Japanese software sales: week ending 02.11.07

Let's welcome in Media Create's record of the past week's game sales in Japan. This is where you'll get big numbers and not-so-big numbers, mixed in with the crucial numbers one through ten -- a mathematician's wet dream. Firstly, here's this week's chart, with combined total sales of titles inside those pouting parentheses:

1. Virtua Fighter 5 - 48,346 units sold last week (new entry / Sega, PS3)

2. Wii Sports - 45,897 (1,004,555 units sold to date / Nintendo, Wii)

3. Wii Play - 36,090 (879,432 / Nintendo, Wii)

4. More Brain Training - 32,800 (3,963,712 / Nintendo, DS)

5. New Super Mario Bros. - 29,026 (4,118,078 / Nintendo DS)

6. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 27,519 (304,113 / Capcom, PS2)

7. Wario: Master of Disguise - 26,815 (185,695 / Nintendo, DS)

8. Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On - 26,804 (106,212 / Marvelous, DS)

9. Luminous Arc - 25,676 (new entry / Marvelous, DS)

10. J-League Pro Soccer 5 - 24,468 (131,541 / Sega, PS2)

And here are some lessons we can learn from the big figures:

• Virtua Fighter 5 is the WINNER

• Sega is Sony's most valuable ally in Japan right now

• Capcom's San Andreas marketing has paid off

• DS-like "slow sellers" are also possible on Wii

• There's still a place in the Japanese market for little players, which is just Marvelous