Japanese Video Game Market Figures

Famitsu Magazine has published the results of the 2000 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2001, announced by the Japanese video game industry. The biggest surprise is the Gameboy Advance surpassing the total 12 month sales of the Wonderswan, Playstation, Dreamcast, and Nintendo 64, in a mere 10 days. The Gameboy Advance went on sale on March 21st, only 10 days before the end of the financial year, yet still managed to become the third best selling game system of the year. So far, the Gameboy Advance has sold over 1.1 million units in Japan alone in less than a month of availability. And although titles like Final Fantasy 9 and Onimusha was hugely successful, neither Squaresoft nor Capcom made it into the top 3 most successful development companies of the year. Nintendo placed #1 in overall software sales based largely on the continuing massive popularity of Pokemon. Konami came in second due largely to the massive success of both its Yugioh franchise and its immensely popular rhythm & dancing games including Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania. Enix came in third place based almost exclusively on the runaway success of Dragon Quest 7.

Top 3 Best Selling Titles in 2000 Fiscal Year:
1. Dragon Quest VII: Soldiers in Eden (Enix, PS) – 3,854,246
2. Final Fantasy IX (Square, PS) – 2,682,898
3. Yugioh Duel Monsters IV (Konami, GBC) – 2,045,949

Best Selling Title for Each Platform in 2000 Fiscal Year:
PlayStation – Dragon Quest VII: Soldiers in Eden (Enix, RPG) – 3,854,246
PlayStation 2 – Onimusha (Capcom, adventure) – 794,682
Dreamcast – Sakura Taisen 3: Hometown Paris is Burning (Sega, simulation) – 249,357
Nintendo 64 – Mario Tennis 64 (Nintendo, sports) – 800,824
GameBoy – Yugioh Duel Monsters IV (Konami, card battle) – 2,045,949
GameBoy Advance – Super Mario Advance (Nintendo, action) – 309,208
WonderSwan – Final Fantasy (Square, RPG) – 353,884

Top 3 Game Developers in 2000 Fiscal Year (Based on Software Sales):
1. Nintendo – 8,750,827 units
2. Konami – 5,691,151 units
3. Enix – 5,303,441 units

Top 3 Best Selling Console Systems in 2000 Fiscal Year:
1. PlayStation 2 – 2,560,202
2. GameBoy Color – 1,542,804
3. GameBoy Advance – 935,191

Source: The Magic Box