Pokemon keeps Kirby from debuting at the top.
Pokemon Black and Pokemon White have held the top spot in Japan for five consecutive weeks, keeping many games from reaching the summit. This week Kirby is forced to sit in the runner-up spot as Pokemon Black and Pokemon White continue to dominate with sales of 168,000, pushing it further past the four million mark.
Kirby's Epic Yarn opens with sales of just over 92,000. This is the third lowest opening for a Kirby game according to Media Create, well below Kirby Super Star Ultra's first week sales in 2008, but Kirby Air Ride and Kirby Canvas Curse opened with sales of around 80,000.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded slides 3 to 4 thanks to a 67% decrease in sales. Wii Party continues to see small decreases in sales each week as it ends the week with sales of 23,000. This was enough to secure it sixth position for the second week in a row.
Outside of the top 10, One Piece: Gigant Battle sees a 42% increase in sales causing it to fly 22-14. Super Mario Galaxy 2 saw a small 10% decrease in sales, selling 6,200 copies. Wii Fit Plus and Mario Kart Wii can also still be found on the outskirts of the top 20.
Hardware sales of Nintendo’s platforms continue to see decline this week. The Nintendo DS family of systems continue to decline in sales as the Pokemon Black and White effect wears off. The three models of handhelds sold 47,100 units last week, 3,000 less than the week before. The PlayStation Portable rose slightly to 38,700 whereas the PlayStation 3 rose to 22,00 without any major software releases. The Wii, despite the release of Kirby, rose by only 700 units to 12,800. The Xbox 360 and PS2 continue to linger around the 2,000 mark.
Next week Super Mario Collection hits stores, a very likely candidate for next week's number one game.
Media Create October 11-17
Position / Position last week [Platform] Title – Week total / All-time total (% change)
01. / 01. [NDS] Pokemon Black / White (Pokemon Co.) - 168.541 / 4.161.397 (-27%)
02. / 00. [WII] Kirby's Epic Yarn (Nintendo) - 92.280 / NEW
03. / 00. [PSP] Lord of Arcana (Square Enix) - 69.932 / NEW
04. / 03. [NDS] Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Square Enix) - 31.247 / 126.753 (-67%)
05. / 04. [PS3] Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two Interactive) - 26.293 / 96.982 (-63%)
06. / 06. [WII] Wii Party (Nintendo) - 23.304 / 1.122.732 (-11%)
07. / 02. [PS3] Gekijouban Macross F: Itsuwarino Utahime - Hybrid Pack (Bandai Namco) - 18.071 / 170.769 (-88%)
08. / 11. [PSP] Black Leopard: A New Tale of Yakuza (Sega) - 11.263 / 247.748 (-41%)
09. / 05. [PSP] Class of Heroes 3 (Acquire) - 9.848 / 40.420 (-68%)
10. / 09. [PS3] Dead Rising 2 (Capcom) - 9.761 / 113.872 (-60%)
