Dragon Quest Monsters passes the million mark
by Jonti Davies 
{ Jan 26th 2007 at 3:15AM }
SquareEnix today confirmed that one million copies of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker have been sold in Japan since the game's release on December 28. This feat makes Dragon Quest Monsters only the second third-party DS title to achieve more than one million sales in Japan, following on from Bandai's success last year with Tamagotchi no Puchi Puchi. DQM had been sold out in many stores across Japan this past week, with shortages so severe that Joker plummeted from second place in the Japanese sales chart to 42nd place. Stocks were replenished yesterday, however, and the demand for Dragon Quest Monsters (which is merely a tasty appetizer to enjoy before Dragon Quest IX is served) has immediately pushed SquareEnix' game beyond the milestone of a million sales.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alfarif @ Jan 26th 2007 4:54AM
Umm... I tried to get this game via import and almost came back with a nub.
Maybe next year.
John @ Jan 26th 2007 4:51AM
Good for them.
nachoh @ Jan 26th 2007 4:20AM
Do we have a western release date?
Joonas @ Jan 26th 2007 5:20AM
I am so looking forward to this. The wife's been hogging the DS ever since Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, I want a monster game of my own!
Slaziman @ Jan 26th 2007 6:01AM
Dragon Quest XI won't sell that much better, because in Japan everyone is a retard and buys anything with the Dragon Quest in the name, whether it's a lame spin off or a fullfledged sequel.
Yes, I'm aware I'm horribly generalizing the Japanese, but you know it to be true!
fox @ Jan 26th 2007 6:05AM
I'm surprised Final Fantasy III hasn't reached the million milestone yet.
But it's interesting to see that even with the massive install base of the DS in Japan, only two third party titles have manage to sell over a million. On the other hand there's probably half a dozen first party titles that sold over 3 million.
roflcopter @ Jan 26th 2007 7:42AM
well, FF III is around 980k in japan so it will probably reach 1 million too.
also, SquareEnix needs to release their games in the rest of the world faster. i can't beleive translation and localization needs this much time, and even if it does they could start working on it way before the game is ready. hiring a few extra guys for that probably wouldn't cost that much, especially for a company where they eat money for breakfast.
t_m @ Jan 26th 2007 8:19AM
is the other one animal crossing?
Literally EVERY carriage of EVERY train in tokyo appears to be egally required to contain a (middle aged) lady playing animal crossing.
Rob @ Jan 26th 2007 9:11AM
I really hope they decide to bring this here in NA. I'm sure it would sell pretty well.
White Rose Duelist @ Jan 26th 2007 9:51AM
Slaziman, admitting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery. You are a xenophobe. Please continue along the path of recovery until you realize that the Japanese are no better or worse than Americans.
Also, Dragon Quest XI won't sell very well because the platform it will be released on doesn't exist yet. IX, on the other hand, should do spectacularly.
I expect this game to sell pretty well stateside. I really liked the first one for GBC, so I'll be picking up a copy pretty quickly once there's a version I can read.
jadenguy @ Jan 26th 2007 10:01AM
sega's love and berry already has OVER a million preorders. i know that's not sales, but it might be worth noting. or maybe nobody cares. whatever.
Falsoman @ Jan 26th 2007 12:30PM
I belive this game is the second third party game that reached a million in JUST japan. The FF3 is 980k in Japan alone, so i would guess that they've sold a little more than 20k in the rest of the world.
Zaius @ Jan 26th 2007 2:30PM
Rocket slime sold horribly here in the states so I'm guessing there is no chance this will come over here.
Chii @ Jan 26th 2007 5:02PM
I just want this in America. DQ is cool. So, bring it ON, Square-Enix. C'mon! Do it!
justchris @ Jan 26th 2007 10:40PM
@Zaius, no, it probably will come here. Rocket Slime didn't sell too well, but if they're bringing over Chocobo & the Magic Picture Book, then I can't see any good reason they'd hold back DQM: Joker.
And there are several 3rd party games that are nearing the million mark, crawling up slowly. FFIII should have been there already, but they severely undershipped it. It will make it before March probably. Same for Love & Berry by Sega (not the severely undershipped part, the million sold in Japan by March part).
Also, I guarantee you DQIX will sell better. The DQM spinoff series has generally only sold about 1/4 - 1/5 as many units as the main DQ series (again, this is in Japan).