Famitsu’s very first issue.
Famitsu Magazine has been around since June 1986 and has since become the country’s #1 source for video game news in print form. They have a weekly circulation of approximately 500,000 and have console-specific magazines as well. They’re well known for only giving 14 games in their entire 24 year history, a perfect 40/40 from four different reviewers. They also keep track of sales data and their latest effort shows us the following.
Top 5 best selling home console games from 1996 and beyond:
1. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) – 3,894,356 (Through July 4, 2010)
2. [PS1] Dragon Quest VII (Enix) – 3,893,293
3. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) – 3,634,806 (Through March 28, 2010)
4. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) – 3,560,889 (Through March 28, 2010)
5. [PS2] Dragon Quest VIII (Square-Enix) – 3,555,469
Top 5 best selling home console games up to 1996 (shipped figure):
1. [FC/NES] Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo) – 6.81m
2. [FC/NES] Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo) – 3.84m
3. [SFC/SNES] Super Mario Kart (Nintendo) – 3.82m
4. [FC/NES] Dragon Quest III (Enix) – 3.77m
5. [SFC/SNES] Super Mario World (Nintendo) – 3.55m
Mama mia! I’mma number one! Again!
As you can see, not only is New Super Mario Bros. Wii now the best selling game in Japan in the last 14 years, but it’s the new 2nd best selling game of all time, right behind…well…Mario himself (how fitting), in his first great adventure, Super Mario Bros. Congratulations Nintendo on this amazing achievement.
Key word is “home console”… portable games have sold much more, i think Dragon Quest IX sold over 4m.
Yeah, when you take handheld games into consideration, games like Pokemon and Dragon Quest IX are really up there.