Gotta sell 'em all

Media Create, the most trusted source for the weekly hardware and software charts in Japan, has released details of the top selling games in the region for the whole of 2012. As anyone who follows our regular posts on the weekly Japanese chart will know, Nintendo's been having a good time in its homeland.

The top 30 games sold in Japan from 2nd January to 30th December show a dominant presence for releases on Nintendo systems, with two widely expected games commanding the top spots. It's a memorable last hurrah for the DS — though 3DS owners no doubt joined in — with Pokémon Black and White 2 finishing first by some distance. The top 30 is below, with the year's sales included — lifetime sales (if released before 2012) are in parenthesis.

1 - Pokémon Black/White 2 [DS] - 2,919,977
2 - Animal Crossing: New Leaf [3DS] - 1,969,955
3 - New Super Mario Bros. 2 [3DS] - 1,743,791
4 - Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland 3D [3DS] - 919,870
5 - Resident Evil 6 [PS3] - 833,012
6 - One Piece: Pirate Warriors [PS3] - 828,150
7 - Mario Kart 7 [3DS] - 748,797 (1,908,966)
8 - Super Mario 3D Land [3DS] - 689,374 (1,769,566)
9 - Mario Party 9 [Wii] - 641,348
10 - Dragon Quest X [Wii] - 609,783
11 - Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate [3DS] - 602,058 (1,587,556)
12 - Yakuza 5 [PS3] - 518,224
13 - Dragon’s Dogma [PS3] - 467,375
14 - Fire Emblem: Awakening [3DS] - 455,268
15 - Tales of Xillia 2 [PS3] - 428,913
16 - Paper Mario: Sticker Star [3DS] - 402,133
17 - Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 [PS3] - 399,340
18 - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates of Infinity [3DS] - 373,699
19 - New Super Mario Bros. U [Wii U] - 369,392
20 - Wii Sports Resort [Wii, w/ MotionPlus pack-in] - 358,627 (1,161,600)
21 - The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z [PSP] - 344,018
22 - Pokémon Conquest [DS] - 341,250
23 - Taiko Drum Master: The Little Dragon and the Mysterious Orb [3DS] - 340,533
24 - Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City [PS3] - 338,889
25 - Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance [3DS] - 338,812
26 - Run for Money Tousouchuu [3DS] - 337,472
27 - Taiko Drum Master: Super Splendid Edition [Wii] - 321,959
28 - Kid Icarus: Uprising [3DS] - 316,133
29 - Inazuma Eleven Go 2: Chrono Stone – Neppuu/Raimei [3DS] - 314,016
30 - Resident Evil: Revelations [3DS] - 296,040

Media Create also released lifetime sales figures to date for hardware systems, which show the 3DS getting close to the 10 million sales landmark in the country, if both models are combined. The DS wasn't included in the figures, as it was removed from Media Create's reports in late 2012 — more than likely due to its weekly sales dropping into three figures over a sustained period.

PlayStation 2 – 21,833,215
PSP – 19,453,023
Wii – 12,638,836
Nintendo 3DS – 7,689,512
Nintendo 3DS XL – 2,090,372
PlayStation 3 – 8,860,082
Xbox 360 – 1,613,832
PlayStation Vita – 1,130,820

A rather healthy 2012 for Nintendo in Japan, with its big hitters on 3DS playing a major role in the software charts. The coming year brings some more big releases for 3DS — particularly Monster Hunter 4 — with the company no doubt also planning big moves to expand its Wii U userbase.

So, what do you think of these results?

[source gamesindustry.biz, via siliconera.com]