The Japanese market may seem to have had a good year, if their lead software sales are any indication. Financial firm Enterbrain recently released the calendar year’s fiscal results, and several games post impressive numbers. Dragon Quest IX took first place in 2009 with 4.1 million units sold, Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver following with 3.3 million. Rounding out the top five are New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2.4 million,) Friend Collection (2.3 million,) and Final Fantasy XIII (1.7 million.)
But despite many key milestones being surpassed, the overall Japanese market saw a 1.8% decline in sales over last year. Hardware had a similar, if more dramatic, scale, with 4 million DS units and 2.3 PSPs being purchased (Wii: 1.9 million, PS3: 1.7 million, Xbox 360: 330,000,) but an overall decrease of 13.6% over last year.