Dragon Quest IX Sells 2.3 Million in Two Days

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Dragon Quest IX Sells 2.3 Million in Two Days

The latest installment in Japan's beloved Dragon Quest series broke sales records in its "first week" on shelves - and by first week, we mean two days.


It's nice to see that even in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in, some things never change. The sun will always rise in the morning, parents will never understand whatever their kids are interested in, and Japan will always love handheld game platforms, tentacle porn, and Dragon Quest. So it stands to reason that a combination of two of the above would sell like proverbial hotcakes, no?

Last weekend, Dragon Quest IX was released on the Nintendo DS, and two independent analyst firms have released "first week" sales figures of 2,318,932 [http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1225810_1124.html], respectively. Now, bear in mind that DQ9's "first week" was actually just Saturday and Sunday, so the game actually sold over 2.3 million copies in just two days.

While not enough to take on the reigning Western champions - Wrath of the Lich King [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/77341-Halo-3-Sets-New-First-Day-Sales-Record] for PC - DQ9's impressive sales were enough to mark it as the fastest-selling game in Japanese history. Of course, the US has just under three times the population of Japan, so on a per capita basis, one could actually argue it as a more popular game. Naturally, the title it bumped to #2 was... (drumroll, please) ...Dragon Quest VIII!

Dragon Quest X is currently in development for the Wii, so I'm going to go ahead and make the wild and unfounded prediction that it's going to probably do pretty well for itself in sales, too.

(Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/dragon-quest-ix-sells-2-3-million-copies-in-two-days/])

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Radeonx

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Apr 26, 2009
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Is it out in America for the DS? Because if so I need to get my hands on this.
 

The Rockerfly

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Dec 31, 2008
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I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
 

shaltir

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The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
dragon quest 8 brought it to the masses...thats why. and i'm going to gamestop now actually. later!
 

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
Uh, it's always been a huge hit in Japan, if not over here.
 

The Rockerfly

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CantFaketheFunk said:
The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
Uh, it's always been a huge hit in Japan, if not over here.
Still this one has been ridiculously popular and it's intresting to see the increase in demand and change in market
 

yeah_so_no

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Sep 11, 2008
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*dies* Of course the camera crew found the one gaijin in the line to interview.

Also, the ads for Dragon Quest have been all over the game stores, and for a while now. I didn't realize how popular it was, though. I might have to pick up a copy of a DQ game just to see what all the fuss is about.
 

Souplex

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Jul 29, 2008
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In Japan it is literally illegal to release a Dragon Quest game on a work day because the country loses too much money.
 

KDR_11k

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yeah_so_no said:
*dies* Of course the camera crew found the one gaijin in the line to interview.
Looked like a native with dyed hair to me.

Hardcore_gamer said:
The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular
Because it's being sold in Japan where any half decent RPG is like porn for the typical Japanese.
It's not just a half decent RPG, it's THE biggest RPG series. I think some people just like the old turn based gameplay more than the modern random additions where every game maker feels they have to do SOMETHING different, no matter how stupid...
 

tendo82

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Nov 30, 2007
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Take that Modern Warfare 2. Seriously though, in a country of 127 million 2.3 million in two days is nothing to sneeze at.
 

Sevre

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Apr 6, 2009
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tendo82 said:
Take that Modern Warfare 2. Seriously though, in a country of 127 million 2.3 million in two days is nothing to sneeze at.
Well, judging by these figures, the amount of people in Japan with the Wii and the fact that Dragon Quest X is coming on the Wii. I'd say we have....the 4th best selling game of all time behind Super Mario, Wii Play and Tetris.
 

Bobby_C

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The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
Actually when you consider Japan alone DQ has always been the best selling series there. FF only sells more thanks to international sales.
 

The Rockerfly

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Bobby_C said:
The Rockerfly said:
I wonder why it's so popular, it's never been the best selling rpg series so what made it sell so amazingly well
Actually when you consider Japan alone DQ has always been the best selling series there. FF only sells more thanks to international sales.
I disagree final Fantasy has always been the most popular Rpg there but DQ has always been close to their sales figures. It will be intresting also see how well Final Fantasy 13 will sell and see if it still more popular or not