Big in Japan May 3-9: Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, MGS: Peace Walker

In Japan, the beginning of May was the annual Golden Week holiday, a time during which new game releases are nonexistent. As a result, Media Create's list of the top 10 best-selling titles for the week of May 3-9 looks an awful lot like the one from the week prior.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 once again topped the list, selling 252,862 copies. As in the week prior, the DS role-playing game's closest competition--Konami's latest PSP stealth action game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker--trailed significantly, selling 140,591 copies.

The order changed a bit after the top two, as Super Street Fighter IV (the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions of which placed third and fifth the previous week, respectively) slipped significantly. The Xbox 360 version fell all the way to 23 on the charts, while the PS3 version slipped down to seventh, overtaken by a quartet of Nintendo evergreen titles.

The Wii and DS maker dominated the third through sixth spots on the chart with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Tomodachi Collection, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit Plus, in that order. Nintendo upped its representation to 60 percent of the top 10 games with Pokemon Ranger at number eight and Wii Sports Resort at number nine.

Nintendo's strong performance continued on the hardware charts as well. All four of Nintendo's current hardware offerings (the Wii, DSi XL, DSI, and DS Lite) increased their sales week-over-week. Meanwhile, every competing system from Microsoft and Sony saw its sales decrease from the week before. Even so, the PSP claimed the top spot with 35,233 sold, beating out the Wii's sales of 21,399. Considerably less popular was the PSP Go, which once again came in dead last with just 1,461 units sold.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF MAY 3-9, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 / Square Enix / DS / 252,862
2. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker / Konami / PSP / 140,591
3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 40,690
4. Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 33,342
5. Mario Kart Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 32,340
6. Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 23,314
7. Super Street Fighter IV / Capcom / PS3 / 20,084
8. Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki / Nintendo / DS / 20,007
9. Wii Sports Resort / Nintendo / Wii / 15,902
10. Nier Replicant / Square Enix / PS3 / 15,858

Hardware:
PSP - 35,233
Wii - 31,399
DSi LL - 26,733
PS3 - 26,185
DSi - 15,739
Xbox 360 - 4,278
DS Lite - 3,921
PS2 - 1,491
PSP Go - 1,464