Channel Surfing: WiiWare/Virtual Console Sales Chart: June 2009 - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 17 July 2009 / 5,609 Views

[url=http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=1355]Methodology[/url]
[url=http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=3416]March, 2009[/url]
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[url=http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=4136]May, 2009[/url]

100k+ sales	250k+ sales	500k+ sales	1M+ sales
50M+ points	100M+ points	250M+ points	500M+ points

Today we present to you the worldwide sales for WiiWare and Virtual Console for June 2009 (covering the five weeks through July 5th). Titles in bold italic were released during the tracking period in that region (or, in the worldwide chart, in any region).

TM	Worldwide WiiWare Games	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	*Melee! Pokémon Scramble*	*Nintendo*	*38,000*	*38,000*	*$590,000*
2	*Final Fantasy IV: The After Years*	*Square Enix*	*37,500*	*37,500*	*$332,000*
3	My Aquarium	Hudson	28,200	450,400	$2,628,000
4	*Texas Hold'Em Tournament*	*Digital Leisure*	*27,800*	*57,500*	*$365,000*
5	My Pokemon Ranch	Nintendo	25,650	663,650	$7,247,000
6	World of Goo	2D Boy	24,800	283,500	$4,764,000
7	*Swords & Soldiers*	*Ronimo Games*	*17,800*	*28,000*	*$344,000*
8	Tetris Party	Hudson	16,700	275,200	$3,674,000
9	*Order!!*	*Poisoft*	*16,500*	*16,500*	*$170,000*
10	*Water Warfare*	*Hudson*	*14,900*	*14,900*	*$132,000*

TM	LM	Americas WiiWare Games	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	NE	*Final Fantasy IV: The After Years*	*Square Enix*	*27,500*	*27,500*	*$220,000*
2	NE	*Texas Hold'Em Tournament*	*Digital Leisure*	*18,700*	*18,700*	*$93,500*
3	2	My Aquarium	Hudson	15,600	203,900	$1,019,500
4	1	World of Goo	2D Boy	14,300	192,600	$2,889,000
5	NE	*Swords & Soldiers*	*Ronimo Games*	*12,100*	*12,100*	*$121,000*

TM	LM	PAL WiiWare Games	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	2	My Aquarium	Hudson	10,800	181,000	905,000 €
2	NE	*Final Fantasy IV: The After Years*	*Square Enix*	*10,000*	*10,000*	*80,000 €*
3	3	Texas Hold'Em Tournament	Digital Leisure	9,100	38,800	194,000 €
4	4	World of Goo	2D Boy	8,300	84,100	1,261,500 €
5	NE	*NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits*	*Over the Top Games*	*7,700*	*7,700*	*77,000 €*

TM	Japan WiiWare Games	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	*Melee! Pokémon Scramble*	*Nintendo*	*38,000*	*38,000*	*57,000,000 ¥*
2	*Order!!*	*Poisoft*	*16,500*	*16,500*	*16,500,000 ¥*
3	Asobu! Made in Ore	Nintendo	13,000	30,500	24,400,000 ¥
4	Everybody's Pokemon Ranch	Pokemon	10,000	304,400	304,400,000 ¥
5	*Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord*	*Square Enix*	*8,000*	*8,000*	*8,000,000 ¥*

There were six titles in the top 10 WiiWare games worldwide that were released in some region during June, with a new Pokemon game released only in Japan taking the top spot despite that region's small size compared to the worldwide userbase. New Final Fantasy games make the top 5 in each region as well, with the Americas eating up Final Fantasy IV: The After Years at such a strong pace (with the full five weeks on sale, too) that it ended up second worldwide for June. Order!! rounds out the new RPG releases - the game has a 16-bit look and puts you in the role of the king sending out adventurers, building up your kingdom, and creating foreign policy.

Texas Hold'Em Tournament, Swords & Soldiers, Water Warfare add some diversity to the top new releases this month. Water Warfare (Bang Bang Kids in Japan) was the only new title to release in all three regions in June (the 29th in the Americas, the 26th in PAL, and the 23rd in Japan) and its 10th place worldwide debut was made up of a debut of 12th place in the Americas, 13th place in PAL, and 9th place in Japan. Other regional top showings include NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits in PAL, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord in Japan, which only saw releases in one region in June.

The remainder of the top 10 worldwide WiiWare games are no surprise, as they've been atop the Americas and PAL charts for many months now - My Aquarium (Blue Oasis in Japan), My Pokemon Ranch, World of Goo, and Tetris Party. All four titles are also in at least the top 20 in all three regions (and in the top 10 in the Americas), aiding in their worldwide tallies.

Other new releases not in the charts, with release dates, publishers, and price points in parentheses:

Fish 'Em All (Abylight, 800 points) (Americas: June 8th, PAL: May 29th): Managed close to 1,500 sales in PAL for the month, but did not chart at all in the Americas (less than 1,000 sales).
Eduardo the Samurai Toaster (Semnat Studios, 800 points) (Americas: June 15th): Sold about 3,000 in its first three weeks, though it has had a steep dropoff since its launch with less than 500 sales in its third week.
Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure (Square Enix, 800 points) (Americas: June 15th): Never charted (less than 1,000 sales).
Let's Catch (Sega, 1000 points) (Americas: June 15th, PAL: June 19th): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,000 sales), and sold just under 2,000 in PAL.
Neves Plus (Yuke's, 600 points) (Americas: June 22nd): Never charted (less than 1,000 sales). Tryfirst released the game in late May in Japan for 500 points under the name HameKomi Lucky Puzzle Wii, and it sold a bit over 1,000 in June there.
Family Mini Golf (Aksys Games, 500 points) (Americas: June 22nd): Placed 17th for the month in the Americas with close to 4,500 sales. Interestingly the release of this game immediately cut off the legs of the similar title, Fun! Fun! Minigolf by Shin'en Multimedia, which was released in December 2008 for 800 points and had been selling close to 1,000 a week the past few months.
Drill Sergeant Mindstrong (XSEED Games, 800 points) (Americas: June 22nd): Never charted (less than 1,000 sales).
Reel Fishing Challenge (Natsume, 500 points) (Americas: June 29th): Placed 14th for the month in the Americas by selling almost 5,000 in its first week on sale.
Silver Star Reversi (Agetec: 500 points) (Americas: June 29th): Unlike Silver Star Chess, which equaled its May sales in June with about 2,500, Silver Star Reversi never made it into the charts (less than 1,000 sales).
Cocoto Platform Jumper (Neko Entertainment, 700 points) (PAL: June 12th): Placed 17th for the month in PAL with a bit less than 3,000 sales.
Puzzle Bobble Plus (Square Enix, 800 points) (PAL: June 26th): Was just outside the top 20 for the month in PAL, with about 2,000 sales in a week and a half. The same game released in the Americas on the first day of the July tracking period (July 6th).
Bit Boy!! (Bplus, 600 points) (PAL: July 3rd): Sold roughly 500 in its first few days on sale in PAL.
Gradius Rebirth (Konami, 600 points) (PAL: July 3rd): Sold about 2,000 in its first few days on sale in PAL, just behind Puzzle Bobble Plus. Interestingly the game received a price cut for PAL, as it costs 1000 points in both the Americas (where it released in March 2009) and in Japan (released September 2008). While the game had a decent start in the Americas (over 4,000 sold in its first few weeks), it fell off the charts quickly and sold less than 500 in June. In Japan, the game is still regularly just outside the top 20, with just over 1,000 sales in June.
Family Card Games (Arc System Works, 500 points) (Japan: June 2nd): Placed 11th for June in Japan with just under 5,000 sales and nearly the entire tracking period of availability. This game is in the same series as the other "Family" WiiWare titles.
Game Sound Station (Gust, 1000 points) (Japan: June 9th): Placed 24th for June in Japan with a little over 1,000 sales. The "game" is actually a subscription-based music streaming service, though it seems to only have Gust-game soundtracks at the moment.
Escape Virus (Peakvox, 800 points) (Japan: June 9th): The game's an action-puzzle game with a DNA theme, but it never charted (less than 1,000 sales).
Fantastic Tambourine (Zoom Inc., 800 points) (Japan: June 16th): As the name implies, it's a tambourine-based music game, but it never charted (less than 1,000 sales).
Moki Moki (Natsume, 800 points) (Japan: June 16th): Another puzzle game that did not chart (less than 1,000 sales).
Unou Kids: Okigaru Unou Training (IE Institude Co. Ltd, 800 points) (Japan: June 30th): A brain-training game that did not chart (less than 500 sales).
Little Ricca's Doll House (Takara Tomy, 1000 points) (Japan: June 30th): Managed close to 1,000 sales in its first week on sale.

TM	Worldwide Virtual Console Games	Platform	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	Super Mario Bros. 3	NES	Nintendo	64,200	2,034,100	$11,263,000
2	Super Mario Bros.	NES	Nintendo	46,300	2,024,800	$11,098,000
3	Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the	N64	Nintendo	27,600	88,700	$1,086,000
4	Super Mario World	SNES	Nintendo	24,100	1,355,200	$12,106,000
5	Super Mario 64	N64	Nintendo	17,500	1,149,400	$12,990,000
6	Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the	N64	Nintendo	17,200	926,600	$10,808,000
7	Super Mario Bros. 2	NES	Nintendo	15,500	812,800	$4,515,000
8	Mario Kart 64	N64	Nintendo	13,200	1,293,400	$14,465,000
9	*Super Smash Bros.*	*N64*	*Nintendo*	*13,000*	*42,900*	*$550,000*
10	Punch Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream	NES	Nintendo	12,100	558,000	$2,810,000

TM	LM	Americas Virtual Console Games	Platform	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	1	Super Mario Bros. 3	NES	Nintendo	45,300	1,295,400	$6,477,000
2	2	Super Mario Bros.	NES	Nintendo	24,200	1,144,100	$5,720,500
3	3	Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the	N64	Nintendo	17,000	33,700	$337,000
4	4	Super Mario World	SNES	Nintendo	14,500	766,500	$6,132,000
5	5	Punch Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream	NES	Nintendo	12,100	546,000	$2,730,000

TM	LM	PAL Virtual Console Games	Platform	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	1	Super Mario Bros. 3	NES	Nintendo	11,400	524,000	2,620,000 €
2	NE	*Super Smash Bros.*	*N64*	*Nintendo*	*11,000*	*11,000*	*110,000 €*
3	3	Super Mario Bros.	NES	Nintendo	8,600	445,600	2,228,000 €
4	2	The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask	N64	Nintendo	7,500	41,000	410,000 €
5	4	Super Mario World	SNES	Nintendo	6,100	373,700	2,989,600 €

TM	Japan Virtual Console Games	Platform	Publisher	Monthly	Total	Revenue
1	Super Mario Bros	NES	Nintendo	13,500	435,100	217,550,000 ¥
2	Super Mario Bros 3	NES	Nintendo	7,500	214,700	107,350,000 ¥
3	Downtown Special: Its Kunio's Period Piece, Assemble Everyone!	NES	Technos	5,500	13,000	6,500,000 ¥
4	*Super Mario Kart*	*SNES*	*Nintendo*	*4,800*	*4,800*	*3,840,000 ¥*
5	*Final Fantasy II*	*NES*	*Square Enix*	*4,200*	*4,200*	*2,100,000 ¥*

As usual, there's not much shaking up the Virtual Console charts, but we do have a few new entries scattered about. Super Smash Bros., the first in the series and already available in Japan since January of this year, released on June 12th in PAL and barely missed out on the top spot there - good enough when combined with its 17th-place showing in its 6th month on sale in Japan for a respectable 9th place worldwide.

The two other new releases to chart were both big titles only released in Japan in June - Super Mario Kart (released June 9th) and Final Fantasy II (released June 16th). Japan also has had the first Final Fantasy available since May 26th, and it placed 6th in Japan for the month.

The Americas chart remains static, with the top five this month exactly the same as that from May, though the sales are still much higher than those from other regions. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask did well to hold onto third place in its second month on sale, however. No new releases in the region charted, though the five games released in June were never destined to be big sellers anyway.

Note that only in Japan has a third-party title broken into the charts this month, with Nintendo sweeping the entire worldwide top 10. The top third-party title worldwide was Pac-man at 14th place with about 10,000 sales.

Other new releases not in the charts, with release dates, platforms, publishers, and price points in parentheses:

Boulder Dash (Commodore 64, Commodore Gaming, 500 points) (Americas: June 1st): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,500 sales).
Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Grey Wolf (Super NES, KOEI, 800 points) (Americas: June 8th): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,500 sales).
Space Harrier (Arcade, Sega, 800 points) (Americas: June 15th, PAL: May 29th): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,500 sales). It released a few days from the end of the May tracking period, and managed about 1,500 sales in June in PAL.
SimEarth: The Living Planet (TurboGrafx 16, Hudson, 800 points) (Americas: June 22nd, PAL: June 26th): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,000 sales) or in PAL (less than 500 sales).
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (Master System, Sega, 500 points) (Americas: June 29th): Never charted in the Americas (less than 1,000 sales).
Altered Beast (Arcade, Sega, 900 points in PAL, 800 points in Japan) (PAL: June 26th, Japan: June 2nd): Never charted in PAL (less than 500 sales) or in Japan (less than 1,000 sales).
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Super NES, Square Enix, 900 points) (PAL: July 3rd): Sold about 1,000 in the four days it was on sale in the June tracking period.
Pulseman (Genesis, Sega, 900 points) (PAL: July 3rd): Never charted in PAL (less than 500 sales).
Hopping Mappy (Arcarde, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 2nd): Never charted in Japan (less than 1,000 sales).
Super Wagan Land (Super NES, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 2nd): Placed 21st for June in Japan with about 1,500 sales.
Assault (Arcade, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 9th): Never charted in Japan (less than 1,000 sales).
Wonder Momo (Arcade, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 16th): Never charted in Japan (less than 500 sales).
Galaga '88 (Arcade, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 23rd): Never charted in Japan (less than 500 sales).
Golden Axe (Arcade, Sega, 800 points) (Japan: June 23rd): Placed 23rd for June in Japan with over 1,000 sales.
Marvel Land (Arcade, Namco, 800 points) (Japan: June 30th): Never charted in Japan (less than 500 sales).
Detective Saburo Jinguji: Let Time Pass By... (NES, Data East, 500 points) (Japan: June 30th): Never charted in Japan (less than 500 sales).

Lots of new releases this month when you include all three regions, though most never made it into the charts and will probably never break 5,000 sales. Thanks to TWRoO, Michael, and Okr for collecting the PAL data, Manuelf for collecting the Latin America data, and ramuji and DeltaXIII for collecting the Japan data. As always, if you want to help collect Nintendo Channel data, send TWRoO a PM if you have a PAL Wii and myself a PM if you have an American or Japanese Wii - spreading it around more volunteers makes everyone's lives a little easier.

Sneak preview for July - Water Warfare and Reel Fishing Challenge are second and third in the Americas after the first half of the month, still trailing of course the monster that is Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. With both titles releasing only in the last week of the June tracking period, they could make a strong charge in July with a full month on sale to break into the top five.

Keith Jackson
kjackson@vgchartz.com

Unou Kids: Okigaru Unou Training

13 Comments

Dawnclaude (on 24 July 2009)

WiiWare: Hmm I thought the sales of Swords&Soldiers would be a bit better.

09tarheel (on 18 July 2009)

Nice article, I always look forward to reading these. I'm always surprised by how well some games do on the virtual console, and also somewhat disappointed with how games do on Wiiware. I'm sure that that the games in the top ten list will make a profit with such low development cost, but I wonder about all the games who only make it into the top twenty for a week or two? I think it would be good for Nintendo to make a way for developers to advertise their games on the Wii shop channel, so that games not in the top twenty list are still viewed by some people.

Jumpin (on 18 July 2009)

By the way, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is totally awesome. HIGHLY recommend getting it, but play the first game first if you can; the GBA or DS version will be sufficient, but I would recommend the GBA one or the SNES one over the DS one for this purpose; even though the DS one is the best version. The GBA one is closer to the sprite style used in the Wii sequel, which is why. The Wii sequel uses FF6 style sprites.

Jumpin (on 18 July 2009)

I think the Japanese release date (oddly enough) for The After Years is the end of this month. Strange thing for something to come after our launch and North America's.

famousringo (on 18 July 2009)

Slowish starts for Nyxquest and Swords and Soldiers. I hope they stick around and climb the charts.

Johnny B (on 18 July 2009)

I looked down the left-hand column on this page and I was like, "No way... no way... no way." Maybe it wasn't a shocker to the more vigilant VC followers, but the three-hit combo of Super Smash Bros., Super Mario Kart, and Final Fantasy II got me pretty stoked. I lost my copy of SMK many years ago (a must-buy), and I am seriously considering paying $10 to play SSB with my GameCube controller once the game becomes available in the US.

Also, congrats to SMB 3 for being the best-selling VC game of all time!

FreeTalkLive (on 18 July 2009)

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is only $10. I wonder if it is as long as the first one. I really enjoyed the first one because it was so unique to me. This game may be worth getting.

MANUELF (on 17 July 2009)

Good job, it's good to see we finally have data for Japan.

TWRoO (on 17 July 2009)

@Hunter... for Wiiware games... yes I can't imagine them being very expensive to make

World of Goo had some figures released, I can't recall the exact figure but I think it was less than $100,000 to make.... and the revenue for that game is now nearly $5million (though a good chunk of that goes to Nintendo)

World of Goo won't be the cheapest Wiiware game out, after all it only had 2 people working on it.... but I can't imagine many games cost any significant amount more than WoG. (significant being double... so $200k)

Are there any specific titles you think are underperforming?

DKII (on 17 July 2009)

The After Years doesn't release in Japan until July 21st.

FreeTalkLive (on 17 July 2009)

You didn't seem to include the Japanese sales for Final Fantasy IV: The After Years unless I am missing something.

Thanks for the charts!

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