
905,000 €
9
The Incredible Maze
Digital Leisure
8,500
28,900
144,500 €
10
Wild West Guns
Gameloft
8,200
69,500
695,000 €
Japan WiiWare Games
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
Everybody's Pokemon Ranch
Pokemon
13,700
228,700
228,700 k¥
2
Bomberman Blast
Hudson
8,300
46,300
46,300 k¥
3
Kuro hige Kiki Ippatsu Wii
Takara Tommy
6,600
10,300
5,150 k¥
4
Rockman 9: Resurrection of Ambition!!
Capcom
5,700
94,000
94,000 k¥
5
Overturn
Studio Zan
5,700
5,700
4,560 k¥
6
Tataite! Mokupon
Agienda
5,400
12,400
6,200 k¥
7
Lost Winds
Square Enix
5,000
5,000
5,000 k¥
8
1 Nuku! Dasshuttsu Game - My Home Hen
HM
4,800
4,800
2,400 k¥
9
SHOOTANTO (History ver.)
Gran Prix
4,700
4,700
2,820 k¥
10
Tetris Party
Hudson
4,400
20,600
24,720 k¥
World of Goo continues to top the charts in the Americas, and has had a strong 1.5-week debut in PAL, but takes only third worldwide to two titles that have done well in all three regions (My Aquarium, Tetris Party).
Not much new stuff has shown up overall, since the flash-in-the-pan titles that pop up for a week or two and then disappear get shoved well down the charts when compared to monthly sales for the consistent top-sellers.
Japan is one exception, which had four new titles pop up in December in addition to two that were released in November. We'll see next month which ones have real staying power.
My Pokemon Ranch is close to going gold worldwide, though it still has a long way to go to catch Final Fantasy in total revenue.
Some new American releases -- Fun! Fun! Minigolf and Tiki Towers are both at about 7,000 with one week of sales, while Hockey Allstar Shootout did about 6,000 in three weeks.
You may notice that there are no Strong Bad games up here. This is consistent with the prevailing trend -- the games only really matter in the Americas (and to a lesser extent the UK and Australia), and each successive episode has sold less than the one before it. Strong Bad Episode 5: 8-bit Is Enough, did less than 4,000 in two weeks on sale in the Americas, most of it in the first day. Perhaps the episodes were too closely spaced for most consumers to be ready to pick up each one as it came out.
World of Goo, Tetris Party, and My Aquarium have been ranked 1-2-3 every week since November.
Virtual Console Games
Platform
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
Super Mario Bros. 3
NES
Nintendo
98,600
1,563,000
$8,668,600
2
Super Mario Bros.
NES
Nintendo
92,100
1,667,200
$9,189,300
3
Super Mario World
SNES
Nintendo
55,500
1,175,200
$10,487,700
4
Super Mario 64
N64
Nintendo
42,700
1,022,100
$11,499,500
5
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the
N64
Nintendo
39,000
810,400
$9,428,100
6
Mario Kart 64
N64
Nintendo
38,500
1,179,600
$13,232,200
7
Sonic the Hedgehog
MS
Sega
38,100
163,700
$940,200
8
Super Mario Bros. 2
NES
Nintendo
37,200
691,100
$3,804,700
9
Pac-Man
NES
Namco Bandai
36,300
528,500
$2,892,200
10
Legend of Zelda, the
NES
Nintendo
32,800
620,200
$3,319,600
11
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
MS
Sega
30,200
30,200
$158,000
12
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
SNES
Nintendo
29,800
263,800
$2,449,800
13
Secret of Mana
SNES
Square Enix
26,000
110,200
$935,600
14
Donkey Kong Country
SNES
Nintendo
25,900
545,200
$4,859,300
15
Punch Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
NES
Nintendo
24,800
473,800
$2,377,800
16
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the
SNES
Nintendo
23,400
566,000
$5,199,500
17
Kirby's Adventure
NES
Nintendo
21,000
607,800
$3,353,000
18
Mega Man 3
NES
Capcom
19,900
60,000
$328,500
19
Paper Mario
N64
Nintendo
19,800
568,800
$6,357,500
20
SMB: The Lost Levels
NES
Nintendo
19,600
393,100
$2,434,200
Americas Virtual Console Games
Platform
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
Super Mario Bros. 3
NES
Nintendo
63,600
963,900
$4,819,500
2
Super Mario Bros.
NES
Nintendo
57,000
944,000
$4,720,000
3
Super Mario World
SNES
Nintendo
32,600
659,300
$5,274,400
4
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
MS
Sega
26,200
26,200
$131,000
5
Legend of Zelda, the
NES
Nintendo
25,500
449,400
$2,247,000
6
Super Mario Bros. 2
NES
Nintendo
25,500
488,900
$2,444,500
7
Punch Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
NES
Nintendo
24,800
469,800
$2,349,000
8
Pac-Man
NES
Namco Bandai
24,500
394,500
$1,972,500
9
Super Mario 64
N64
Nintendo
22,500
551,000
$5,510,000
10
Mario Kart 64
N64
Nintendo
21,200
591,900
$5,919,000
PAL Virtual Console Games
Platform
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
Super Mario Bros. 3
NES
Nintendo
29,100
433,500
2,167,500 €
2
Super Mario Bros.
NES
Nintendo
24,300
375,900
1,879,500 €
3
Sonic the Hedgehog
MS
Sega
21,000
69,100
345,500 €
4
Super Mario World
SNES
Nintendo
19,300
326,500
2,612,000 €
5
Super Mario 64
N64
Nintendo
17,900
314,300
3,143,000 €
6
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
N64
Nintendo
16,600
259,700
2,597,000 €
7
Mario Kart 64
N64
Nintendo
14,600
326,000
3,260,000 €
8
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
MS
Sega
13,900
--
--
9
Pac-Man
NES
Namco Bandai
11,800
132,000
660,000 €
10
Super Mario Bros. 2
NES
Nintendo
11,700
197,200
986,000 €
Japan Virtual Console Games
Platform
Publisher
Monthly
Total
Revenue
1
Super Mario Bros
NES
Nintendo
10,800
347,300
173,650 k¥
2
Super Mario Bros 3
NES
Nintendo
5,900
165,600
82,800 k¥
3
Puyo Puyo 2
GEN
Sega
3,600
119,200
71,520 k¥
4
Kirby's Adventure
NES
Nintendo
3,600
123,400
61,700 k¥
5
Super Mario World
SNES
Nintendo
3,600
189,400
151,520 k¥
6
Super Mario Bros 2
NES
Nintendo
3,200
114,500
57,250 k¥
7
Ice Climber
NES
Nintendo
3,100
--
--
8
Twinbee
NES
Konami
2,900
--
--
9
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
N64
Nintendo
2,800
123,500
148,200 k¥
10
Mario Kart 64
N64
Nintendo
2,700
261,700
261,700 k¥
There's a similar effect at work here, with most new games not selling consistently well enough to break into a monthly chart -- no December release is in the top 10 worldwide.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Master System breaks into the top 20 worldwide with a third place showing in the Americas (it also did about 4,000 in a half-week on sale in PAL).
Secret of Mana also debuted with a half-week on sale in PAL and about 9,000 sales. Though it didn't make the top 10 in any region (it was 17th in the Americas and 11th in both PAL and Japan), it still sold enough for 13th worldwide in December.
There's no data for other new releases in the America and PAL (they didn't come close to charting), but there is some information available for a couple of games in Japan: Ninja-Kun - Magical Castle Adventure for the NES sold about 2,300 in three weeks (17th for the month), while The Mystery of Atlantis for the NES sold about 2,100 in all four weeks (19th for the month).
Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Bros. are both closing in on selling a million each in the Americas alone. The two games have ranked 1-2 every week in the Americas since November.
Worldwide revenues were calculated using an average December exchange rate of $1 = 0.74 € = 90 ¥. With the weaker dollar, worldwide revenues are a bit higher than previously shown.
Thanks to TWRoO and his crew for collecting PAL data, and smbu2000 for collecting Japan data. If you have access to the Nintendo Channel and want to help collect usage data, send a PM to TWRoO if you're in PAL or to me if you're anywhere else in the world.
If there are any games not shown here that you'd like some specific numbers for, let me know in the comments and I'll provide what I can.
